The Little Red Rooster Alarm Clock

The Little Red Rooster Alarm Clock

By

 Jandele Christensen

“Waaaaake up! Waaaake up, oh won't you wakey up please, wakey up please, wak-”

SMACK!

  It was Tuesday morning.  Austin threw the little ceramic alarm clock to the floor. It shattered to pieces. The clock was a very interesting little thing. The clock had the shape of a bright red rooster with the clock as its tummy. Although now the clock face was strewn all over the floor, completely detached from the rest of the rooster body.  It was rather unlike any alarm clock Austin had ever owned previously. Instead of beeping or turning on the radio like literally any normal alarm clock, it sang to him. Austin found it very obnoxious. It was like someone mixed a rooster's voice with that of Elvis Presley. It did not go well together. Austin's mother had found it at the thrift store. He  was completely mortified that his mom even shopped there, let alone get him little gifts from the place. His Mom showed him the clock yesterday, she was so happy, with this brilliant hopeful smile on her face. Austin simply didn't have the heart to say no. 

Nonetheless, Austin hated the stupid rooster alarm clock, almost as much as he hated waking up for school. It  was just another thing reminding him of what lay ahead; fake friends, boring classes and mountains of homework. But he knew that if he ever wanted to go to college, he had to graduate high school first. So out of bed he rolled. Careful not to step on any of the sharp pieces of the broken alarm clock, Austin started to get ready for the day. He felt a bit guilty about completely destroying the clock. He thought about his mom and how her face lit up at the silly thing. Yet, despite what his mom might say about breaking it on the first day he owned it, deep down inside he truly hated that little clock and was glad he wouldn't have to listen to it sing anymore.  

Austin proceeded to put on his pants and the same T-shirt he wore the day before. Then as best he could, without his mom noticing,  Austin snuck downstairs to get the broom.  He quickly swept up the mess and threw the remains of the stupid clock away. As soon as the last bits had been successfully dumped in the garbage Austin let out a sigh of relief. It was gone. He would worry about letting his mom know about the rooster clock later, but right now he could hear the unmistakable rumble of the bus barreling down the lane. He had to go. 

****************************************

Austin's day had gone well. His classes were the same as always, the homework load was nothing new, and his friends were still just as shady. 

“Austin!”

Austin's mother called him from down the hall. He groaned internally, she had probably discovered the missing clock. He went to her dreading the few moments that would come next. 

“What mom?”

“Do you know what happened to that cute little clock I gave you? I came into your room earlier, to put away your laundry, and noticed that it wasn't here anymore.” 

“Ah, yeah about that, um, so… it's very fragile, and this morning when I went to turn it off..” Austin trailed off.  

“It broke?” His mom finished.

“Yeah, I’m sorry mom.” He said as she let out a little sigh with a little pout.  

“Such a shame. It was such a cute little thing.” Austin thought otherwise. 

“Well, I suppose it was just an alarm clock. Thank you for cleaning it up.” She said, then headed off to the kitchen to start on dinner. Austin felt a huge sense of relief. That had gone much better than he thought it would. That was one thing he loved about his mother so much, she was a very kind lady who forgave him more than he deserved. Austin held his mother with the highest respect. 

****************************************

That night as Austin got ready for bed he glanced over at the spot where the rooster clock used to be. He was grateful that he wouldn't have to listen to its screeching in the morning. The funny thing was that its little tune reminded him of his mother's singing. She couldn't sing at all. But that didn’t stop her. She would  come marching into his room before school and sing at the top of her lungs for him to arise and welcome the new day. She did this most every morning. With these thoughts Austin went to bed, simply grateful not to have the rooster alarm clock anymore. 

****************************************

“Waaaaake up! Waaaake up, oh won't you wakey up please, wakey up please, wakey up please!! It is morning! The sun is shining! The day is new…”

Austin threw himself out of bed at the sound.  Then stared in disbelief with wide eyes at what he saw. It was the little ceramic red rooster alarm clock sitting right where it had been the previous morning as if it hadn't gotten shattered at all.  It was gleefully piping its little tune away. For a moment Austin wondered if he was dreaming. He pinched his arm. Nope, he was awake. Had he dreamt that he hadn't shattered it at all? Austin couldn't believe that it was sitting there. But regardless of the events of yesterday, he had to get rid of this thing. He turned it off and shoved it into his backpack. 

Before the school day was over Austin had thrown the silly thing away in one of the school’s trash cans. Again he was grateful to be rid of the thing that caused him so much grief. He prayed that this time, it would stay thrown away. He didn’t want to see the stupid thing ever again. 

As Austin rode the bus home he couldn't stop thinking about the clock. The perplexity of it puzzled him. The more he thought about it, the more he was certain that it had broken yesterday and that it really did come back this morning. It simply didn't make sense. The bus rolled to a stop in front of Austin’s house and got off and made his way inside. After throwing his backpack to the floor he scavenged the kitchen for anything to eat. After checking all the cupboards and the fridge twice, he finally settled on a bowl of cereal. As he was devouring his frosted oat cereal his mom came in to water her plants in the window sill. 

