“And almost exactly at midnight, the Count’s patience was rewarded. For in accordance with the instructions he’d written to Richard, every telephone on the first floor of the Metropol began to ring.”“Wins Sibby damn it!” Mr Hubert said. “Wins Sibby! What the hell else are we setting up till midnight arguing about?”Midnight, and there was frost on the fields and patches of black ice on a road notorious for its accidents—there were bunches of dead flowers tied to fence posts and telegraph poles, and torn gaps in hedges, like some kind of failed crop.The Place St. Sulpice, so quiet and deserted, where toward midnight there came every night the woman with the busted umbrella and the crazy veil. Every night she slept there on a bench under her torn umbrella, the ribs hanging down, her dress turning green, her bony fingers and the odor of decay oozing from her body; and in the morning I’d be sitting there myself, taking a quiet snooze in the sunshine, cursing the god-damned pigeons gathering up the crumbs everywhere.The house is empty, but Eugene sings as if he had for audience all the crowned heads of Europe. The garden door is open and the odor of wet leaves sops in and the rain blends with Eugene’s 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦 and 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦. At midnight, after the spectators have saturated the hall with perspiration and foul breaths, I return to sleep on a bench. The exit light, swimming in a halo of tobacco smoke, sheds a faint light on the lower corner of the asbestos curtain; I close my eyes every night on an artificial eye. . . .Trevor had on an Andy Warhol costume: blond bobbed wig, thick black glasses, tight striped shirt. My first impression of him was that he was free spirited, clever, funny. That proved to be completely inaccurate. We left the party together and walked around for hours, lied to each other about our happy lives, ate pizza at midnight, took the Staten Island Ferry back and forth and watched the sun rise.J. Came to my bed at midnight, and during our athletics, my door was barged. Farcical horror! Thank God J. had locked it on her way in. The doorknob rattled, insistent knocking began. Fear can clear the mind as well as cloud it, and remembering my 𝘋𝘰𝘯 𝘑𝘶𝘢𝘯, I hid J. in a nest of coverlets and sheets in my sagging bed and left the curtain half open to show I had nothing to hide.It was an animal thing. A wilderness thing. Nothing about her belonged to her previous self in that moment. Above all her voice. This could have been the high shriek of a hawk, the soul-haunting howl of a wolf, the rasping cry of a red fox at midnight. It could have been any of them, but not the scream of a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl.Oliver Dubois rammed a pickup truck through his front door on a sweaty midnight in July, at the tail end of a massive block party. It wasn’t his truck, and the street was closed to traffic, so the vehicle’s emergence out of darkness and slow rumble up Oak Drive scattered neighbors and guests alike into confused groups on candlelit lawns.“Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?” “By no means.” “Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?” “I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am in town. But I shall return by the twelve o’clock train, so as to be there in time for your coming.”It was near midnight when she left the Palace in a clothes-hamper borne by two porters, covered with her own soiled smocks and petticoats which were supposedly being carried to the laundress.“She looked at the digital display of her watch. 00:00:00 Midnight, as the clock had told her. She waited for the next second to arrive, but it didn’t.” “She looked at the digital display of her watch. 00:00:00 Midnight, as the clock had told her. She waited for the next second to arrive, but it didn’t.” Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us; And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!- Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight From lovers’ food till morrow deep midnight.Here before me was a vast sweep of empty space: just the closed door and me, and only the stars sprinkled across the midnight sky to see what I did next. Did those cold, distant lights watch with any vestige of the humans they had once been, those special, chosen, favored ones who had brushed to close to the divine?Had the lure of blood and ecstasy in the midnight woods brought her sailing over the glittering blue waters? I wondered why she was here now, in the vineyard.She summoned the police and, when the men came, sympathetic, at midnight, she gave testimony. To have given a home to the wolf and succour to the rabid dog.One Christmas at midnight on the button, at the old place, the ward door blows open with a crash, in comes a fat man with a beard, eyes ringed red by the cold and his nose just the color of a cherry.At midnight, the lights in the café’s kitchen could be particularly harsh. Without the comfort of the daylight streaming in through the stained-glass window, everything in the room looked grim and utilitarian.“Sometimes there is no darker place than our own thoughts; the moonless midnight of the mind.”“It starts at midnight.”“Dawn seemed to follow midnight with indecent haste.”“I shall never forget his flying Henry’s kite for him that very windy day last Easter—and ever since his particular kindness last September twelvemonth in writing that note, at twelve o’clock at night, on purpose to assure me that there was no scarlet fever at Cobham, I have been convinced there could not be a more feeling heart nor a better man in existence.—If any body can deserve him, it must be Miss Taylor.”“On the night after his ride to Lawrenceville a crowd sallied to New York in quest of adventure, and started back to Princeton about twelve o’clock in two machines. It had been a gay party and different stages of sobriety were represented.”As midnight was striking bronze blows upon the dusky air, Dorian Gray, dressed commonly, and with a muffler wrapped round his throat, crept quietly out of his house."“But wait till I tell you,” he said. “We had a midnight lunch too after all the jollification and when we sallied forth it was blue o'clock the morning after the night before”""“Midnight,” you said. What is midnight to the young? And suddenly a festive blaze was flung Across five cedar trunks, snow patches showed, And a patrol car on our bumpy road Came to a crunching stop. Retake, retake!"That a man who could hardly see anything more than two feet away from him could be employed as a security guard suggested to me that our job was not to secure anything but to report for work every night, fill the bulky ledger with cryptic remarks like 'Patrolled perimeter 12.00 pm, No Incident' and go to the office every fortnight for our wages and listen to the talkative Ms Elgassier.'Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's, Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks; The sun is spent, and now his flasks Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;At midnight his wife and daughter might still be bustling about, preparing holiday delicacies in the kitchen, straightening up the house, or perhaps getting their kimonos ready or arranging flowers. Oki would sit in the living room and listen to the radio. As the bells rang he would look back at the departing year. He always found it a moving experience.Bernardo: 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.Big Ben concluded the run-up, struck and went on striking. (...) But, odder still - Big Ben had once again struck midnight. The time outside still corresponded to that registered by the stopped gilt clock, inside. Inside and outside matched exactly, but both were badly wrong. H'm.But in the end I understood this language. I understood it, I understood it, all wrong perhaps. That is not what matters. It told me to write the report. Does this mean I am freer now than I was? I do not know. I shall learn. Then I went back into the house and wrote, It is midnight. The rain is beating on the windows. It was not midnight. It was not raining.Cartridges not allowed after 0000h., to encourage sleep.Francisco. You come most carefully upon your hour. Bernardo. 'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.Gately can hear the horns and raised voices and u-turn squeals way down below on Wash. That indicate it's around 0000h., the switching hour.Hamlet: What hour now? Horatio: I think it lacks of twelve. Marcellus: No, it is struck.He is certain he heard footsteps: they come nearer, and then die away. The ray of light beneath his door is extinguished. It is midnight; some one has turned out the gas; the last servant has gone to bed, and he must lie all night in agony with no one to bring him any help.I am conceived to the chimes of midnight on the clock on the mantelpiece in the room across the hall. The clock once belonged to my great-grandmother (a woman called Alice) and its tired chime counts me into the world.I took her hand in mine, and bid her be composed; for a succession of shudders convulsed her frame, and she would keep straining her gaze towards the glass. 'There's nobody here!' I insisted. 'It was YOURSELF, Mrs. Linton: you knew it a while since.' 'Myself!' she gasped, 'and the clock is striking twelve! It's true, then! that's dreadful!'I was born in the city of Bombay ... On the stroke of midnight, as a matter of fact. Clock-hands joined palms in respectful greeting as I came. Oh, spell it out, spell it out: at the precise instant of India's arrival at independence, I tumbled forth into the world.It is midnight. The rain is beating on the windows. I am calm. All is sleeping. Nevertheless I get up and go to my desk. I can't sleep. ...It was nearing midnight and the Prime Minister was sitting alone in his office, reading a long memo that was slipping through his brain without leaving the slightest trace of meaning behind.Midnight had come upon the crowded city. The palace, the night-cellar, the jail, the madhouse; the chambers of birth and death, of health and sickness; the rigid face of the corpse and the calm sleep of the child - midnight was upon them all.Midnight is approaching, and while the peak of activity has passed, the basal metabolism that maintains life continues undiminished, producing the basso continuo of the city's moan, a monotonous sound that neither rises or falls but is pregnant with foreboding.Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. `'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more.'The clock striketh twelve O it strikes, it strikes! Now body, turn to air, Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell. O soul, be changed into little water drops, And fall into the ocean, ne'er to be found. My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!The first night, as soon as the corporal had conducted my uncle Toby up stairs, which was about 10 - Mrs. Wadman threw herself into her arm chair, and crossing her left knee with her right, which formed a resting-place for her elbow, she reclin'd her cheek upon the palm of her hand, and leaning forwards, ruminated until midnight upon both sides of the question.'To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed an believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.We have heard the chimes at midnight.“She was wearing a watch. Not a digital one, in this life. An elegant, slender analogue one, with Roman numerals. It was about a minute after midnight. How is this happening?”With the appointed execution time of one minute past midnight just seconds away, I knocked on the metal door twice. The lock turned and the door swiftly swung open.At two minutes past twelve the door opens and two men come into the lobby. One is tall with black hair combed in a 50’s pompadour. The other is short and bespectacled. Both are wearing suits.Two minutes past midnight. With me in the lead the fourteen other men of Teams Yellow, White and Red moved out of the clearing and separated for points along the wall where they would cross over into the grounds.It was after twelve o'clock when Easton came home. Ruth recognised his footsteps before he reached the house, and her heart seemed to stop beating when she heard the clang of the gate, as it closed after he had passed through.It was just three minutes past midnight when I last saw Archer Harrison alive. I remember, because I said it was two minutes past and he looked at his watch and said it was three minutes past.Suddenly I felt a great stillness in the air, then a snapping of tension. I glanced at my watch. Three minutes after midnight. I was breathing normally and my pen moved freely across the page. Whatever stalked me wasn’t quite as clever as I’d feared, I thought, careful not to pause in my work.At four minutes past twelve, Frank Macintosh and Paulie Logan enter the lobby dressed in their suits. There are handshakes all around. Fran’s pompadour appears to have had an oil change. “Need to check out?” “Taken care of.” “Then let’s go.”At four minutes past midnight, January 22, Admiral Lowry's armada of more than 250 ships reached the transport area off Anzio. The sea was calm, the night was black.E.M. Security, normally so scrupulous with their fucking trucks at 0005h., is nowhere around, lending weight to yet another cliché. If you asked Gately what he was feeling right this second he'd have no idea.At six minutes past midnight, death relieved the sufferer.It was seven minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears' house. Its eyes were closed. It looked as if it was running on its side, the way dogs run when they think they are chasing a cat in a dream."