The Clockmaker

Alinafe was somewhat of an enigma in the town of Diwa when he arrived. He was a new resident, having travelled there a month before. He claimed to be from the neighbouring town of Kanyeri.

One of the many strange things about Alinafe was that you couldn’t quite describe him. Looking at him, he was a man of average height and average build. He had an average face and an average voice. He dressed averagely and walked just the same. Everything about him was so unassumingly average that at times it felt as if he were invisible. He could pass through crowds and walk by people silently, without anyone ever realising he was there.

Alinafe didn’t speak much about his past. Everyone seemed to know about him but no one truly knew him. He allowed the residents to speculate about his previous life in Kanyeri, and allowed for those in Kanyeri to feed the curiosities of those in Diwa. Some wondered about the legitimacy of the stories that came up about him but because he was much a humble man, they couldn’t help but trust that whatever they heard was true. The only consistent feature in all the storytelling about Alinafe was that he was an exquisite clockmaker with hands that could weave gold from dust. He created the most intricate and complicated clocks where no one clock was the same.

He would sit at his market stall and behind his table of magnificent clocks, you could hear him whirring and sawing away at the pieces of wood that would later take shape into his masterpieces. The people who visited the market were taken aback at how average the prices of his clocks were. They were priced incredibly well for the amount of work he put into them. Rather unusually, he would take down the names of every person who ever bought his clocks, and refused to sell them another one if they came back to him. He did, however, repair the clocks for free if it ever came to that, which it seldom did.

In no time at all, he became just as popular in Diwa as he was in Kanyeri. Almost no one had a bad word to say about him. He seldom skulked around bars, he avoided the street brawls, he was always polite to the women and greeted the men as if they were his brothers. When he was not at the marketplace, he could be seen in the park feeding the birds or riding his bicycle through the streets.

There was only one man in town who was bothered by Alinafe and that was Mayeso. There was something Mayeso found unsettling about Alinafe’s presence but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what that was. Curious to see what he was all about, Mayeso invited Alinafe for drinks. Mayeso, thinking that he would put up a fight, was surprised that he relented so easily and set a date for the following Saturday.

Mayeso was known in the town as a hot-blooded individual. He was always looking for a fight or saying the wrong things but he had a well-meaning heart. When Mayeso announced

to his friends that he intended to uncover the secrets Alinafe held by ploughing him with alcohol, his friends advised him against it. But, Mayeso being aggressive and imposing refused to listen. Given Mayeso’s nature and his intentions for their meeting, his friends decided to let Alinafe know his plan. To their surprise, he laughed it off.

They spent several hours over the next few days visiting Alinafe at his stand, begging him to retract his acceptance of Mayeso’s offer because no good could come of it but he refused to budge. Every time they would approach him, he would wave them away and state that he had been around guys like Mayeso before, and therefore there was nothing for them to worry about. A few days before their meeting, Mayeso visited Alinafe at his market stand.

“Are we still on for tomorrow night?” boomed Mayeso.

“Yes, but on one condition.”

“What might that be?”

“You buy a clock from me. Whichever one you like, I will give it to you for half its original price,” Alinafe said, seriously.

Amused by such a silly request, Mayeso sought out the most expensive clock on the table and turned it over to Alinafe. As promised, he sold the clock to him for half the price and agreed that Saturday night would go on uninterrupted. Mayeso had half the mind to throw the clock away as he walked towards his house but after looking at it for some time, he decided against it. He actually liked the way the clock looked- it was a rectangular piece with a tiny, emerald green birdhouse protruding from the front. He became drawn to this feature almost immediately.

Mayeso put the clock on the wall in his bedroom and sat on the bed. He had, all of a sudden, become overwhelmed by a sense of sleepiness and decided that taking a nap wouldn’t do him much harm. As soon as he laid down, he fell into a deep sleep.

He dreamt of dark shadows that escaped the tiny door of the birdhouse that sat at the front of the clock. The shadows crawled down the wall like a cluster of spiders and crept up to his ear. Unable to flick them away because of an unusual sensation of being bound to the bed, the shadows made their way right through his ear. He felt a slight tug on the inside, as if they were pulling out a string from one side through to the other. As quickly as it began, it ended and Mayeso found himself sitting upright in his bed, sweating profusely. He rubbed his ear as if feeling around for the dark shadows that came to him in his dream. He looked up at the clock. He was late for a date with one of the women from the marketplace and as he jumped out, he didn’t notice the tiny door on the birdhouse was slightly ajar.

Saturday evening arrived and Mayeso met with Alinafe just outside of the marketplace. They walked together in silence to the bar and only began to talk once they were sat down with

their beers. Mayeso was feeling slightly uneasy having had the same dream for the last few nights. It had only been a couple of days since those dreams and strange things started happening around the same time. He couldn’t quite remember the things he had done a few weeks before or remember the names of the people he knew.

