Charlotte Dune's Lagoon

Charlotte Dune's Lagoon

Clock Daddy

A true story about the maintenance of time and memory

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Charlotte Dune
Nov 05, 2023
∙ Paid

In honor of today’s time change, which I find generally dreadful that we change time at all, I want to offer you a short piece of what I call autofiction, AKA based on a true story. A short memoir if you will, about the passing and maintenance of time and memory. I wrote this over a year ago for a magazine that went defunct, so it was never actually published. And at the time, I was like, I’ll share it right away on The Lagoon. Then a year passed. That’s how life is.

*This story is for the paid version of the Lagoon. A paid monthly membership is cheaper than a glass of wine at a restaurant and way better for your brain. 100% of the proceeds are reinvested into The Lagoon, to make it a better place. For example, I recently hired a human artist to make future illustrations for The Lagoon using your contributions. All paid members will also receive a signed copy and goodie bag of my new book, Acid Christmas, coming out Nov 15th.

After you read this story, I’m always happy to hear your feedback. What did you like? What would you change? Did I make any mistakes? Let me know by email or in the comment section.

Clock Daddy

The demanding clock

Only two sips into my morning coffee, I catch The Clock Man’s rusty white pickup truck peaking its head around the curved crest of our long, winding driveway. Do I have time to run downstairs and change? Probably not. Instead, I open the back deck screen door, just enough to feel the unusual fall heat through my thin satin pajama pants, and I greet him. He’s early, though it seems to me like a clock man should strive to be right on time…

“Morning,” he says, wiping a drip of sweat from his freckled brow. “It’s boiling for November.” 

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