“Hour of the night!” exclaimed the priest; “it is day, not night, and the hour is eight past midnight!”"At 12.09am on 18 October, the cavalcade had reached the Karsaz Bridge, still ten kilometres from her destination.I stashed my basket of dirty rags and Turtle Wax by the exit door in the arcade. It was ten past noon, but right then food wasn’t what I was hungry for. I walked slowly along the track and into Horror House.It was at ten minutes past midnight. Three police cars, Alsations and a black maria arrive at the farmhouse. The farmer clad only in a jock-strap, refused them entry.The first incendiaries to hit St Thomas's Hospital had splattered Riddell House at eleven minutes past midnight, from where a few hours earlier the Archbishop of Canterbury had given 'an inspiring address'.Clock time is 0 Hours, 12 Minutes, 0 Seconds. Twenty three minutes later, they have their first sight of Venus. Each lies with his Eye clapp'd to the Snout of an identical two and a half foot Gregorian reflector made by Mr Short, with Darkening-Nozzles by Mr Bird.It was twelve minutes past midnight when mother and daughter saw the first lightning strike. It hit the main barn with such force the ground trembled under their feet.It was exactly fourteen minutes past midnight when he completed the final call. Among the men he had reched were honourable men. Their voices would be heard by the President.At twelve-fifteen he got out of the van. He tucked the pistol under the waistband of his trousers and crossed the silent, deserted street to the Hudston house.At twelve-fifteen he got out of the van. He tucked the pistol under the waistband of his trousers and crossed the silent, deserted street to the Hudston house. He let himself through an unlocked wooden gate onto a side patio brightened only by moonlight filtered through the leafy branches of an enormous sheltering coral tree. He paused to pull on a pair of supple leather gloves.At sixteen minutes past midnight, Block 4 was hit and the roof set alight.Kava ordered two glasses of coffee for himself and his beloved and some cake. When the pair left, exactly seventeen minutes after twelve, the club began to buzz with excitement.21st December 1985, 12.18am [In bed] Michael doesn’t believe in Heaven or Hell. He’s got closer to death than most living people and he tells me there was no tunnel of light or dancing angels. I’m a bit disappointed, to be honest.“But by the time he reached the top of the hill the woman’s body had basically been eaten up already by the flies, right?” my friend said. “In a sense,” his girlfriend replied. “In a sense being eaten by the flies makes it a sad story, doesn’t it?” my friend said. “Yes, I guess so,” she said after giving it some thought. “What do you think?” she asked me. “Sounds like a sad story to me,” I replied. It was twelve twenty when my cousin came back.Now she was kneading the little ball of hot paste on the convex margin of the bowl and I could smell the opium. There is no smell like it. Beside the bed the alarm-clock showed twelve-twenty, but already my tension was over. Pyle had diminished.Nobody had been one of Mycroft Ward's most important operatives and for sixty seconds every day, between 12.21am and 12.22am., his laptop was permitted to connect directly with the gigantic online database of self that was Mycroft Ward's mind.Nobody had been one of Mycroft Ward's most important operatives and for sixty seconds every day, between 12.21am and 12.22am., his laptop was permitted to connect directly with the gigantic online database of self that was Mycroft Ward's mind.Oskar weighed the wristwatch in his hand, then gave the rather fine piece with its luminous dial showing twenty-three minutes past midnight to little Pinchcoal. He looked up inquiringly at his chief. Störtebeker nodded his assent. And Oskar said, as he adjusted his drum snugly for the trip home: 'Jesus will lead the way. Follow thou me!'Sanders with Sutton as his gunner began their patrol at 12.24am, turning south towards Beachy Head at 10,000 ft.Charlotte remembered that she had heard Gregoire go downstairs again, almost immediately after entering his bedroom, and before the servants had even bolted the house-doors for the night. He had certainly rushed off to join Therese in some coppice, whence they must have hurried away to Vieux-Bourg station which the last train to Paris quitted at five-and-twenty minutes past midnight. And it was indeed this which had taken place.I mean, look at the time! Twenty-five past midnight! It was a triumph, it really was!"“A Mr Dutta from King's Cross called and told me you were on your way. He said you wanted to see the arrival of yesterday's 12.26am. It'll take me a few minutes to cue up the footage. Our regular security bloke isn't here today; he's up before Haringey Magistrates' Court for gross indecency outside the headquarters of the Dagenham Girl Pipers.”"The DRINK CHEER-UP COFFEE wall clock read 12.28."“What time is it?” asked Teeny-bits. The station agent hauled out his big silver watch, looked at it critically and announced: “Twenty-nine minutes past twelve.” “Past twelve!” repeated Teeny-bits. “It can't be.”"Half-past twelve o’clock came; Turkey began to glow in the face, overturn his inkstand, and become generally obstreperous; Nippers abated down into quietude and courtesy; Ginger Nut munched his noon apple; and Bartleby remained standing at his window in one of his profoundest dead-wall reveries.“I love you more than you can possibly know.” “I love you too.” I smile and his lips linger on my cheek. As he walks down the hall, I note the time: half past midnight.It was half-past twelve when I returned to the Albany as a last desperate resort. The scene of my disaster was much as I had left it. The baccarat-counters still strewed the table, with the empty glasses and the loaded ash-trays. A window had been opened to let the smoke out, and was letting in the fog instead.Third individual approaches unnoticed and without caution. Once within reach, individual reaches out toward subjects. Recording terminates: timecode: 00:31:02.Thirty-two minutes past midnight; the way things were going I could be at it all night. Before beginning a completely new search of the dial I had a thought: maybe this safe didn't open on zero as older models did, but on a factory-set number.Stephen Maxie looked him straight in the eye and said almost casually: “It was thirty-three minutes past twelve by my watch."“So that at twelve-thirty-three you bolted the south door?” “Yes,” replied Stephen Maxie easily. “At thirty-three minutes past midnight.”"Thirty-four minutes past midnight. 'We got ten minutes to be back here.' LT didn't argue. Schoolboy knew his former trade. LT's eyes fretted over the museum. 'Not still worrying about the security, are you, because there ain't none.'We sat in the car park till twenty to one/ And now I'm engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.The butt had been growing warm in her fingers; now the glowing end stung her skin. She crushed the cigarette out and stood, brushing ash from her black skirt. It was eighteen minutes to one. She went to the house phone and called his room. The telephone rang and rang, but there was no answer.Died five minutes ago, you say? he asked. His eye went to the watch on his wrist. Twelve-forty-three, he wrote on the blotter.It was a banging shutter somewhere below that woke me. I picked my watch up from the night table and saw it was quarter of one. I didn’t think there was going to be any more sleep for me until that banging stopped, so I got dressed, started out the door, then returned to the closet for my slicker. When I got downstairs, I paused. From the big bedroom down the hall from the parlor, I could hear Mrs. S sawing wood in long, noisy strokes. No banging shutter was going to break her rest.At 12.45, during a lull, Mr Yoshogi told me that owing to the war there were now many more women in England than men.At the thought he jumped to his feet and took down from its hook the coat in which he had left Miss Viner's letter. The clock marked the third quarter after midnight, and he knew it would make no difference if he went down to the post-box now or early the next morning; but he wanted to clear his conscience, and having found the letter he went to the door.At 12:47a.m, Uncle Ho left us forever.The packing was done at 12.50; and Harris sat on the big hamper, and said he hoped nothing would be found broken. George said that if anything was broken it was broken, which reflection seemed to comfort him. He also said he was ready for bed.Everybody was happy; everybody was complimentary; the ice was soon broken; songs, anecdotes, and more drinks followed, and the pregnant minutes flew. At six minutes to one, when the jollity was at its highest— BOOM! There was silence instantly.At five minutes to one, the host of the show emerged from a heated tent to massive applause from the crowd. She was dressed in a fuchsia coat, with a black turtleneck, a knee-length skirt, black tights, and knee-high boots.He rolled one way, rolled the other, listened to the loud tick of the clock, and was asleep a minute later. Five to one in the morning. Fifty-one hours to go.It was 12:56 A.M. when Gerald drove up onto the grass and pulled the limousine right next to the cemetery.Teacher used to lie awake at night facing that clock, batting his eyelashes against his pillowcase to mimic the sound of the rolling drop action. One night, and this first night is lost in the countless later nights of compounding wonder, he discovered a game. Say the time was 12:56.A minute had passed, and the roller dropped a new leaf. 12:57. 12 + 57 = 69; 6 + 9 = 15; 1 + 5 = 6. 712 + 5 = 717; 71 + 7 = 78; 7 + 8 = 15; 1 + 5 = 6 again.It was downright shameless on his part to come visiting them, especially at night, almost at one in the morning, after all that had happened.‘What time is it now?’ she said. ‘About one o’clock’. ‘In the morning?’ Herera’s friend leered at her. ‘No, there’s a total eclipse of the sun’.He shut down at one o’clock. He had written two pages, and the feeling that he was reverting to the nervous and neurotic man who’d almost burned down his house three years ago was getting harder to dismiss.Shortly before 1 a.m., he answered a knock at the back door and admitted five men, two of whom were expert carpenters.I want to shout and scream, but I would be screaming at a wall. I storm off to my bedroom. Thirty minutes later, she leaves the house with Gboyega. She doesn’t return till 1 a.m. I don’t sleep till 1 a.m.It was one o’clock when we left No. 3, Lauriston Gardens. Sherlock Holmes led me to the nearest telegraph office, whence he dispatched a long telegram. He then hailed a cab, and ordered the driver to take us to the address given us by Lestrade“Nobody noticed that he got off the ride without his date?” “Nope. This was mid-July, the very height of the season, and the place was a swarming madhouse. They didn’t find the body until one o’clock the next morning, long after the park was closed and the Horror House work-lights were turned on. For the graveyard shift, you know.”It was nearly one o’clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled over with notes and figures.“Can’t do it, Findle; I’m with somebody else! Call me up to-morrow about one o’clock!”“About one o’clock they moved to Maxim’s, and two found them in Deviniere’s. Sloane had been drinking consecutively and was in a state of unsteady exhilaration, but Amory was quite tiresomely sober; they had run across none of those ancient, corrupt buyers of champagne who usually assisted their New York parties. "The more he thought about it the more puzzled he was… He didn’t understand this revolver business… Somebody in the house had got that revolver… Downstairs a clock struck one.1.00 am. I felt the surrounding quietness suffocating me.He didn’t know what was at the end of the chute. The opening was narrow (though large enough to take the canary). He dreamed that the chute opened onto vast garbage bins filled with old coffee filters, ravioli in tomato sauce and mangled genitalia. Huge worms, as big as the canary, armed with terrible beaks, would attack the body. Tear off the feet, rip out its intestines, burst the eyeballs. He woke up, trembling; it was only one o’clock. He swallowed three Xanax. So ended his first night of freedom.I looked attentively at her, as she put that singular question to me. It was then nearly one o'clock. All I could discern distinctly by the moonlight was a colourless, youthful face, meagre and sharp to look at about the cheeks and chin; large, grave, wistfully attentive eyes; nervous, uncertain lips; and light hair of a pale, brownish-yellow hue.I'm the only one awake in this house on this night before the day that will change all our lives. Though it's already that day: the little luminous hands on my alarm clock (which I haven't set) show just gone one in the morning.It was the thirtieth of May by now. One am on the thirtieth of May 1940. Quite a famous date on which to be lying awake and staring at the ceiling. Already in the creeks and tidal estuaries of England the pleasure-boats and paddle-steamers were casting their moorings for the day trip to Dunkirk. And, over on the other side, Ted stood as a good a chance as anyone else.Last night of all, When yon same star that's westward from the pole Had made his course t'illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, The bell then beating one -The station was more crowded than he had expected to find it at - what was it? he looked up at the clock - one o'clock in the morning. What in the name of God was he doing on King's Cross station at one o'clock in the morning, with no cigarette and no home that he could reasonably expect to get into without being hacked to death by a homicidal bird?‘What time is it now?’ she said. ‘About one o’clock’. ‘In the morning?’ Herera’s friend leered at her. ‘No, there’s a total eclipse of the sun’.She had called twice during the twenty-four hours following the old bastard’s stroke, when it became obvious he was going to snuff it. The phone had not been answered either time. She called again after her father died — this time at 1:04 on the morning of August 2nd. Some drunk had answered the telephone.When he woke it was 1:06 by the digital clock on the bedside table. He lay there looking at the ceiling, the raw glare of the vaporlamp outside bathing the bedroom in a cold and bluish light. Like a winter moon.It was 1.08a.m. but he had left the ball at the same time as I did, and had further to travel.They made an unostentatious exit from their coach, finding themselves, when the express had rolled on into the west, upon a station platform in a foreign city at nine minutes past one o'clock in the morning - but at length without their shadow.It was at ten minutes past one by Bond’s watch when, at the high table, the whole pattern of play suddenly altered.February 26, Saturday - Richards went out 1.10am and found it clearing a bit, so we got under way as soon as possible, which was 2:10a.m.Declares one of the waiters was the worse for liquor, and that he was giving him a dressing down. Also that it was nearer to one than half past.It was 1:12am when Father arrived at the police station. I did not see him until 1:28am but I knew he was there because I could hear him. He was shouting, 'I want to see my son,' and 'Why the hell is he locked up?' and, 'Of course I'm bloody angry.'I am sorry, therefore, as I have said, that I ever paid any attention to the footsteps. They began about a quarter past one o'clock in the morning, a rhythmic, quick-cadenced walking around the dining-room table.Lily Chen always prepared an 'evening' snack for her husband to consume on his return at 1.15am.The ghost that got into our house on the night of November 17, 1915, raised such a hullabaloo of misunderstandings that I am sorry I didn't just let it keep on walking, and go to bed. Its advent caused my mother to throw a shoe through a window of the house next door and ended up with my grandfather shooting a patrolman. I am sorry, therefore, as I have said, that I ever paid any attention to the footsteps. They began about a quarter past one o'clock in the morning, a rhythmic, quick-cadenced walking around the dining-room table.At sixteen past one, they walked into the interview room.From 1am to 1.16am vouched for by other two conductors.At that moment (it was seventeen minutes past one in the morning) Lieutenant Bronsfield was preparing to leave the watch and return to his cabin, when his attention was attracted by a distant hissing noise.The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions. He got up and went to the window. What is it? she said. He didnt answer. He went into the bathroom and threw the lightswitch but the power was already gone. A dull rose glow in the windowglass. He dropped to one knee and raised the lever to stop the tub and then turned on both taps as far as they would go. She was standing in the doorway in her nightwear, clutching the jamb, cradling her belly in one hand. What is it? she said. What is happening?I woke up and glanced at my watch on the table next to my bed. It was one twenty. My heart was beating furiously. I slid off the bed down onto the carpet, sat cross-legged, and took some deep breaths. Then I held my breath, relaxed my shoulders, sat up straight, and tried to focus. I must have swum too much, I decided, or got too much sun."“Well!” she said, looking like a minor female prophet about to curse the sins of the people. “May I trespass on your valuable time long enough to ask what in the name of everything bloodsome you think you're playing at, young piefaced Bertie? It is now some twenty minutes past one o'clock in the morning, and not a spot of action on your part.”"Then it was 1.20am, but I hadn't heard Father come upstairs to bed. I wondered if he was asleep downstairs or whether he was waiting to come in and kill me. So I got out my Swiss Army Knife and opened the saw blade so that I could defend myself.It was 1:22 when we found Dad's grave.The clock marked twenty-three minutes past one. He was suddenly full of agitation, yet hopeful. She had come! Who could tell what she would say? She might offer the most natural explanation of her late arrival.Larkin had died at 1.24am, turning to the nurse who was with him, squeezing her hand, and saying faintly, 'I am going to the inevitable.'He made a last effort; he tried to rise, and sank back. His head fell on the sofa cushions. It was then twenty-five minutes past one o'clock.When I reached the stop and got off, it was already one twenty-six A.M. by the bus's own clock. I had been gone over ten hours.At twenty-seven minutes past one she felt as if she was levitating out of her body.It was 1:12 am when Father arrived at the police station. I did not see him until 1:28 am but I knew he was there because I could hear him. He was shouting, 'I want to see my son,' and 'Why the hell is he locked up?' and, 'Of course I'm bloody angry.'He exited the men's room at one-twenty-nine A.M.She glanced at her bedside clock. One thirty. Beneath the hands, tiny ivory-inlaid sheep jumped over a stile. Papa had designed it for her and she found herself counting the creatures now, trying to ignore the whirr of her mind as she closed her eyes and drifted off into an uneasy sleep full of silver-eyed men and skull-topped canes.Rose continued her meditations until one thirty that Monday morning. The rest of the True (with the exception of Apron Annie and Big Mo, currently watching over Grampa Flick) were sleeping deeply when she decided she was ready. The following day, at one-thirty, I call on Van Norden. It’s his day off, or rather his night off. He has left work with Carl that I am to help him move today. I find him in a state of unusual depression. He hasn’t slept a wink all night, he tells me. There’s something on his mind, something that’s eating him up."“Half-past one”, The street lamp sputtered, The street lamp muttered, The street lamp said, “Regard that woman ...”"Around 1:30 A.M. the door opened and I thought it was Karla, but it was Bug, saying Karla and Laura had gone out for a stag night after they ran out of paint.The late hour helped. It simplified things. It categorized the population. Innocent bystanders were mostly home in bed. I walked for half an hour, but nothing happened. Until one thirty in the morning. Until I looped around to 22nd and Broadway.The radio alarm clock glowed 1:30 a.m. Bad karaoke throbbed through walls. I was wide awake, straightjacketed by my sweaty sheets. A headache dug its thumbs into my temples. My gut pulsed with gamma interference: I lurched to the toilet.I sat down on the couch again and looked at my watch It was one thirty-two. I shut my eyes and focused on a spot in my head. My mind a total blank, I gave myself up to the sands of time and let the flow take me wherever it wanted.She grinned at him with malicious playfulness, showing great square teeth, and then ran for the stairs. One-thirty-two. She thought that she heard a whistle blown and took the last three steps in one stride.He looked at his watch. One-thirty-three a.m. He had been asleep on this bench for over an hour and a half.At one-thirty-eight am suspect left the Drive-In and drove to seven hundred and twenty three North Walnut, to the rear of the residence, and parked the car.March twelfth, one-forty am, she leaves a group of drinking buddies to catch a bus home. She never makes it.She knew it was the stress, two long days of stress, and she looked at her watch, sixteen minutes to two, and she almost leaped with fright, a shock wave rippling through her body, where had the time gone?That particular phenomenom got Presto up at one forty-six a.m.; silently, he painted his face and naked body with camouflage paint. He opened the door to his room and stepped out into the common lobby.She had to get out of this goddam camper. It might be the biggest, luxiest one in the world, but right now it felt the size of a coffin. She made her way to the door, holding onto things to keep her balance. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard before she went out. Ten to two. Everything had happened in just twenty minutes. Incredible.No, she thought: every spinster legal secretary, bartender, and orthodontist had a cat or two—and she could not tolerate (not even as a lark, not even for a moment at ten minutes before two AM), embodying cliché.At nine minutes to two the other vehicle arrived. At first Milla didn't believe her eyes: that shape, those markings.Six minutes to two. Janina Mentz watched the screen, where the small program window flickered with files scrolling too fast to read, searching for the keyword.Then I opened my eyes and looked at my watch. It was one fifty-seven. Twenty-five minutes had vanished somewhere. Not bad, I told myself. A pointless way of whittling away time. Not bad at all.“That night I awoke around two o’clock to the sound of distant thunder and realized all over again that Mr. Harrigan was dead. I was in my bed and he was in the ground.”Jessica heard the disturbance in the great hall, turned on the light beside her bed. The clock there had not been properly adjusted to local time, and she had to subtract twenty-one minutes to determine that it was about 2 A.M. The disturbance was loud and incoherent . Is this the Harkonnen attack? she wondered.Then yesterday morning a student - Amy Chan - was brought into the Twin Falls station by her mother. Amy claimed she had seen Leena stumbling drunkenly along the Devil’s Bridge sidewalk at around 2:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 15.“The clock in the centre on the wall in the cafe chimed to announce it was Two o’clock in the morning. In the middle of the night, everything was silent.”“It’s a delusional painter who finishes a canvas at two o’clock and expects radical societal transformation by four. Even when artists write manifestos, they are (hopefully) aware that their exigent tone is, finally, borrowed, only echoing and mimicking the urgency of the guerrilla’s demands, or the activist’s protests, rather than truly enacting it. The people sometimes demand change. They almost never demand art.”Jessica heard the disturbance in the great hall, turned on the light beside her bed. The clock there had not been properly adjusted to local time, and she had to subtract twenty-one minutes to determine that it was about 2 A.M.“My dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes: “There has been a bad business during the night at 3, Lauriston Gardens, off the Brixton Road. Our man on the beat saw a light there about two in the morning, and as the house was an empty one, suspected that something was amiss.”With the wigs taken care of, he puts on of the blank Staples notebooks beside his personal lappie and begins a virtual tour of houses and apartments for rent. He finds a number of possibles, but any boots-on-the-ground investigation will have to wait until he gets his goods from Amazon. It’s only two o’clock when he finishes his virtual house-hunting, too early to call it a day. It’s actually time to start writing.I woke to the dogs barking. I heard a door slam, and the sound of him moving into the kitchen. The fire had died out, the new wood unburned, but the lamp was still on. I peered at my watch; it was almost two a.m. I felt cold and nauseous. I got up and smoothed my hair. I nudged Karen with a toe; she blinked awake.According to his Timex, it was two in the morning. The room was cold, but his arms and chest were slimy with sweat. Want some advice, Honeybear? “No,” he said. “Not from you.”Although it was two in the morning, Momo answered on the second ring. She was eighty-five, and her sleep was as thin as her skin."I’ll try the Infermiterol,” I said curtly. “Good. And eat a high-dairy meal each day. Did you know that cows can choose to sleep standing up or lying down? Given the option, I know what 𝘐’𝘥 pick. Have you ever made yogurt on the stove? Don’t answer that. We’ll save the cooking lesson for our next meeting. Now write this down because I have a feeling you’re too psychotic to remember: Saturday, January twentieth, at two o’clock. And try the Infermiterol. Bye bye.”
When I came home to West Egg that night I was afraid for a moment that my house was on fire. Two o’clock and the whole corner of the peninsula was blazing with light, which fell unreal on the shrubbery and made thin elongating glints upon the roadside wires.Henry held out his hand for the note, which Victoria gave over in exchange for a Sweet Caporal. There were only four words: 𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨. 2 𝘰’𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬.She knew he must have his own history of her, everything from the cinnamon-flavored ChapStick she used on her lips in the winter to the smell of her shampoo when he nuzzled the back of her neck (that nuzzle didn’t come so often now, but it still came) to the click of her computer at two in the morning on those two or three nights a month when sleep for some reason jilted her. She shut off her computer and climbed to the second floor at a slow trudge. The shower eased her back and couple of Tylenol would probably ease it more by two AM or so; she was sure she’d be awake to find out.At 2:00 a.m. the night peaked, and the trio decided to head back to Cleo and Frank’s place. Zoe was sitting with Audrey on the large fire escape learning how to roll the perfect joint when Cleo clambered out, her arms laden with colorful Popsicles. “Saturday afternoon?” she asked. He winked at Billy and squeezed the girl’s head in the crook of his arm. “No. Two o’clock Saturday night. Slip up and knock on that same window you was at this morning. I’ll talk the night aide into letting you in.”“I’ve been waiting here all night,” Shawn said. “Tell me everything.” “Shawn,” she said. “It’s all amazing. Where do I even begin . . .” They talked until two A.M.Nearly four months after her marriage to Hossein and three days after the momentous Black Friday massacre in Jaleh Square, Bahar had crept into her sisters’ Tehran apartment at two in the morning. She slipped so quietly into the single bed she had once shared with little Layla that Marjan did not notice her until the coming of dawn.“At two o’clock back at the Weatherbys’ Sally asked her if she and Amory had had a “time” in the den. Isabelle turned to her quietly. In her eyes was the light of the idealist, the inviolate dreamer of Joan-like dreams.”"“The middle of the night?” Alec asked sharply.“Can you be more definite?” “About two. Just past.” Daisy noted that he expressed no concern for her safety."As two o'clock pealed from the cathedral bell, Jean Valjean awoke.Get on plane at 2 A.M., amid bundles, chickens, gypsies, sit opposite pair of plump fortune tellers who groan and (very discreetly) throw up all the way to Tbilisi.Lady Macbeth: Out, damned spot! out, I say!—One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't.—Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.Somewhere behind a screen a clock began wheezing, as though oppressed by something, as though someone were strangling it. After an unnaturally prolonged wheezing there followed a shrill, nasty, and as it were unexpectedly rapid, chime - as though someone were suddenly jumping forward. It struck two. I woke up, though I had indeed not been asleep but lying half-conscious.When all had grown quiet and Fyodor Pavlovich went to bed at around two o'clock, Ivan Fyodorovich also went to bed with the firm resolve of falling quickly asleep, as he felt horribly exhausted.'I checked my watch. 