Where Does the Time Go by Derek Jennings

Grandma was mashing avocados in the kitchen for lunch whilst Isla played in the lounge, supervised by Grandad, precious days that always provided a fun distraction from the constant worry about John’s illness and declining health. The house had gone silent, and CBeebies was muted. She looked around and spotted the apple and orange missing from the fruit bowl.

Props! 

She quietly moved towards the hallway to have a little listen.

Isla had been asking John what Grandma meant by her frequent use of the phrase ‘Where does the time go?’

He handed Isla the orange.

‘You hold the sun because you are my sunshine.’

He then proceeded to slowly rotate the apple around the orange, demonstrating the Earth’s orbit whilst spinning his apple.

This was John’s theory of relativity.

‘This is a day, and this is a whole year.’

Next, he took out his penknife and started to skillfully peel the apple into one long ribbon.

‘So, Isla, your big question. Where does the time go? We spin all the way round every day on our planet, and that’s how we get night and day, and we circle around your orange every year. Your Grandma says time flies, doesn’t she? Well, time peels off my apple as we spin and flies into space like this peel and floats behind us a bit like that aeroplane vapour trail I showed you in the sky.’

John pulled the apple peel straight and danced the floating time around Isla’s orange like a celestial wave.

‘There is magic involved, of course, and the magical bit is this. As we spin into another day and circle around another year, we pass all our old time floating around in space, like my apple peel, and this time is held in its place by something called gravity. It doesn’t just disappear, you see. This is when the old time gets its chance to remind us of our past days and years, and this is where, as we pass through the same place every day, we collect up our happy memories!’

Isla, who never sits still, was completely motionless, transfixed. Seconds later, her face broke into a huge smile.

‘Wow! I love you, Grandad.’

From behind the doorway, Grandma wiped her eyes. It was the most beautiful moment she had seen in a long time.

Her past dragged and shifted and frightened her the same as her future did.

She composed herself.

‘Hey, you two, your avocado on sourdough is ready. ’

Derek Jennings is a writer from Hull, East Yorkshire. His work has appeared in Northern Gravy, Bristol Noir and Tenfootcity.

You can find him on Twitter/X @derekjennings17 and Instagram – derek.jennings.17