“I’ve been looking forward to this all week,” Alinafe announced suddenly.

Mayeso was taken aback, he had never seen Alinafe smile before and was disturbed by just how many teeth he had.

“Me too,” he said, drawing his eyes away from Alinafe’s mouth.

The evening went on pleasantly enough. Mayeso was surprised that even though he was listening intently to everything Alinafe said, once he had said it, he couldn’t remember it. Alinafe spoke of his family, his past lovers, his many occupations and the places he had travelled to. He spoke so animatedly and in so much depth that Mayeso felt a pang of guilt for judging him so harshly. After a few hours passed, Alinafe excused himself.

“Thank you for a great evening, Mayeso. I enjoyed myself very much.”

“Oh, no problem. I had a great time too. Let’s do it again, sometime?”

“I don’t think there will be a next time,” Alinafe said cheerfully.

Mayeso looked at him with confusion for a moment as if trying to register what he had said. As he was about to respond, he heard his name being called at the opposite end of the room – and just like that, he forgot the last thing Alinafe said to him.

It had been a number of days since Mayeso’s meeting with Alinafe. He had not been sleeping well, the recurring dreams of spider-like shadows consumed his daily and nightly thoughts and if that wasn’t enough, the residents of Diwa were acting very strangely towards him. He knew he was prone to offending almost anyone he came across but he always thought that everyone just accepted that that’s how he was. He didn’t think that they would all conspire to punish him for it. It was as if they all decided to act like he didn’t exist. He would greet others in the marketplace and they would look past him. He would bump into people and they would stop and look around as if unable to see him. He felt as if he was fading out and becoming a memory of himself that only he remembered.

He walked sadly through the streets. He was deep in thought, questioning how long the people would treat him like this. He became so consumed with this that he didn’t hear his name the first few times it was called. Shocked to be hearing it for the first time in a while, he turned around excitedly and walked towards the voice. As he was walking closer to the crowd, he heard his name again. He turned to see his friend beckon him. He had half a mind to punch him in the face and ask what all the drama was the last few days. But, feeling

relieved that he wasn’t losing his mind, he decided against it and walked happily towards him. Before Mayeso reached the table, someone walked past him in a hurry and sat in his seat. Mayeso stopped.

“Mayeso, where have you been? It’s been a while!”

“I’ve been hard at work,” the seated stranger said.

“How hard can clock-making be, really?” the friend responded.

Mayeso could feel the blood drain from his body. He hurried over to the group and grabbed the stranger called Mayeso by the shoulder. For a brief moment, Alinafe and Mayeso’s eyes met. Mayeso was taken aback by the expression Alinafe wore, a smug look of triumph flickered across his eyes. Mayeso stumbled back.

“Mayeso, what are you looking at?”

“Oh, nothing,” Alinafe said, turning away.

Mayeso looked around bewildered and started to scream. He screamed at his friends who, in just a few short days, had forgotten him and allowed this imposter to take over his life. He screamed to be heard by anyone who would recognise him but no one did. The crowd continued on, completely oblivious to Mayeso’s existence. Terrified, he ran back to his house, entered his room and faced the wall where the clock rested. The clock was no longer there. Mayeso laid down on the bed and began to sink deep down into a bottomless pit, engulfed by spider-like shadows. As time went on that evening, the memory of Mayeso faded.

At their table, Alinafe sat with his new group of friends. Mabvuto, the now-forgotten Mayeso’s sidekick, looked at him strangely. Everyone seemed to be having a good time but he somehow couldn’t bring himself to enjoy it. He had an unsettling feeling at the bottom of his stomach every time he looked at the man across from him claiming to be Mayeso. He had known Mayeso his entire life but the last few days had felt unusual to him. As the days went on, he felt himself losing all sense of knowing his friend Mayeso, even though he was right in front of him. Day by day he would become more bothered at the fact that the Mayeso in front of him didn’t feel like the Mayeso he had come to know.

The night went on as everyone embraced Mayeso the clockmaker with no recollection of the man named Alinafe.

Mabvuto left the gathering a little earlier than everyone else did. He was overcome with an overwhelming sense of sadness halfway through the event and chose to embrace it by walking off all the beer he drank. He walked through the winding streets and came to an empty house. He was drawn to it suddenly, as if memories of his existed there. He walked

towards the window to get a better look but before he could, he heard a voice shout out behind him.

“Hey, Mabvuto. What’s going on? Why did you leave so early?”

“It’s nothing, I’m just not in the mood for a party tonight.”

They stood, eyeing each other suspiciously.

“What happened to Mayeso?” Mabvuto asked suddenly, with his voice shaking.

“I am Mayeso,” Alinafe said, baring his teeth in an odd grin.

