It was some place some time, I mean, who really cares where or when it was. He was walking towards the furniture shop just down the lane. Who’s he? Who cares who he is, as long as he’s someone, not a nobody. He was, at the time, some dozen years old and perhaps had some children, though that is of no importance at the moment. His only concern at the time was the furniture shop, getting closer by the minute.
The man, having reached the half-way mark, looked at his watch and noticed it had stopped – a fact that startled him deeply as it had been merely a week since he changed the battery in it. It was a coincidence that the furniture salesman was a part-time watchmaker and the probable culprit in this situation. Thus the man hastened his pace in hopes of catching the salesman-watchmaker during his short lunch-hour.
Then it struck him like lightning from a somewhat clear sky: there he was on the street at a completely unknown time, trying to make it to a place in time. In what time? Since he was completely unaware of the time, how could he catch the fraudulent watchmaker at the right time? There was no way. So he slowed down his pace, again concentrating on the furniture.
Still on his seemingly never-ending journey down the lane, the man passed a book shop. He liked to window-shop for books so he stopped for a quick glance at the “Top 10”. at number 7 was a rather interesting piece by a completely unknown polish writer by the name of M. Łinkówiĉ, wittily titled “The Man”. The man, seeing himself as a man, drifted off into a thought about who the man in the book might be. After a rollercoaster of ideas he came to one that particularly boggled him – if the man in the book was made up and governed by the author, the author was his God. Thus he, on his way to the furniture shop, must have been governed by a higher being as well. He pondered upon the idea while continuing his journey towards the upholstery outlet. “If he is a man and his God is M. Łinkówiĉ, and I am a man, then my God must also be…”
He noticed that he had arrived at the furniture store and quickly wiped the previous thought off his mind. He gave a sudden tug on the doorknob – it didn’t open. He looked through the small window next to the door and on the wall there was an extravagant cuckoo-clock, showing 9 PM. He was not on time… “Darned watch”, the man said to himself irately, “Darned watch.”