Time

• Dinah Browne, Grade 9, Suzanne Cory High School -
• Short Story
• 2019

Excellence Award in the 'Just Keep Writing 2019' competition

Time. A wisp of a word. A word so small, yet it means so much. A word that not even the richest man in the world can buy. It carves deep lines onto the smoothest face. It will bring a monument that has been standing for thousands of years, crumbling to the ground. Time brings new discoveries. It brings the death of one, but also the beginning of life for another. Time ebbs and flows. Your time may be up after fifty years, or it could be a week before death is knocking at your door.

Time is non-negotiable. You can’t ask for more time, nor can you bargain with it. You could spend your time wisely – loving and using every, last minute, every last second to do the things you want to. Or you could waste what precious little you have – drinking your days away and hiding from the ones that care for you.

Time is a precious thing. You could ignore it your whole life, hoping to never see the end of your time. Unavoidably, your time will come, creeping up to you like a thief in the night. You will stand there while the time – like sand – trickles through your fingers, running slower before inevitably stopping.

Time opens new doors. No matter what you believe in, a heaven or hell or reincarnation, the end of your time will lead to the next great adventure.

Even after we’re gone, time will stay there, a reassuring presence, a constant in the world. Hundreds of generations will pass and it will remain unchanged.

Ticking. Waiting.