But we had to visit my grandmother, too. She lives just at the corner of the street. We would usually come visit her in Sunday morning and spend our time there sometimes just chatting or eating snack. That makes her happy. But that day it was already 4 p.m.
My grandmother is old (yes, of course,lol). She recently becoming weaker, she cannot get up from her bed. She would just stay there whole day. My cousin who stays with her will frequently come and change her laying position, or feed her, or do whatever my grandmother requests (indeed, she will get the most merit if she is sincere with all she did). My grandmother's life is just now confined within her bedroom, with windows always open to the woodland (?, I don't know what it is called in English). She used to watch TV all day, but she already gave it up recently. So you can imagine how happy she can be when someone visit her.
The clock in her room is already broken. She said my cousin already replaced the battery but the clock still didn't work. Since then, she has lost her sense of time. She only rely on the sunlight that falls from the windows. When we arrived, she didn't notice that it was already 4 p.m. She would normally urge us to go back to the city before it gets dark, because the trip takes around 3-4 hours. But that day, she continued to talk.
When she finally asked us what time it was, she told us that the clock is broken. My husband took the clock and somehow fixed it, and put it on the wall. My grandmother was surprised that he could repaired it. Then she excitedly asked him to take out another wall clock from a gap between cupboards.
There comes the magnificent wall clock. It was already in the house since I can remember. The red color looks so majestic, even now as my husband pulled it from the dusty gap. The shape is like a masjid with two minarets. There is a golden calligraphy of Allah's name. The size is bigger than a normal today's clock. It showed you what time to go to school, what time to get your lunch, and what time you must go to bed, when I was a child. And I can still remember the sound it made as it turned 12 o'clock. DANG! The clock is a legend!
It was broken so long ago, and pulled off from the wall. I thought someone already throw it away. I didn't know my grandmother still keep it. It was than replaced by a normal clock. Not so special.
"Your grandfather was angry when I bought this wall clock," said my grandmother.
"Why?" I asked curiously. I have never heard about the history of that wall clock before.
"At that time wall clock was quite expensive for us. Your grandfather said, don't buy a wall clock, keep the money for your father's university fee. But then I bought it without his permission," said my grandmother.
"Why did you buy it?"
"Just to now the time," said my grandmother simply.
I was surprised, but I also wanted to laugh.
First, I didn't know that the wall clock is that old. Since my father was in university. It is then older than me!
Second, now I understand why I, myself, cannot live in a house without a wall clock. The sense of needing a wall clock run in my blood! When I got married and moved to a new house, the house had no wall clock. I asked my husband to get one. My husband said, "What for? We have our phones and watches, we don't need to buy a wall clock."
"It doesn't feel right. I don't feel comfortable not always knowing the time. I need to reach my phone or watch to know the time," I said. And we ended up buying a very nice simple round wall clock.
"Then what happened?" I asked my grandmother.
"Your grandfather was angry, that's all."
"What about my father's tuition fee?"
"We got it from somewhere else, anyway."
Nice ending. My grandmother got her wall clock. My father finished his university, got married, had me...
"Can the clock be fixed?" my grandmother asked my husband who was still examining the clock.
"We need to replace the machine, because the gears are already worn out," said my husband.
"Is it expensive?" asked my grandmother.
"No, but the bell will not sound the same as previously," said my husband.
"That's fine," said my grandmother.
I saw in her eyes that she really want to finally see it working again. I hope we can make it come true.