2.01am. The cheeseburger Happy Meal was now only a distant memory. I cursed myself for not also ordering a breakfast sandwich for the morning."“Wake up.” “Having the worst dream.” “I should certainly say you were.” “It was awful. It just went on and on.” “I shook you and shook you and.” “Time is it.” “It's nearly - almost 2:04.”""“Wake up.” “Having the worst dream.” “I should certainly say you were.” “It was awful. It just went on and on.” “I shook you and shook you and.” “Time is it.” “It's nearly - almost 2:04.”"At 2.05 the fizzy tights came crackling off.Then he began ringing the bell. In about ten minutes his valet appeared, half dressed, and looking very drowsy. ‘I am sorry to have had to wake you up, Francis,’ he said, stepping in; ‘but I had forgotten my latch-key. What time is it?’ ‘Five minutes past two, sir,’ answered the man, looking at the clock and yawning. ‘Five minutes past two? How horribly late! You must wake me at nine to-morrow. I have some work to do.’At 2:07 a.m. I decided that I wanted a drink of orange squash before I brushed my teeth and got into bed, so I went downstairs to the kitchen. Father was sitting on the sofa watching snooker on the television and drinking whisky. There were tears coming out of his eyes.But I couldn't sleep. And I got out of bed at 2.07 am and I felt scared of Mr. Shears so I went downstairs and out of the front door into Chapter Road.Saturday, 17 November — 2.07 a.m. I cannot sleep. Ben is upstairs, back in bed, and I am writing this in the kitchen. He thinks I am drinking a cup of cocoa that he has just made for me. He thinks I will come back to bed soon. I will, but first I must write again."“Ten minutes past two, sir,” answered the man, looking at the clock and blinking. “Ten minutes past two? How horribly late! ..”"Decided to get under way again as soon as there is any clearance. Snowing and blowing, force about fifty or sixty miles an hour. February 26, Saturday - Richards went out 1:10am and found it clearing a bit, so we got under way as soon as possible, which was 2:10amThen the lights went out all over the city. It happened at 2.12am according to power-house records, but Blake's diary gives no indication of the time. The entry is merely, 'Lights out - God help me.'Now, listen: your destination is Friday, 4 August 1944, and the window will punch through at 22.30 hours. You're going to a dimension that diverged from our own at 02.13 on the morning of Wednesday 20 February 1918, over twenty-six years earlier. You don't know what it's going to be like...It was the middle of the night when the phone rang. He opened his eyes to find the clock reading 2:15. At first he was too groggy to grasp why a bell might be ringing nearby, but he shook his head and, almost unconsciously, picked up the receiver and held it to his ear.At 2.15am a policeman observed the place in darkness, but with the stranger's motor still at the curb.It did. When the alarm rang at two fifteen, Lew shut it off, snapped on the little bedside lamp, then swung his feet to the floor to sit on the edge of the bed, holding his eyes open."“What time is it now?” He turned her very dusty alarm clock to check. “Two-seventeen,” he marveled. It was the strangest time he'd seen in his entire life. “I apologize that the room is so messy,” Lalitha said. “I like it. I love how you are. Are you hungry? I'm a little hungry.” “No, Walter.” She smiled. “I'm not hungry. But I can get you something.” “I was thinking, like, a glass of soy milk. Soy beverage.”""One of the “choppers” stopped, did an about-turn and came back to me. The flare spluttered and faded, and now the glare of the spotlight blinded me. I sat very still. It was 2.17. Against the noise of the blades a deeper resonant sound bit into the chill black air."It was 2:18 in the morning, and Donna could see no one else in any other office working so late.She turned abruptly to the nurse and asked the time. 'Two-twenty' 'Ah...Two-twenty!' Genevieve repeated, as though there was something urgent to be done.The night of his third walk Lew slept in his own apartment. When his eyes opened at two twenty, by the green hands of his alarm, he knew that this time he'd actually been waiting for it in his sleep.She woke up with a start, on a strange bed in a cold room. As rain pounded against the window, driven by a hammering wind, she remembered where she was and why she was still there. For long tense moments, she didn’t move, letting the blurred edges of sleep slip away. 2:21 A.M. So much for her vaguely sexual dreams.2:21 a.m. Lance-Corporal Hartmann emerged from the house in the Rue de Londres.It was the urge to look up at the sky. But of course there was no sun nor moon nor stars overhead. Darkness hung heavy over me. Each breath I took, each wet footstep, everything wanted to slide like mud to the ground. I lifted my left hand and pressed on the light of my digital wristwatch. Two-twenty-one. It was midnight when we headed underground, so only a little over two hours had passed. We continued walking down, down the narrow trench, mouths clamped tight.Abruptly her stomach growled. She had been too keyed up to eat very much after the accident, and now hunger pangs her in in earnest. She glanced at the clock again. 2:22 A.M.It was 2.24am. She stumbled out of bed, tripping on her shoes that she’d kicked off earlier and pulled on a jumper.You see it is time: 2.25am. You get out of bed.Listened to a voicemail message left at 2.26am by Claude.The moon didn’t shine again until 2.27am. It was enough to show Wallander that he was positioned some distance below the tree.2.28am: Ran out of sheep and began counting other farmyard animals.“Oh, Daddy,” I said. Blubbering now. “He’s not dead. At least he wasn’t at two-thirty this morning. We’ve got to dig him up. We have to, because we buried him alive.”She looked at her watch: half past two. A few minutes to calm down before she had to go."“Get into the mood, Shirl!” Lew said. “The party's already started! Yippee! You dressed for a party, Harry?” “Yep. Something told me to put on dinner clothes when I went to bed tonight.” “I'm in mufti myself: white gloves and matching tennis shoes. But I'm sorry to report that Jo is still in her Dr. Dentons. What're you wearing, Shirl?” “My old drum majorette's outfit. The one I wore to the State Finals. Listen, we can't tie up the phones like this.” “Why not?” said Harry. “Who's going to call at 2:30 a.m. with a better idea? Yippee, to quote Lew, we're having a party! What're we serving, Lew?” “Beer, I guess. Haven't got any wine, have we, Jo?” “Just for cooking.”"At about half past two she had been woken by the creak of footsteps out on the stairs. At first she had been frightened.Inc, I tried to pull her off about 0230, and there was this fucking… sound.It is 2.30am and I am tight. As a tick, as a lord, as a newt. Must write this down before the sublime memories fade and blur.And then I woke up because there were people shouting in the flat and it was 2.31am. And one of the people was Father and I was frightened.The last guests departed at 2.32 a.m., two hours and two minutes after the scheduled completion time.But it wasn't going on! It was two-thirty-four, well. Two-thirty-three and nothing had happened. Suppose he got a room call, or the elevator night-bell rang, now.But it wasn't going on! It was two-thirty-four, well. Two-thirty-three and nothing had happened. Suppose he got a room call, or the elevator night-bell rang, now.Rorschach’s journal: Left Jacob’s house 2:35 a.m. He knows nothing about any attempt to discredit Dr. Manhattan. He has simply been used.For what happened at 2.35 we have the testimony of the priest, a young, intelligent, and well-educated person; of Patrolman William J. Monohan of the Central Station, an officer of the highest reliability who had paused at that part of his beat to inspect the crowd.“Drive safe,” says Ned. He texted me to send the van. That was at 2:36, I know because I looked at the clock, the art deco one right over there, see? Keeps perfect time. Then, I dunno, he just vanished.It was about 2.36am when a provost colonel arrived to arrest me. At 2.36 1/2 I remembered the big insulating gauntlets. But even had I remembered before, what could I have done?He was out at least a couple miles from the nearest gas station, and he’d thrown his cell phone out the window in Arkansas after briefly becoming convinced the NSA was tracking him. He plucked the kitchen timer from his pocket: 02:37:47. He would have to hoof it.June 13, 1990. Thirty-seven minutes past two in the morning. And sixteen seconds.Miss Conover told investigators that at 2:40 a.m., Officer Martin Willis entered the diner and ordered coffee and donut.She settled back beside him. 'It's 2:43:12am, Case. Got a readout chipped into my optic nerve.'He glanced down at his watch. He had been smiling as he stroked her awake, and was smiling now. “Quarter to three. I sat in my stupid old motel room for almost two hours after we talked, trying to convince myself that what I was thinking couldn’t be true. Only I didn’t get where I am by dodging the truth.”0245h., Ennet House, the hours that are truly wee.WE NEVER KNOW, AT FIRST, if we are headed into a cooker or a smudge. At 2:46 A.M. last night, the lights went on upstairs. The bells went off, too, but I can’t say that I ever really hear them. In ten seconds, I was dressed and walking out the door of my room at the station.2.46am. The chain drive whirred and the paper target slid down the darkened range, ducking in and out of shafts of yellow incandescent light. At the firing station, a figure waited in the shadows. As the target passed the twenty-five-foot mark, the man opened fire: eight shots-rapid, unhesitating.Vicki shoved her glasses at her face and peered at the clock. Two forty-six. 'I don't have time for this' she muttered, sttling back against the pillows, heart still slamming against her ribs.The glowing numbers read 2.47am. Moisés sighs and turns back to the bathroom door. Finally, the doorknob turns and Conchita comes back to bed. She resumes her place next to Moisés. Relieved, he pulls her close.When it was 2:50 and the bank, too, had not been attacked, it was clear this was not the day of the big coup. "“It's the way the world will end, Harry. Recorded cocktail music nuclear-powered to play on for centuries after all life has been destroyed. Selections from 'No, No, Nanette,' throughout eternity. That do you for 2:55 a.m.?”"Time to go: 2.55am. Two-handed, Cec lifted his peak cap from the chair.It was 2:56 when the shovel touched the coffin. We all heard the sound and looked at each other.But generally it’s the other way, the slow way. She’ll turn that dial to a dead stop and freeze the sun there on the screen so it don’t move a scant hair for weeks, so not a leaf on a tree or a blade of grass in the pasture shimmers. The clock hands hang at two minutes to three and she’s liable to let them hang there till we rust.I wish it left sooner," Sophie said," but Lyon will have to do." Sooner? Langdon checked his watch 2:59 A. M. The train left in seven minutes and they didn’t even have tickets yet."I remembered arriving in this room at 2.59 one night. I remembered the sergeant who called me names: mostly Anglo-Saxon monosyllabic four-letter ones with an odd “Commie” thrown in for syntax."The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.Holly gets up at three o’clock in the morning. She’s packed, she’s printed out her Delta ticket, she doesn’t have to be at the airport until seven and it’s a short ride, but she can’t sleep anymore.Who was that woman? She’d suspect, then be wrong. The shadowy presence laughed at her softly from the sleepless darkness of 3 a.m., then slid away. She couldn’t pin anything down.“What are you doing?” he asked. “I thought it would be better if we locked the doors,” said Willa. “Just in case.” “It’s three o’clock in the morning.” “All the more reason for it.” Markovic looked at her oddly before returning to the lounge.The American team had flown into Vienna on a Gulfstream jet from a regional airport in eastern Poland, where the CIA had maintained a base for rendition purposes since the start of the War on Terror. It was not, therefore, the unit’s first day at the office. They were already watching when, at 3 a.m., two cars rook up positions within sight of the main and rear doors of the hotel, the first of the vehicles having initially circles the block three times. Tony was hardened off early. This is what she calls it by now, ruefully, in her cellar, at three a.m., with the shambles of Otto the Red’s clove army strewn on the sand-table behind her and West sleeping the sleep of the unjust upstairs, and Zenia raging unchecked, somewhere out there in the city. Hour after hour passed away, and the wearied Catherine had heard three proclaimed by all the clocks in the house before the tempest subsided or she unknowingly fell fast asleep.“Uncle Nuri!” he says when he sees me moving. “You’ve been sleeping for such a long time.” The clock on the wall says 3 a.m.Mindy Park stared at the ceiling. She had little else to do. The three a.m. shift was pretty dull. Only a constant stream of coffee kept her awake.I found myself typing “serial killer” into the Google search box at 3 a.m. About three o’clock the four couples, frightened at their happiness, were sliding down the Russian mountains, a singular edifice which then occupied the heights of Beaujon, and whose undulating line was visible above the trees of the Champs Élysées.A few moments later, about three o’clock, Courfeyrec chanced to be passing along the Rue Mouffetard in company with Bossuet. The snow had redoubled in violence, and filled the air.“My dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes: “There has been a bad business during the night at 3, Lauriston Gardens, off the Brixton Road. Our man on the beat saw a light there about two in the morning, and as the house was an empty one, suspected that something was amiss.”I woke up half out of bed, the covers pulled loose and wound around me in a kind of shroud, heart pumping, clawing at my own mouth. It took several seconds for me to realize there was nothing in there. Nonetheless, I got up, went to the bathroom, and drank two glasses of water. I may have had worse dreams than the one that woke me at three o’clock on that Tuesday morning, but if so, I can’t remember them.As if it had roused him—perhaps it had—Lane lifted his head and looked at me. Tried to look at me; his eyes had come back level in their sockets, but were now pointing in opposite directions. That terrible image has never left my mind, and still comes to me at the oddest times: going through turnpike tollbooths, drinking a cup of coffee in the morning with the CNN anchors baying bad news, getting up to piss at three AM, which some poet or other has rightly dubbed the Hour of the Wolf.I looked around the room again. As always, the room was clean and orderly. “People think of all kinds of things at three in the morning. We all do. That’s why we each have to figure out our own way of fighting it off.” “You’re probably right,” I said.