Why I always see the same time on the clock
You glance at your phone in the dark and it's 22:22 again. Your heart gives a small jump before you've even thought anything.
You don't check the time at random. You check it when you're not sleeping, when a question keeps turning, when you'd like someone to answer. And the clock passes through 22:22 every single day. The other minutes you forget within a second. That one you keep. It touches me a little, that way of listening so hard.
Underneath, there's probably a very simple wish: for something to tell you that you're in the right place, that someone is thinking of you, that it will be okay. The number becomes a small hand on your shoulder at an hour when nobody is there.
What it costs stays quiet: the answer you were looking for, you wait for from a clock, and the question is still there, untouched, when the screen goes dark.
The number becomes a small hand on your shoulder at an hour when nobody is there.
I was wondering…
Whose voice would you want to hear, on the nights you keep checking the screen?