Why Does Time Move Forward?

Once, in a very damp and dreary place, resembling a cave, hidden away, a decrepit man lived alone. His bones were so fragile, they could crumble at any moment. His teeth, brittle like chalk. His clothes clinging to him, as if they moulded part of his skin. This old man did not live, for he hadn’t been properly born. How could he when the concept of time did not exist yet?

There were no ages, or celebrations, no seasons. The name he gave himself was Uno and he just simply was. Everything Uno would do, started backwards. He would sleep into nightfall, rise when stars rose in the sky, eat steak in the dark and say good night to the singing birds in the morning.

One clear, starry night, huddled inside the damp cave, Uno searched through the crumbling rocks for falling pieces, something unusual to look at and admire. He pulled out a spherical shaped slab, perfectly sculpted from nature. There was no rough edges or imperfections. Uno gawked at the nights sky, the glistening stars lighting his path and wondered to himself.

“Perhaps there should be a concept for where and what is happening? How do I know when to wake? How do I know when to sleep? I simply guess…”

He looked upon this slab with new eyes and began to create the first ever clock, he was the person to invent the concept of time. He sculpted the numbers. Symbols of I, V and X from 12 to one. Twelve at the very top, six at the bottom, the other numbers lay in between. He scratched into the surface, working through the sun rises and sun sets, until Uno stood in front of something new, he had created with his own two hands.

He gazed upon his creation but something felt wrong, a missing object he had forgotten, to improve upon his design. Two arrows pointing in different directions. One was slightly longer than the other, tied together in the middle to show when and what each number meant.

He smiled to himself and gloated. “Ah.” He sighed. “Time to try out this invention!”

He started in the middle of the round slab so that each arrow pointed to the number twelve, and as Uno waited patiently, he saw the arrows spin backwards. After all, it was the reasonable thing to do. As the arrow pointed to the number twelve in the middle of the clock time started to move backwards. Uno found himself physically moving, everything he would do, but walking, in reverse.

“evlewT o kcolc!” He cried out cupping his hands over his mouth. “Ho ym! m’I neve gniklat sdrawkcab!”

Uno tried to walk towards the archway of the entrance to his cave but was being pulled back by time. Every time Uno stepped forward, forces out of his control stopped him.

“Ho raed”….

Uno spun around, so that he now had his back to the archway. He did what he knew he could do, walk backwards. One step back, then the next and then the next, trying his best not to fall over, occasionally looking over his shoulder to see where he was going.

The pathway was wobbly, his feet tripping him up, until finally he looked over his shoulder, to see the outside world. Although to his horror, the creatures, trees, and sea were behaving much the same way as he was! The leaves that lay upon the floor, crawled back up the tree trunk on to the branches. Their brown, orangey, red appearance turning green once again. The waves from the ocean created ripples of water backwards. Large and crashing, falling back into itself. The creatures that scurried along the paths, racing at speeds in reverse. The birds feeding their children no more as they crawled back into their eggs. The dolphins that dived, were now flipping their fins backwards. Their cries sounded, but all was nonsense.

The creatures that roamed the lands, like the bears and the mountain lions, reverting to their younger selves. The ground filled with babies with no experience to live.

“hO on, tahw evah I enod? I deen ot esrever eht kcolc yletaidemmi!”

Uno did what needed to be done to fix the earth. Walking backwards again, careful not to fall over, he looked over his shoulder to see where he was going. The clock slab sat upon a crumbling rock, that started to chip away at itself. His home had started to revert into clay! The pressure was mounting for Uno…

His hands moved in reverse, as he tried to control the clock hands, This wouldn’t get the best of him he thought. With all his might and strength, Uno took the arrows in his hands, spinning them forward, which proved a herculean task. One arrow now ticked forwards, as the earth and everything around started to follow. A large push and the hands on the clock ticked to the right, forever know as clockwise!

Uno breathed a sigh of relief, his hands loose and free. He rose, beginning to walk towards the sun, it was a success! One step forward, then another and another, he was now walking towards the archway to his cave, which had ceased to crumble. Uno smiled up at the sky, the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. The waves splashed upon the sand, like galloping horses. The trees filled with colours of reds and oranges, leaves lying on the ground. The baby birds were feasting upon worms their parents had brought. The mountain bears and lions, larger than ever, racing around in the distance.

“It’s good to see.” He spoke out, pleased to hear himself speaking sense.

All was well with the world. And from that day on, Uno lived his life as nature intended it to be, which tells the story of how time moves forward.