Though he appears to be brave and confident, Derek has a secret, a completely unreasonable fear of clocks. He hates their sound: the tick-tock of every second. He hates the way they look; numbers in a circle, as if counting up to something, then suddenly stopping at twelve. What happened to 13? He asks. Why does time suddenly stop at twelve, then continue from one again. Circle after circle, tick after tock. It just makes him so nervous.

The hour hand tick-tocked its way to six o’clock, and Derek’s alarm blared as if it had been holding its anger in and finally exploded. Derek jumped up and slammed his hand down on it. He had to get another alarm clock. All the while he got ready for school, the clock was ticking away, as if daring him to waste time and be late. After eating, breakfast, Derek walked out the door, and screamed. His neighbors and others were taking their morning stroll, or walking the dog, but, where their heads should have been were enormous ticking clocks. What’s going on? He said to himself. Suddenly, the clocks seemed to be shaking and there was a loud blaring noise. Derek opened his eyes to realize he had a nightmare. His alarm clock was still blaring away. He got up and threw it out his bedroom window. “Wow. How time flies.” He said, and strolled to the kitchen to have breakfast.