“Even animals think things over at three a.m.,” he said, as if remembering something. “Have you ever gone to the zoo at three a.m.?” “No,” I answered vaguely. “No, of course not.”All the doors were locked, everything in its proper place. Nothing out of the ordinary. I went back to the janitor’s room, set my alarm for three, and fell fast asleep.When the alarm went off at three, though, I woke up feeling weird. I can’t explain it, but I just felt different. I didn’t feel like getting up—it was like something was suppressing my will to get out of bed. I’m the type who usually leaps right out of bed, so I couldn’t understand it.The preliminaries over, having made peepee and blown his nose vigorously, he walks nonchalantly over to his wench and gives her a big, smacking kiss together with an affectionate pat on the rump. Her, the wench, I’ve never seen look anything but immaculate—even at 3 a.m., after an evening’s work. She looks exactly as if she had just stepped out of a Turkish bath.And now it is three o’clock in the morning and we have a couple of trollops here who are doing somersaults on the bare floor. Fillmore is walking around naked with a goblet in his hand, and that paunch of his is drumtight, hard as a fistula.Jarvis whistled through his teeth. “Will the law help a man of your years bounce back from multiple spinal fractures, Timothy?” Eddie: “Men of your age don’t bounce. They splat.” I fought with all my might, but my sphincter was no longer my own and a cannonade fired off. Amusement or condescension I could have borne, but my tormentors’ pity signified my abject defeat. The toilet chain was pulled. “Three o’clock,” Cavendish-Redux went down the pan. Out trooped the thugs, over my prostrate door. Eddie turned for a last word. “Dermot did a nice little paragraph in his book. On loan defaulters.”Indeed, at three o’clock in the morning in the village of Bishopthorpe, it is easy to believe the lie indulged in by its residents - that it is a place for good and quiet people to live good and quiet lives.The light on at three o’clock this Friday morning belongs to him, Rowan, the elder of the two Radley children. He is wide awake, despite having drunk six times the recommended dose of Night Nurse.Spent last night working on a rumbling ’cello 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘰 lit by explosive triplets. Silence punctuated by breakneck mousetraps. Remember the church clock chiming three A.M. “I heard an owl,” Huckleberry Finn says, “away and off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die.”He couldn’t sleep that night, a tightness in his chest as if a serpent had wound its coils around him. At three in the morning the phone by his bed began to ring. Ada’s voice, almost unrecognizable, her gasps between words no less desperate than her sobs.When at three in the morning she was still awake, her mind ticking off all the ways she kept failing at parenting, she threw off her blanket and padded to the kitchen. The Scotch she poured went down warm and hit hot, and she took another swig before collapsing into bed and finally disconnecting.It was nearly one o’clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled over with notes and figures.It did not help, either, that she had been up half the night with Josie, who’d awakened from a nightmare about a boa constrictor and refused to go back to sleep. Alex didn’t know who the other candidates were for this position, but she’d wager that they weren’t single moms who’d had to poke the radiator vents with a yardstick at 3:00 a.m. to prove that there weren’t any snakes hiding in the dark tunnels.“And now it was three o’clock. The Antichrist had been on Earth for fifteen hours, and one angel and one demon had been drinking solidly for three of them.”“When the clock struck three, Elizabeth felt that she must go, and very unwillingly said so.”“A gambling fever swept through the sophomore class and they bent over the bones till three o’clock many a sultry night.”"“She died this morning, very early, about three o'clock.”"Three a.m. That’s our reward. Three in the morn. The soul’s midnight. The tide goes out, the soul ebbs. And a train arrives at an hour of despair. Why?According to her watch it was shortly after three o'clock, and according to everything else it was night-time.At three am I was walking the floor and listening to Katchaturian working in a tractor factory. He called it a violin concerto. I called it a loose fan belt and the hell with it.At three o' clock in the morning Eurydice is bound to come into it. After all, why did I sit here like a telegrapher at a lost outpost if not to receive messages from everywhere about the lost Eurydice who was never mine to begin with but whom I lamented and sought continually both professionally and amateurishly. This is not a digression. Where I am at three o' clock in the morning - and by now every hour is three o' clock in the morning - there are no digressions, it's all one thing.But at three o’clock in the morning, a forgotten package has the same tragic importance as a death sentence, and the cure doesn’t work -- and in a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.Early mornings, my mother is about, drifting in her pale nightie, making herself a cup of tea in the kitchen. Water begins to boil in the kettle; it starts as a private, secluded sound, pure as rain, and grows to a steady, solipsistic bubbling. Not till she has had one cup of tea, so weak that it has a colour accidentally golden, can she begin her day. She is an insomniac. Her nights are wide-eyed and excited with worry. Even at three o'clock in the morning one might hear her eating a Bain Marie biscuit in the kitchen.I slam the phone down but it misses the base. I hit the clock instead, which flashes 3 a.m.In a real dark night of the soul it is always 3 o'clock in the morning.It was six untroubled days later – the best days at the camp so far, lavish July light thickly spread everywhere, six masterpiece mountain midsummer days, one replicating the other – that someone stumbled jerkily, as if his ankles were in chains, to the Comanche cabin’s bathroom at three A.M.It was three in the morning when his taxi stopped by giant mounds of snow outside his hotel. He had not eaten in hours.Once I saw a figure I shall never forget. It was three o'clock at night, as I was going home from Blacky as usual; it was a short-cut for me, and there would be nobody in the street at this time of night, I thought, especially not in this frightful cold.Roused from her sleep, Freya Gaines groped for the switch of the vidphone; groggily she found it and snapped it on. 'Lo,' she mumbled, wondering what time it was. She made out the luminous dial of the clock beside the bed. Three AM. Good grief.Schact clears his mouth and swallows mightily. 'Tavis can't even regrout tile in the locker room without calling a Community meeting or appointing a committee. The Regrouting Committee's been dragging along since may. Suddenly they're pulling secret 0300 milk-switches? It doesn't ring true, Jim.Three in the morning, thought Charles Halloway, seated on the edge of his bed. Why did the train come at that hour? For, he thought, it’s a special hour. Women never wake then, do they? They sleep the sleep of babes and children. But men in middle age? They know that hour well."What's the time?” said the man, eyeing George up and down with evident suspicion; “why, if you listen you will hear it strike.” George listened, and a neighbouring clock immediately obliged. “But it's only gone three!” said George in an injured tone, when it had finished."When Sophie awoke, it was 3:00 a.m.You hearken, Missy. It’s three o’clock in the morning and I’ve got all my faculties as well as ever I had in my life. I know all my property and where the money’s put out. And I’ve made everything ready to change my mind, and do as I like at the last. Do you hear, Missy? I’ve got my faculties.”It was now about three o'clock in the morning and Francis Macomber, who had been asleep a little while after he had stopped thinking about the lion, wakened and then slept again.…his back-up alarm clock rang. He looked at his front-line clock on the bedside table and noted that it had stopped at 3.04. So, you couldn’t even rely on alarm clocks.On the Sunday before Christmas she awoke at 3:05 a.m. and though: Thirty-six hours. Four hours later she got up thinking: Thirty-two hours. Late in the day she took Alfred to the street-association Christmas party at Dale and Honey Driblett’s, sat him down safely with Kirby Root, and proceeded to remind all her neighbors that her favorite grandson, who’d been looking forward all year to a Christmas in St. Jude, was arriving tomorrow afternoon.Wayne late-logged in: 3.07am -the late-late show. He parked. He dumped his milk can. He yawned, he stretched. He scratched.I think my credit card was in there too. I wrote down the words credit card and said that if they wouldn't let me cancel them I'd demand that they registered the loss so you couldn't be charge for anything beyond the time of my calling them up. I looked at the clock. It was ten-past three.Love again; wanking at ten past threeSince he had told the girl that it had to end, he'd been waking up every morning at 3.14, without fail. Every morning his eyes would flick open, alert, and the red numerals on his electric alarm clock would read 3.14.The boss had had something rather more spectacular than a bowel movement; at three-fifteen that day he had done something in his pants that was the equivalent of a shit A-bomb.One night in August, with the good picking done and Old Pie’s crew paid up and back on the rez, I woke to the sound of a cow lowing. 𝘐 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, I thought, but when I fumbled my father’s pocket watch off the table beside my bed and peered at it, I saw it was quarter past three in the morning.Above the door of Room 69 the clock ticked on at 3:15. The motion was accelerating. What had once been the gymnasium was now a small room, seven feet wide, a tight, almost perfect cube.Timestamp says 3:17 a.m. A large block of text. Not a good sign of things to come.It was seventeen minutes past three in the morning. Mila, in a trenchcoat and boots, sat down on the edge of the bed. Malik Solanka groaned. Disaster always arrived when your defences were at their lowest: blindsiding you, like love.The two of us sat there, listening—Boris more intently than me. “Who’s that with him then?” I said. “Some whore.” He listened for a moment, brow furrowed, his profile sharp in the moonlight, and then lay back down. “Two of them.” I rolled over, and checked my iPod. It was 3:17 in the morning.He turned to the monitors again and flicked through the screens, each one able to display eight different camera mountings, giving Kurt 192 different still lives of Green Oaks at 3.17 a.m. this March night.The time stamp on Navidson's camcorder indicates that it is exactly 3.19 A.M.Prabath Kumara, 16. 17th November 1989. At 3.20am from the home of a friend.Next, he remembered that the morrow of Christmas would be the twenty-seventh day of the moon, and that consequently high water would be at twenty-one minutes past three, the half-ebb at a quarter past seven, low water at thirty-three minutes past nine, and half flood at thirty-nine minutes past twelve.It was 3:25 a.m. A strange thrill, to think I was the only Mulvaney awake in the house.Now somebody was running past his room. A door slammed. That foreign language again. What the devil was going on? he switched on his light and peered at his watch. 3.28. He got out of bed.He was too deeply asleep to hear the noise of his door handle being tried. What woke him was the tapping. It was soft at first, more like a scratching of fingernails on wood, and when he opened his eyes he assumed it was one of the children trying to clamber into their bed after a nightmare. But then he saw the unfamiliar room and he remembered where he was. He squinted at the luminous hands on the hotel’s alarm clock. Half-past three.At Half past Three, a single Bird Unto a silent Sky Propounded but a single term Of cautious melody.At half-past three A.M. he lost one illusion: officers sent to reconnoitre informed him that the enemy was making no movement.It's 3:30 A.M. in Mrs. Ralph's finally quiet house when Garp decides to clean the kitchen, to kill the time until dawn. Familiar with a housewife's tasks, Garp fills the sink and starts to wash the dishes."Let's go to sleep, I say. “Look at what time it is.” The clock radio is right there beside the bed. Anyone can see it says three-thirty."Now, look. I am not going to call Dr. McGrath at three thirty in the morning to ask if it's all right for my son to eat worms. That's flat.A draft whistled in around the kitchen window frame and I shivered. The digital clock on Perkus's stove read 3:33.It was 3:34 am. and he was wide-awake. He'd heard the phone ring and the sound of his uncle's voice.He could just see the hands of the alarm clock in the darkness: 3.35 a.m. He adjusted his pillow and shut his eyes.As I near Deadhorse, it's 3:36 a.m. and seventeen below. Tall, sodium vapor lights spill on the road and there are no trees, only machines, mechanical shadows. There isn't even a church. It tells you everything.It was three thirty-seven A.M., and for once Maggie was asleep. She had got to be a pretty good sleeper in the last few months. Clyde was prouder of this fact than anything.At 3.38am, it began to snow in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The geese circling the city flew back to the park, landed, and hunkered down to sit it out on their island in the lake.23 October 1893 3.39am. Upon further thought, I feel it necessary to explain that exile into the Master's workshop is not an unpleasant fate. It is not simply some bare-walled cellar devoid of stimulation - quite the opposite.His bedside clock shows three forty. He has no idea what he's doing out of bed: he has no need to relieve himself, nor is he disturbed by a dream or some element of the day before, or even by the state of the world.The alarm clock said 3.41am. He sat up. Why was the alarm clock slow? He picked up the alarm clock and adjusted the hands to show the same time as his wristwatch: 3.44amLet’s see what those search warrants yield. So far Pelley has admitted he was at the bonfire. The lab says his boot imprints are a match to the marks on Leena’s body. Pelley cannot account for the time between when he was last seen leaving the bonfire with his arm around Leena and when he arrived home at 3:42 a.m. in a severely inebriated state, according to his wife, Lacey."