Mabvuto stood confused for a while. He thought hard of the memories he had with the man who stood before him and in that instance they all came flooding back.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately. I think I need to stop drinking,” Mabvuto said, ashamedly.

“Don’t worry about it. Actually, I was looking for you because I have something to give you.”

“What is it?”

“My best creation, yet.”

They walked towards the marketplace. Mabvuto was still struggling with strange images of another man in his memories. The Mayeso in front of him is the Mayeso he always knew he reminded himself. Alinafe rummaged behind the table of his market stand and out from it emerged the most magnificent looking clock. It was painted in deep ruby red paint, with the wheels and screws of the clock completely visible through a thin sheet of glass. One tiny door sat in the bottom left corner of the clock, as if offering a secret passageway into another realm. Mabvuto was taken slightly aback, as far as he could remember, he and Mayeso had never exchanged so much as a birthday card. Why all of a sudden was he offering such extravagant gifts?

Mabvuto stood for a moment completely speechless.

“I’ve been working on it for some time. I thought it would make up for all the birthday gifts we’ve never given each other.”

Mabvuto was moved for the most part by this gesture but he also couldn’t help but feel slightly suspicious about it too. He said his thank you and quickly left. Once he reached his home, he took the clock and wrapped it in a sheet and buried it in a cupboard. He sat on his

bed breathing heavily. Something was deeply wrong with Mayeso but he couldn’t figure out what exactly it was. As he thought about how he could figure out what all of this meant, he immediately felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him. He laid back down and looked towards the cupboard with the clock in it as he fell asleep.

Mabvuto had not been sleeping well for some time now. Every night he dreamt of spider-like shadows that would crawl out from under his cupboard and enter through his mouth, suffocating him. He would wake up drenched in sweat and struggling to catch his breath.

At the same time, he started distancing himself from his long-time friend Mayeso. He wasn’t sure why he was doing it but it seemed to release a lot of the tension he felt.

Mabvuto was walking through the town when he came across the town’s self-proclaimed oracle. She was standing on a crate made for transporting oranges, and from it, read a list of names. He stood and watched her read out the names over and over again. It wasn’t until her third time that he realised she mentioned Mayeso.

“Excuse me, what is this list for?”

She looked sternly at him over her glasses as if implying he was wasting her time.

He continued, “I’m asking because you mentioned my friend, Mayeso.”

“This is a list of all the young men in Diwa and Kanyeri, who have gone missing in the last few months.”

“That’s not possible. Mayeso is here. He’s at the marketplace now, selling clocks.”

There was silence.

“Ahh, the clocks,” she said, sadly. She turned back to her list and continued to read.

Mabvuto stood quietly and listened to her read the list a few more times. He walked on through the town and as he turned the corner into the street with the empty house, he ran into Alinafe.

“Oh, Mayeso. You always seem to know where I am,” Mabvuto said, mindlessly.

“Or, you keep following me,” Alinafe said, slyly.

“I had the strangest conversation earlier. The woman who calls herself an oracle. She said you were missing.”

“Well, tell her you’ve found me.” Alinafe laughed.

Mabvuto had come to hate that laugh. Everything about Mayeso now gave him the creeps. He felt the need to get away immediately.

“How are you enjoying the clock?”

Ice travelled down Mabvuto’s spine.

“Fine. It’s a beautiful clock.”

“Then why don’t you take it out of the cupboard and hang it up?” Alinafe said, abruptly.

They stared at each other. Mabvuto felt fear like he had never felt before. As he backed away, the man in front of him- the one that he had spent the last few weeks convincing himself was Mayeso-looked back intensely and broke into the toothy grin he so hated. He looked over his shoulder every few steps to make sure he wasn’t being followed. Once he arrived, he tore through his room and opened the cupboard. The clock was gone. He walked through to the next room, sat on the couch and closed his eyes. Images of him, Mayeso and another man floated in and out of his head until he slowly fell into a deep sleep. One last time, the spider-like shadows travelled across the rooms and silently, Mabvuto took his last breath.

Alinafe walked the winding roads of the town. He walked towards the empty house where he found the woman who claimed to be an oracle reading a list. He listened to the names on the list and as she stopped to take a breath and look up, their eyes met. He smiled his toothy grin at her and her body stiffened.

Reignited with a sense of determination, she began to read her list again, “Chifuniro, Chikumbutso-”

“What are you doing?”

Alinafe turned around. It was one of the men from the market.

“I’m just listening to what the old lady has to say.”

“Don’t spend your time listening to her, you might end up like her,” the man scoffed.

As Alinafe walked away he heard the oracle continue to announce the names.

“Kumbukani, Mayeso, Mabvuto-”

“Hey! Mabvuto, she called your name!” laughed the man from the market.

Alinafe stopped to wave at the man and then continued to walk towards his clock stand.