The clock that goes back

In a narrow alleyway in the old city of Fez, between the crumbling yellow walls and the ornate wooden windows, lived a young man named Yassin, who worked in a small shop repairing antique clocks. It wasn't an ordinary shop; it was filled with strange clocks, of sizes and shapes no one had ever seen before. Some didn't tell time, and some never stopped.

Yassin inherited this shop from his grandfather, Hajj Abdelkader, who always said to him:

"My son, some hours are not measured in seconds, but in secrets."

The Mysterious Clock

One day, an old man with strange features and eyes like quicksilver came and placed a brass pocket watch in Yassin's hands. He said:

"Don't repair it... just move its hand backward at midnight."

Then he disappeared as if he had evaporated.

Yassin couldn't resist his curiosity. That night, at midnight, he grabbed the clock and turned its hand backward.

Suddenly, he felt extremely dizzy. The walls began to melt, and time seemed to freeze. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in Fez in 1925!

People were wearing old-fashioned djellabas, horse-drawn carriages, and minarets echoed the dawn call amidst the silence of the city.

A Journey Through Time

Yassine began exploring this ancient world. He met a girl named Jamila, the daughter of an old café owner in Bab Boujloud. She was intelligent, read books, wrote poetry, and dreamed of traveling beyond the boundaries of time.

Yassine hid his true identity from her, but he fell in love with her, worrying: How would he return? Would he be able to take her with him?

Every day, he experienced strange adventures: he saw familiar faces, heard words from the future, and felt as if time itself was watching him.

Betrayal and Pursuit

One night, a prominent jurist learned of the "stranger from the future" and wanted to seize the watch. Mysterious men began chasing Yassine through the alleys, wanting to steal his secret.

Yassine fled to Jamila and told her the truth. She looked at him for a long time, then said,

"If you're honest... let's go together. I want to see your time."

But the clock was weak. It couldn't carry two people unless one of them sacrificed their time.

The Difficult Choice

They stood on the roof of an old riad, and voices and memories clashed. The clock began to tick backward, and the vortex of time opened again.

He said to her,

"If you come with me, you'll forget this whole place... and if you stay, we may never meet again."

Jamila took his hand and said,

"You go... the time is yours, but the memory is mine."

Time stopped for a moment, and then Yassine fell into the vortex, and the clock exploded in his hand like a golden light.

The Return... and Something Has Changed

Yassine woke up in his shop, sweat dripping on his forehead. All the clocks were silent. But on the wall, there was a photograph that hadn't been there before.

It was an old black and white photograph of a girl sitting in a café in Bab Boujloud, looking at the camera and smiling. Underneath it was written:

"Jamila, the poet of Fez whom no one knew... except him."

Yassin realized that he hadn't dreamed. And that time, even if it goes back, doesn't restore everything... but it leaves an indelible mark.