“We are due in Yellow Sky at 3:42,” he said, looking tenderly into her eyes. ”“Oh, are we?” she said, as if she had not been aware of it. To evince surprise at her husband's statement was part of her wifely amiability."The clock says 3.43am. The thermometer says it's a chilly fourteen degrees Fahrenheit. The weatherman says the cold spell will last until Thursday, so bundle up and bundle up some more. There are icicles barring the window of the bat cave.“When I opened my eyes, an oyster-colored dawn was peeping in at the windows. The hands of my brass alarm clock stood at 3:44.”It was dark. After she had switched the light on and been to the toilet, she checked her watch: 3.44 a.m. She undressed, put the cat out the door and returned to the twin bed.Abra did not quiet. The crying was monotonous, maddening, terrifying. When they arrived at Bridgton Hospital, it was quarter of four, and Abra was still at full volume. Rides in the Acura were usually better than a sleeping pill, but not this morning.LORD CAVERSHAM: Well, sir! what are you doing here? Wasting your life as usual! You should be in bed, sir. You keep too late hours! I heard of you the other night at Lady Rufford's dancing till four o' clock in the morning! LORD GORING: Only a quarter to four, father.I saw the Bentley turn onto the school grounds at three forty-six a.m. and the suburban with the two Secret Service agents go by a few minutes later.I stayed awake until 3:47. That was the last time I looked at my watch before I fell asleep. It has a luminous face and lights up if you press a button so I could read it in the dark. I was cold and I was frightened Father might come out and find me. But I felt safer in the garden because I was hidden."It was 3.49 when he hit me because of the two hundred times I had said, “I don't know.” He hit me a lot after that."She had used her cell phone to leave several messages on the answering machine in Sao Paulo of the young dentist of the previous evening, whose name was Fernando. The first was recorded at ten or five to four in the morning. I'm never going to forget you ... I'm sure we'll meet again somewhere.I lacked the will and physical strength to get out of bed and move through the dark house, clutching walls and stair rails. To feel my way, reinhabit my body, re-enter the world. Sweat trickled down my ribs. The digital reading on the clock-radio was 3:51. Always odd numbered at times like this. What does it mean? Is death odd-numbered?The digital reading on the clock-radio was 3:51. Always odd numbers at times like this. What does it mean? Is death odd-numbered?The charter flight from Florida touched down at Aldergrove minutes earlier, at 3.54 a.m.Here in the cavernous basement at 3.55 a.m., in a single pool of light, is Theo Perowne."Certain facts were apparent: dark; cold; thundering boots; quilts; pillow; light under the door – the materials of reality - but I could not pin these materials down in time. And the raw materials of reality without that glue of time are materials adrift and reality is as meaningless as the balsa parts of a model airplane scattered to the wind...I am in my old room, yes, in the dark, certainly, and it is cold, obviously, but what time is it? “Nearly four, son.” But I mean what time?"The ancient house was deserted, the crumbling garage padlocked, and one was just able to discern - by peering through a crack in the bubbling sun on the window - the face of a clock on the opposite wall. The clock had stopped at two minutes to four early in the morning, or who could tell, it may have been earlier still, yesterday in the afternoon, a couple of hours after Kaiser had left Kamaria for Bartica.The clock atop the clubhouse reads 3:58."And the raw materials of reality without that glue of time are materials adrift and reality is as meaningless as the balsa parts of a model airplane scattered to the wind...I am in my old room, yes, in the dark, certainly, and it is cold, obviously, but what time is it? “Nearly four, son.”"She should have told him. It isn’t friendly, the fact that she hasn’t told him. The first time, she told him and they both cried, holding each other closely, consoling each other for some violation they felt as mutual. Then they discussed their problems, sitting up till four in the morning, whispering across the kitchen table.I followed his gaze to the mantelpiece. The clock had stopped at four o’clock. “Mon ami, someone has tampered with it. It had still three days to run. It is an eight-day clock, you comprehend?” “But what should they want to do that for? Some idea of a false scent by making the crime appear to have taken place at four o’clock?” “No, no; rearrange your ideas, mon ami. Exercise your little grey cells. You are Mayerling. You hear something perhaps—and you know well enough that your doom is sealed. You have just time to leave a sign. Four o’clock, Hastings. Number Four, the destroyer. Ah! an idea!”The cloud descended, and Bill’s voice was divorced from what transpired in his head. The purple cloud had a notion. It swept down on top of him like smoke billowing from fallen towers. The possibility that all his work and all his travels and all his passion was just farce. His way of coping at four a.m. on a West Texas Highway. His heart thundered, and he dreamt the Truth, but each discovery was a slippery as a fish in the hand, and every time he tried to catch one, it would simply wriggle its tail and be free.“It’s a delusional painter who finishes a canvas at two o’clock and expects radical societal transformation by four. Even when artists write manifestos, they are (hopefully) aware that their exigent tone is, finally, borrowed, only echoing and mimicking the urgency of the guerrilla’s demands, or the activist’s protests, rather than truly enacting it. The people sometimes demand change. They almost never demand art.”When the row of clocks in their cases chimed out four, he closed the ledger and reached out for the oil lamp on the edge of the counter. Removing the glass chimney, he struck a match and held it to the wick, then replaced the glass and watched the flame’s amber tones fill the room, scattering shadows between the clock faces.All this is visible to you by the light of an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling, and by that of an excellent fire, near which I sit in my cloak and bonnet; my muff and umbrella lie on the table, and I am warming away the numbness and chill contracted by sixteen hours’ exposure to the rawness of an October day: I left Lawton at four o’clock a.m. and the Millcote town clock is now just striking eight. It was four o’clock before we finally got away. Now, for some reason, it was Charles and Camilla who weren’t speaking. They’d fought about something - I’d seen them arguing in the yard - and all the way home, in the back seat, they sat side by side and stared straight ahead, their arms folded across their chests in what I am sure they did not realize was a comically identical fashion.After Francis left I fell asleep again. When I woke up it was four in the morning. I had slept for nearly twenty-four hours.He wakes up at four, and when he goes outside with the new gloves in one hand, Alice is sitting in the eternal motel lawn chair, bundled up in an I LOVE LAS VEGAS sweatshirt and looking up at a rind of moon.His mother knew about the no-talking thing. It had happened after Danny had ventured into Room 217 at the Overlook. “Will you talk to Dick?” Lying in his bed, looking up at her, he nodded. His mother called, even though it was four in the morning. Late the next day, Dick came. He brought something with him. A present.They stood at the iron rail, not talking among themselves, just watching. And taking long slow deep breaths, like tourists from the Midwest standing for the first time on Pemaquid Point or Quoddy Head in Maine, breathing deep of the fresh sea air. As a sign of respect, Rose took off her tophat and held it by her side. At four o’clock they trooped back to their encampment in the parking lot, invigorated. They would return the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. They would return until the good steam was exhausted, and then they would move on.Vera had been hanging by a thread for a week now, comatose, in and out of Cheyne-Stokes respiration, and this was exactly the sort of night the frail ones picked to go out on. Usually at 4 a.m. A poet might die at at twenty-one, a revolutionary or a rock start at twenty-four. But after that you assume everything’s going to be all right. You’ve made it past Dead Man’s Curve and you’re out of the tunnel, cruising straight for your destination down a six-lane highway—whether you want to be or not. You get your hair cut; every morning you shave. You aren’t a poet anymore, or a revolutionary or a rock star. You don’t pass out drunk in phone booths or blast out the Doors at four in the morning.Three months before the block party, before Oliver Dubois drove a stolen truck into his own living room, before somebody shot Step Volkin at Forty-Six Oak Drive, Holly Dubois decided on an early morning walk. Real early. Four A.M. early.“Buster,” she whispered, rubbing the little shih tzu to wake him. After all, walking by herself at four in the morning might be considered wacky. Nobody did that in Sylvan except one or two dedicated runners during their cooldowns, and she wasn’t a runner.Then I was lying half asleep in the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania Station, staring at the morning Tribune, and waiting for the four o’clock train.She lay down at four o’clock, not expecting to sleep a wink, but her healing body had its own priorities. She went under almost instantly, and when she woke to the insistent 𝘥𝘢𝘩-𝘥𝘢𝘩-𝘥𝘢𝘩 of her bedside clock, she was glad she had set the alarm. Outside, a gusty October breeze was combing leaves from the trees and sending them across her backyard in colorful skitters. The light had gone that strange and depthless gold which seems the exclusive property of late-fall afternoons in New England.𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 came in the form of a bright green van, Sunday morning, 4:00 A.M. sharp. Dervla awoke to acrid exhaust fumes billowing into her open bedroom window. Annoyance turned to gratitude when she spotted the peculiar vehicle, for Dervla knew a juicy bit of news when she saw one."“Nothing happened,” he said wanly. “I waited, and about four o'clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light.”""I looked at the clock and it was (yes, you guessed it) four am. I should have taken comfort from the fact that approximately quarter of the Greenwich Mean Time world had just jolted awake also and were lying, staring miserably into the darkness, worrying ...”"Suddenly, he started to cry. Curled up on the sofa he sobbed loudly. Michel looked at his watch; it was just after 4am. On the screen a wild cat had a rabbit in its mouth.The Birds begun at Four o'clock— Their period for Dawn—The night before Albert Kessler arrived in Santa Teresa, at four in the morning, Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez got a call from Azucena Esquivel Plata, reporter and PRI congresswoman.Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In time the curtain-edges will grow light. Till then I see what's really always there: Unresting death, a whole day nearer now, Making all thought impossible but how And where and when I shall myself die.When he noticed that the chefs from the grand hotels and restaurants - a picky, impatient bunch - tended to move around from seller to seller, buying apples here and broccoli there, he asked if he could have tea available for them. Tommy agreed, and the chefs, grateful for a hot drink at four in the morning, lingered and bought.Suddenly, he started to cry. Curled up on the sofa he sobbed loudly. Michel looked at his watch; it was just after 4am. On the screen a wild cat had a rabbit in its mouth.I walked up and down the row. No one gave me a second look. Finally I sat down next to a man. He paid no attention. My watch said 4:02. Maybe he was late.It’s 4:03 a.m. on a supremely cold January morning and I’m just getting home. I’ve been out dancing and I’m only half drunk but utterly exhausted.It's 4:03 a.m. on a supremely cold January morning and I'm just getting home. I've been out dancing and I'm only half drunk but utterly exhausted.Four minutes after four! It's still very early and to get from here to there won't take me more than 15 minutes, even walking slowly. She told me around five o'clock. Wouldn't it be better to wait on the corner?Leaves were being blown against my window. It was 4.05am. The moon had shifted in the sky, glaring through a clotted mass of clouds like a candled egg.Dexter looked at Kate's note, then her face, then the clock. It was 4.06am, the night before they would go to the restaurant.4.07am. Why am I standing? My shoulders feel cold and I'm shivering. I become aware that I'm standing in the middle of the room. I immediately look at the bedroom door. Closed, with no signs of a break-in. Why did I get up?It was at 4:08 a.m. beneath the cool metal of a jungle gym that all Andrew's dreams came true. He kissed his one true love and swore up and down that it would last forever to this exhausted companion throughout their long trek home.The next morning I awaken at exactly eleven minutes after four, having slept straight through my normal middle-of-the-night insomniac waking at three.Finally, she signalled with her light that she'd made it to the top. I signalled back, then shined the light downward to see how far the water had risen. I couldn't make out a thing. My watch read four-twelve in the morning. Not yet dawn. The morning papers still not delivered, trains not