“Hey mom,”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you get me that rooster clock anyway? How do you find these things?” Austin’s mom was always coming home with the most random collectibles that she thought were cute. Austin thought they were the weirdest, most useless trinkets he had ever seen. 

“Oh I just happened to stumble across it in the store. It was sitting so cute on the shelf  that I just couldn't say no.” She proceeded to pour some water on her Aloe Vera plant before continuing.

“Did I ever tell you that I’ve always wanted a little chicken coop? And have one little red rooster strutting about the yard, with it head so high that it would touch the clouds.” Here she gave a little giggle.

“Yes mom, you might have mentioned it a time or two.” The truth was Austin's mom hardly stopped talking about how she wanted a chicken coop. Fortunately for Austin, they never had the finances or the yard space to have one. 

“Oh yes, well I thought it was the coolest little thing. And then I thought about you and how hard it is for you to get up in the morning, and so I thought that this might help you. Shame about it breaking. But no matter, we’ll just find you a new one.” Austin rolled his eyes. The last thing he wanted was to have a new, perhaps even more strange alarm clock yelling at him to wake up. 

“Well, it's alright mom. I don't really need a clock anyway. I can just use my phone. It has an alarm.” Austin hoped he could convince her that he didn't need an alarm clock. He hated the idea of them. Their entire purpose was to inflict mental torture upon the mind and soul in the morning. They could do literally nothing else. Maybe tell the time, but that's what phones and watches were for.  

“Really? Oh, I didn't know they could do that. Wow! Your guys' generation is so spoiled. When I was a kid, the phone was stuck to the wall. It could only make and receive calls. It couldn't even text.” 

“Yeah, we're pretty lucky mom. Too bad your childhood wasn't so blessed.”  Austin said teasingly. His mom just looked at him with a smirk. Austin and his mom then continued talking for the rest of the evening. Austin told her all about his classes and the drama his friends were making up. Even though he would deny it out loud, as most teenagers would, Austin loved talking to his mom. In this world of fake teenage drama and peers who couldn't be trusted, his mom was his very best friend. And he told her about everything in his life. Austin was extremely grateful for his mom. As he went to bed that night his thoughts rested heavily upon his mother and how much he loved her. 

*******************************************

“Waaaaake up! Waaaake up, oh won't you wakey up please, wak-”

It was Thursday morning, and it was back. It was like the rooster clock had a mind of its own. It simply refused to be thrown away. Or destroyed. Austin was at a loss of what to do. Never before had he encountered something so strange. All he knew was that he did not want it around anymore. 

The rest of that week Austin tried everything to get rid of it. Thursday he smashed it with a hammer into tiny pieces. On Friday he threw it in the fire pit at his friends backyard BBQ. And on Saturday he threw it off the bridge into the raging river below as he went for his end-of-the-week bike ride. Yet no matter what he did, the next morning the silly clock was stubbornly sitting in its little spot singing it's horrendous tune every morning. 

Sunday morning Austin went looking for his mother. He hadn't told her yet about the returning alarm clock. He wondered if she had something to do with it. Maybe she had multiple and kept replacing them everyday or something. 

“Mom!” Austin looked in the kitchen.

“MOM! Austin called out the front door. 

“MooM!” Austin shouted out the back door. He couldn't find her. He peeked his head in his parents room. His dad was sitting on the edge bed opposite Austin, his head hanging low. 

“Hey Dad have you seen mom? I checked the front and backyard. She's not there.”  

Slowly Austin's dad turned around. When his face was finally in view Austin could clearly make out his tear streaked face. He looked terrible. He looked as if he had done nothing but cry for the past week. Austin didn't understand. His father hardly ever cried. About anything. 

“Son,” He said in a very clear, but sad voice. He patted the bed next to him and motioned for Austin to come. Tentatively Austin came forward. He was frightened and confused. Yet somewhere deep inside, he knew. 

“Austin,” Austin's dad stared at him straight on. And spoke in a very clear, gentle voice. 

“Austin, I know this has been hard for you. It’s been hard for all of us. You were as close to your mother as anyone in this house. But you need to accept that she did indeed die in a car wreck, Monday, while coming home from the thrift store. I’ve seen you trying to talk to her in the kitchen. As nice as it would be to try and hide what happened, to pretend she’s still here, we can't. It happened. She’s gone.”  

Austin knew the words his dad spoke were true. He hated admitting them, the past week he refused to believe that his mother was gone. Every morning the thought of her death was the first thing on his mind. The lack of her cheerful presence, the seemingly emptiness of the house, the words ‘She’s dead’,  all haunted his thoughts. He did the best he could to throw them out, but nothing he could do could take the pain away. He lost the one person he trusted most in the whole world. As Austin sat there on the bed he cried. He cried for the first time that week. Heavy, body racking, aching sobs. His dad held him as they both cried. The reality of the situation finally sinking in. 

The next day when Austin rolled out of bed the little red rooster alarm clock was no longer there.