The Clockmaker's Gift
In the heart of a snow-covered village, there lived a clockmaker named Henri. His workshop was a
warm haven filled with the gentle ticking of gears and the sweet scent of oil and polished wood. Henri
was not only skilled with his hands but also with his heart. He spent years creating a very special clock,
one that could bend time itself. The magic of the clock, however, only worked when an act of true
kindness was performed. One biting winter morning, as icicles hung like daggers from rooftops, Henri
spotted a young boy walking along the narrow street. Above him, a large sheet of ice, loosened by the
thaw, began to break free. Without hesitation, Henri touched the clock’s face. Time stopped.
Snowflakes hung suspended in mid-air, the boy’s surprised breath froze in a white cloud, and the ice
remained mid-fall. Henri carefully pulled the child out of danger before letting the world resume its
rhythm. The townsfolk never understood exactly what had happened, but they remembered that winter
as the one when something miraculous saved the boy. Henri never sought recognition, content to sit in
his workshop, winding the little clock that only ticked for kindness.