yet running, citizens of the surface world fast asleep, oblivious to all this. I pulled the rope taut with both hands, took a deep breath, then slowly began my climb.Karen felt the bed move beneath Harry's weight. Lying on her side she opened her eyes to see digital numbers in the dark, 4:12 in pale green. Behind her Harry continued to move, settling in. She watched the numbers change to 4:13.Karen felt the bed move beneath Harry's weight. Lying on her side she opened her eyes to see digital numbers in the dark, 4:12 in pale green. Behind her Harry continued to move, settling in. She watched the numbers change to 4:13.At 4:14 a.m., the two men returned to the Jeep. After the passenger replaced the cans in the back of the Jeep, the driver backed out of the driveway and headed east. The last images found on the film appeared to be flames or smoke.Alice wants to warn her that a defect runs in the family, like flat feet or diabetes: they're all in danger of ending up alone by their own stubborn choice. The ugly kitchen clock says four-fifteen.I stooped to pick up my watch from the floor. Four-sixteen. Another hour until dawn. I went to the telephone and dialled my own number. It'd been a long time since I'd called home, so I had to struggle to remember the number. I let it ring fifteen times; no answer. I hung up, dialled again, and let it ring another fifteen times. Nobody.They pulled into the visitor's carpark at four sixteen am. He knew it was four sixteen because the entrance to the maternity unit sported a digital clock beneath the signage.I succumbed to my curiosity, tugged up the left sleeve of my pullover, and checked my wristwatch. It was 4:17 a.m. This surprised me not because it was almost dawn, but because I’d had no idea of the time whatsoever.He awoke at 4.17am in a sweat. He had been dreaming of Africa again, and then the dream had continued in the U.S. when he was a young man. But Inbata had been there, watching him."I grabbed the alarm clock, threw it on my lap, and slapped the red and black buttons with both hands. The ringing didn't stop. The telephone! The clock read four-eighteen. It was dark outside. Four-eighteen a.m. I got out of bed and picked up the receiver. “Hello?”"He hurt me to the point where I wanted to tell him something. My watch said 4.22 now. It had stopped. It was smashed.4:23, Monday morning, Iceland Square. A number of people in the vicinity of Bjornsongatan are awakened by loud screams.Her chip pulsed the time. 04:23:04. It had been a long day.As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four.He cannot leave. Most likely, he’ll never leave. Bram finds his way back to the chair and settles in. Outside, a bird cries out as the moon comes and goes behind thick clouds. He retrieves the pocket watch from his coat and curses. He forgot to wind it, and the hands ceased their journey at 4:30. He stuffs it back into his pocket.What has happened to me? Why am I so alone in the world? 4:30 A.M.—The solution came to me, just as I was dozing off. Illuminated! Everything fits together, and I see what I should have known from the beginning. No more sleep. I’ve got to get back to the lab and test this against the results from the computer. This, finally, is the flaw in the experiment. I’ve found it.Algernon died two days ago. I found him at four thirty in the morning when I came back to the lab after wandering around down at the waterfront—on his side, stretched out in the corner of his cage. As if he were running in his sleep.Jonas rolls painfully out of the hammock, his aching lower back stiff and swollen, in desperate need of a chiropractor. He checks his watch. Four thirty…but is it a.m. or p.m.?𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 “𝘤𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘦”? If you wish. A server is woken at hour four-thirty by stimulin in the airflow, then yellow-up in our dormroom. After a minute in the hygiener and steamer, we put on fresh uniforms before filing into the restaurant.“What time is it? Do you have time here?” “Of course we do.” She pulled up her sleeve, revealing a yellow Timex wristwatch. “It is four thirty in the morning.” “That’s a nice watch.” “My father gave it to me,” she said happily.At the end of a relationship, it is the one who is not in love who makes the tender speeches. I was overwhelmed by a sense of betrayal, betrayal because a union in which I had invested so much had been declared bankrupt without my feeling it to be so. Chloe had not given it a chance, I argued with myself, knowing the hopelessness of these inner courts announcing hollow verdicts at four thirty in the morning.Hester Thrale undulates in in a false fox jacket at 2330 as usual even though she has to be up at like 0430 for the breakfast shift at the Provident Nursing Home and sometimes eats breakfast with Gately, both their faces nodding perilously close to their Frosted Flakes.Tonight Clenette H. and the deeply whacked out Yolanda W. come back in from Footprints around 2315 in purple skirts and purple lipstick and ironed hair, tottering on heels and telling each other what a wicked time they just had. Hester Thrale undulates in in a false fox jacket at 2330 as usual even though she has to be up at like 0430 for the breakfast shift at the Provident Nursing Home and sometimes eats breakfast with Gately, both their faces nodding perilously close to their Frosted Flakes.An earthquake hit Los Angeles at 4:31 this morning and the images began arriving via CNN right away.On his first day of kindergarten, Peter Houghton woke up at 4:32 a.m. He padded into his parents' room and asked if it was time yet to take the school bus.With a heavy sigh, I pried open my eyes just enough to focus on the numbers glowing atop my nightstand. It was 4:34 A.M. What kind of sadist called another human being at 4:34 in the morning?No manner of exhaustion can keep a child asleep much later than six a.m. on Christmas Day. Colby awoke at 4:35.At 4:36 that morning, alone in my hotel room, it had been a much better scene. Spencer had blanched, confounded by the inescapable logic of my accusation. A few drops of perspiration had formed on his upper lip. A tiny vein had started to throb in his temple.Her bedroom was hardly any bigger than her king-size mattress, which she’d told me she’d inherited from her parents when her mother got sick “and so they got two doubles because my dad couldn’t sleep at night with all her fidgeting.” Green numbers on a digital alarm clock glowed between cans of Diet 7UP on the bedside table. It was 4:37. I smelled peanut butter and again, the bitter tang of vomit. The comforter was Laura Ashley, folded back from the bed. Food stains on the sheets. At 4.38 a.m. as the sun is coming up over Gorley Woods, I hear a strange rustling in the grass beside me. I peer closely but can see nothing.I settled into a daily routine. Wake up at 4.40am, shower, get on the train north by ten after five.At 4:41 Crane's voice crackled through the walkie-talkie as if he'd read their thoughts of mutiny. “Everyone into the elevator. Now!” Only moments before the call he and C.J. had finished what they hoped would be a successful diversion.The time is four forty-three in the mornin an it's almost light oot there.He lies still in the darkness and listens. His wife's breathing at his side is so faint that he can scarcely hear it. One of these mornings she'll be lying dead beside me and I won't even notice, he thinks. Or maybe it'll be me. Daybreak will reveal that one of us has been left alone. He checks the clock on the table next to the bed. The hands glow and register 4:45 a.m.His wife's breathing at his side is so faint that he can scarcely hear it. One of these mornings she'll be lying dead beside me and I won't even notice, he thinks. Or maybe it'll be me. Daybreak will reveal that one of us has been left alone. He checks the clock on the table next to the bed. The hands glow and register 4:45 a.m."The phone rang again at four-forty-six.“Hello,” I said. “Hello,” came a woman's voice. “Sorry about the time before. There's a disturbance in the sound field. Sometimes the sound goes away.” “The sound goes away?” “Yes,” she said. “The sound field's slipping. Can you hear me?” “Loud and clear,” I said. It was the granddaughter of that kooky old scientist who'd given me the unicorn skull. The girl in the pink suit."I slept only fitfully after looking online. The phrases I’d read repeated in my head over and over again. When I woke up for what felt like the hundredth time, the Stormtrooper clock beside the bed read 4.47am.At 4:48 the happy hour when clarity visits warm darkness which soaks my eyes I know no sinEven the hands of his watch and the hands of all the thirteen clocks were frozen. They had all frozen at the same time, on a snowy night, seven years before, and after that it was always ten minutes to five in the castle.Six minutes to five. Six minutes to go. Suddenly I felt quite clearheaded. There was an unexpected light in the cell; the boundaries were drawn, the roles well defined. The time of doubt and questioning and uncertainty was over.“Even the hands of his watch and the hands of all the thirteen clocks were frozen. They had all frozen at the same time, on a snowy night, seven years before, and after that it was always ten minutes to five in the castle. Travelers and mariners would look up at the gloomy castle on the lonely hill and say, “Time lies frozen there. It’s always Then. It’s never Now.”4:55 - Mank holding phone. Turns to Caddell - 'Who is this?' Caddell: 'Jim.' (shrugs) 'I think he's our man in Cincinnati.'The second said the same thing a few minutes before five, and mentioned eternity... I'm sure I'll meet you in the other world. Four minutes later she left a last, fleeting message: My love. Fernando. It's Suzana. Then, it seemed, she had shot herself.He wants to look death in the face. Two minutes to five. I took a handkerchief out of my pocket, but John Dawson ordered me to put it back. An Englishman dies with his eyes open. He wants to look death in the face.The whole place smells like death no matter what the fuck you do. Gately gets to the shelter at 0459.9h and just shuts his head off as if his head had a control switch.At precisely 5 o’clock, like every morning, hours before a single stirring would emerge from the rooms upstairs, Dora dragged herself from her bed and made her way down the hallway to the kitchen, where she put on a kettle and dropped a bag of Earl Grey in a mug.“I just took all the pills in the bathroom cabinet,” she says. “Sixty-two aspirin with codeine, twenty-four Valiums. I thought you might like to say goodbye.” “That was stupid, Martha,” Nate says. “Did you really?” “Wait and see,” she says, laughing. “Wait till five in the morning when you get to inspect the body.”Soft yellow light came through the side windows. It was morning: he had slept the whole night! He looked quickly at his watch: 5:00 A.M. Still almost six hours to go before the boat had to be recalled.Muldoon scowled. “The electrified fences were off?” “Yes.” “All of them? Since five this morning? For the last five hours?” “Yes.”THE HAMMER BANGED reveille on the rail outside camp HQ at five o’clock as always. Time to get up. The ragged noise was muffled by ice two fingers thick on the windows and soon died away. Too cold for the warder to go on hammering.‘According to Leon … the day after tomorrow. The attack is scheduled for the day after tomorrow at about five o’clock in the morning’ His face was still in shadow.Five o’clock had hardly struck on the morning of the nineteenth of January, when Bessie brought a candle into my closet and found me already up and nearly dressed. They had been up since five o’clock that morning, as the reader will remember; but bah! there is no such thing as fatigue on Sunday, said Favourite; on Sunday fatigue does not work.My grandfather Arthur once took me fishing. I was seven. I suppose he must have gone fishing frequently, although I never recall him bringing back any fish, nor indeed, any other fishing trips. He woke me up at five, before the sun was up.Thursday morning. The day of. Billy gets up at five. He eats toast with a glass of water to wash it down. No coffee. No caffeine of any kind until the job is done. When he shoulders the 700 and looks through the Leupold scope, he wants his hands perfectly steady.Not even a yawn. I wasn’t remotely sleepy. I could tell my sense of balance was off—I nearly fell over when I tried to stand up, but I pushed through it and tidied up for a while, sliding the videocassettes into their cases and putting them back on the shelf. I thought some activity might tire me out. I took a Zyprexa and some more Ativan. I ate a handful of melatonin, chewing like a cow on cud. Nothing was working. So I called Trevor. “It’s five in the morning,” he said. He sounded irritated and foggy, but he’d answered.Sixsmith, Shot myself through the roof of my mouth at five A.M. this morning with V.A.‘s Luger. But I saw you, my dear, dear fellow! How touched I am that you care so much! On the belfry’s lookout, yesterday, at sunset. Sheerest fluke you didn’t see me first.Each night at five o’clock, like clockwork, your father says, ’What’s for dinner?’ and I grit my teeth so hard I can feel it in my jaw.” She stopped, embarrassed. “Gosh, Mum,” said Brooke. She sounded shocked.I did Danièle’s math in my head. “If we start at ten, walk for four hours, rest for one, walk for another two, that’s seven hours in total. That will take us to five in the morning. Seven hours back, it won’t be noon until we resurface.”The unlocked back door creaked open slowly to reveal Fiona Athey, with an apologetic look on her face, She was holding a stack of flyers under her left arm. “I hope I didn’t wake you up, now. I’ll come back another time, then. Sorry.” She turned to leave. “No, stay,” Marjan replied. “I’ve been up since five. Making a new batch of bread. Why don’t you come in for a cup of tea?”Soon after 5 a.m. he noticed the sky at its edges beginning to turn an oyster grey. Gradually the dark crests of the wooded pine hills emerged, serrated like a saw’s teeth against the spreading light, while in the valleys the white mist seemed as solid as a glacier.Five o'clock had hardly struck on the morning of the 19th of January, when Bessie brought a candle into my closet and found me already up and nearly dressed.Five o'clock had hardly struck on the morning of the 19th of January, when Bessie brought a candle into my closet and found me already up and nearly dressed. I had risen half-an-hour before her entrance, and had washed my face, and put on my clothes by the light of a half-moon just setting, whose rays streamed through the narrow window near my crib.It was in the township of Dunwich, in a large and hardly inhabited farmhouse set against a hillside 4 miles from the village and a mile and a half from any other dwelling, that Wilbur Whately was born at 5 a.m. on Sunday, 2 February, 1913. The date was recalled because it was Candlemas, which people in Dunwich curiously observe under another name...Just after five o'clock on this chill September morning, the fishmonger's cart, containing Kirsten and Emilia and such possessions as they have been able to assemble in the time allowed to them, is driven out of the gates of Rosenborg?"The cold eye of the Duke was dazzled by the gleaming of a thousand jewels that sparkled on the table. His ears were filled with chiming as the clocks began to strike. “One!” said Hark. “Two!” cried Zorn of Zorna. “Three!” the Duke's voice almost whispered. 'Four!” sighed Saralinda. “Five!” the Golux crowed, and pointed at the table. “The task is done, the terms are met,” he said."The day came slow, till five o'clock. Then sprang before the hills. Like hindered rubies, or the light. A sudden musket spillsThere are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public. There are worse things than these miniature betrayals, committed or endured or suspected; there are worse things than not being able to sleep for thinking about them. It is 5 a.m. All the worse things come stalking in and stand icily about the bed looking worse and worse and worse."What causes young people to “come out,” but the noble ambition of matrimony? What sends them trooping to watering-places? What keeps them dancing till five o'clock in the morning through a whole mortal season?""“Oh yes. His clocks were set at one minute past five, four minutes past five and seven minutes past five. That was the combination number of a safe, 515457. The safe was concealed behind a reproduction of the Mona Lisa. Inside the safe,” continued Poirot, with distaste, “were the Crown Jewels of the Russian Royal Family.”"Just after five o'clock on this chill September morning, the fishmonger's cart, containing Kirsten and Emilia and such possessions as they have been able to assemble in the time allowed to them, is driven out of the gates of Rosenborg?It was 5:02 a.m., December 14. In another fifty-eight minutes he would set sail for America. He did not want to leave his bride; he did not want to go.It was 5:03 a.m. It didn't matter. She wasn't going to get back to sleep. She threw off her covers and, swearing at herself, Caleb and Mr. Griffin, she headed into the shower."“Oh yes. His clocks were set at one minute past five, four minutes past five and seven minutes past five. That was the combination number of a safe, 515457. The safe was concealed behind a reproduction of the Mona Lisa. Inside the safe,” continued Poirot, with distaste, “were the Crown Jewels of the Russian Royal Family.”"5.04 a.m. on the substandard clock radio. Because why do people always say the day starts now? Really it starts in the middle of the night at a fraction of a second past midnight."Oh yes. His clocks were set at one minute past five, four minutes past five and seven minutes past five. That was the combination number of a safe, 515457. The safe was concealed behind a reproduction of the Mona Lisa. Inside the safe, continued Poirot, with distaste, “were the Crown Jewels of the Russian Royal Family.”"The baby, a boy, is born at five past five in the morning.5:06 a.m. I wake up strangely energized, my stomach growling. Upstairs, the overstocked fridge offers me its bounty of sympathy food."“Oh yes. His clocks were set at one minute past five, four minutes past five and seven minutes past five. That was the combination number of a safe, 515457. The safe was concealed behind a reproduction of the Mona Lisa. Inside the safe,” continued Poirot, with distaste, “were the Crown Jewels of the Russian Royal Family.”"Ambrose and I will marry at Fort McHenry at 5:08 EDST this coming Saturday, Rosh Hashanah!The primal flush of triumph which had saturated the American's humor on this signal success, proved but fictive and transitory when inquiry of the station attendants educed the information that the two earliest trains to be obtained were the 5:09 to Dunkerque and the 5:37 for Ostend."“Oh, my husband, I have done the deed which will relieve you of the wife whom you hate! I have taken the poison--all of it that was left in the paper packet, which was the first that I found. If this is not enough to kill me, I have more left in the bottle. Ten minutes past five. “You have just gone, after giving me my composing draught. My courage failed me at the sight of you. I thought to myself, 'If he look at me kindly, I will confess what I have done, and let him save my life.' You never looked at me at all. You only looked at the medicine. I let you go without saying a word."I settled into a daily routine. Wake up at 4:40am, shower, get on the train north by ten after five.Today was Tuesday, the fifteenth of August; the sun had risen at eleven minutes past five this morning and would set at two minutes before seven this evening.At twelve minutes and six seconds past five o'clock on the morning of April 18th, 1906, the San francisco peninsula began to shiver in the grip of an earthquake which, when its ultimate consequences are considered, was the most disastrous in the recorded history of the North American continent.Wu said, “You shut down at five-thirteen this morning, and when you started back up, you started with auxiliary power.”Lying on my side in bed, I stared at my alarm clock until it became a blemish, its red hue glowing like a welcome sign beckoning me into the depths of hell's crimson-colored cavities. 5:13 am. To describe this Monday as a blue Monday was an understatement.The time was 5.14am, a very strange time indeed for the sheriff to have seen what he claimed he saw as he made his early-morning rounds, first patrolling back and forth along the deserted, snowbound streets of Kingdom City before extending his vigilance northward, along County Road.By the first week of May, Ralph was waking up to birdsong at 5:15 a.m. He tried earplugs for a few nights, although he doubted from the outset that they would work. It wasn’t the newly returned birds that were waking him up, nor the occasional delivery-truck backfire out on Harris Avenue. He had always been the sort of guy who could sleep in the middle of a brass marching bad, and he didn’t think that had changed. What had changed was inside his head.Weird conversation with Brown, a tired & confused old man who's been jerked out of bed at 5:15.5:16 - Mank on phone to Secretary of State Brown: 'Mr Brown, we're profoundly disturbed about this situation in the 21st. We can't get a single result out of there.She could go back to sleep. But typical and ironic, she is completely awake. It is completely light outside now; you can see for miles. Except there is nothing to see here; trees and fields and that kind of thing. 5:16 a.m on the substandard clock radio. She is really awake.The story is there, and the security photo that runs with it is pretty damning. An hour earlier the light wouldn’t have been good enough to show the doer’s face, but the time stamp on the bottom of the photo is 5:18 AM. The sun isn’t up but it’s getting there, and the face of the guy standing in the alley is as clear as you’d want, if you were a prosecutor.ABOARD TPA 545 5:18 A.M. Emily Jansen sighed in relief. The long flight was nearing an end. Morning sunlight streamed through the windows of the airplane.If she can keep her speed to seventy until she leaves the turnpike at midtown, and if she catches most of the traffic lights, she estimates she can be at her building by five-twenty.He saw on the floor his cigarette reduced to a long thin cylinder of ash: it had smoked itself. It was five twenty, dawn was breaking behind the shed of empty barrels, the thermometer pointed to 210 degrees.Tock wagged his tail proudly, but Milo didn’t say a word, and to this day no one knows of the lost week but the few people who happened to be awake at 5:23 on that very strange morning.If I could count precisely to sixty between two passing orange minutes on her digital clock, starting at 5.23am and ending exactly as it melted into 5:24, then when she woke she would love me and not say this had been a terrible mistake.If I could count precisely to sixty between two passing orange minutes on her digital clock, starting at 523am. and ending exactly as it melted into 5:24, then when she woke she would love me and not say this had been a terrible mistake.At 5:25 a.m. the doorbell rings, always an evil omen. I stagger to the intercom and push the button.George's train home from New Street leaves at 5.25. On the return journey, there are rarely schoolboys.I think this is actually bump number 1,970. And the boy keeps plugging away at the same speed. There isn’t a sound from them. Not a moan. Poor them. Poor me. I look at the clock. 05:26.She looked at her watch. It was 5.27am. Surely Gawain would already be here? Wouldn’t he be looking out for her, since there was no obvious way of getting inside?I pulled into the Aoyama supermarket parking garage at five-twenty-eight. The sky to the east was getting light. I entered the store carrying my bag. Almost no one was in the place. A young clerk in a striped uniform sat reading a magazine; a woman of indeterminate age was buying a cartload of cans and instant food. I turned past the liquor display and went straight to the snack bar.“When they pulled out of the driveway at five thirty in the morning, Emmett was in good spirits. The night before, with the help of Billy”s map, he had laid out an itinerary. The route form Morgen to San Francisco was a little over fifteen hundred miles."He picks her up, places her on the bed, lies down beside her. He kisses her again, tentatively, lingeringly. Then he asks what time it is. He himself has no watch. Lesje tells him it’s five-thirty. He sits up. Lesje is beginning to feel slightly unattractive. Are her teeth too large, is that it?It was half-past five before Holmes returned. He was bright, eager, and in excellent spirits, a mood which in his case alternated with fits of the blackest depression.Had Thomas McGuire stopped to admire the fanfare of saffron rays, he might have missed the beginning of the end of his rule over the sleepy seaside town. But as was often the case with men of his temperament, Thomas had little time for daydreams. The obstinate businessman had charged out of his hard bed at five-thirty that morning, determined as ever to tend to his growing empire of three pubs, two spirit shops, and one inn on Main Mall.When Braque and her brother Randy were kids, their mom used to wake them up at 5:30 in the morning for family road trips, to avoid traffic; there were safety latches around the house until she was eleven; there was no TV and sure as sh*t no candy, pop, alcohol, or smoking; she ironed bedsheets and bleached underwear and cleaned the bathrooms at least twice a day.Gideon has been most unlike Gideon. As Walter Eastman is preoccupied himself, he has not had time, or more to the point, inclination, to notice aberrant behaviour. For instance, it is half-past five in the summer morning. Young Chase's narrow bachelor bed has evidently been slept in, for it is rumpled in that barely disturbed way which can never be counterfeited. His jug's empty and there's grey water in the basin, cleanly boy. The window is open, admitting the salubrious sea-breeze. He doesn't smoke anyway. What an innocent room it is.It was by this time half-past five, and the sun was on the point of rising; but I found the kitchen still dark and silent. … The stillness of early morning slumbered everywhere .. the carriage horses stamped from time to time in their closed stables: all else was still.On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on.5:31 - Mank on phone to lawyer: 'Jesus, I think we gotta go in there and get those ballots! Impound 'em! Every damn one!'"I asked “What time is sunrise?”' A second's silence while the crestfallen Bush absorbed his rebuke, and then another voice answered: ‘Five-thirty-four, sir.'"5:35 - All phones ringing now, the swing shift has shot the gap - now the others are waking up.I squinted at the clock. 'It says twenty-five before six,' I said and rolled away from him.Richard glanced at the clock on the microwave - 5:37 - almost twelve hours, almost one half-day since he'd dialed 911.Kovac,’ said Johnny sleepily. It was very rare for the quantum computer and not Sol to wake him up. ‘What’s going on? What time is it?’ ‘Good morning, Johnny,’ said the ship. ‘It is 5.38 a.m.’ ‘What?’ said Johnny. ‘It’s Saturday.’ ‘I told you he wouldn’t like it,’ said Sol, presumably to Kovac. ‘It’s hardly a matter of likes or dislikes,’ said the computer. ‘I have information I deem important enough to pass on at the earliest opportunity – whatever time it is.’Robert Townsend woke before the alarm sounded and lay listening in the dark. Something had disturbed his sleep - a noise outside. A distant but distinct crack. He glanced at the hands of the clock on the nightstand. Twenty to six. Crack. Crack. Crack. There it was again. What on earth could it be?Twenty minutes to six. 'Rob's boys were already on the platform, barrows ready. The only thing that ever dared to be late around here was the train. Rob's boys were in fact Bill Bing, thirty, sucking a Woodbine, and Arthur, sixty, half dead.It took Inigo until 5:41 before he actually cornered the Count. In the billiard room. “Hello,” he was about to say. “My name name is Inigo Montoya; you killed my father; prepare to die.”It’s 5:43. Time is racing, racing.5.43 - Mank on phone to 'Mary' in Washington; 'It now appears quite clear that we'll lead the state - without the 21st.'At 5:45 a power-transformer on a pole beside the abandoned Tracker Brothers’ Truck Depot exploded in a flash of purple light, spraying twisted chunks of metal onto the shingled roof.Herbert could feel nothing. He wrote a legal-sounding phrase to the effect that the sentence had been carried out at 5.46am, adding, 'without a snag'. The burial party had cursed him quietly as they'd hacked at the thick roots and tight soil.It was was 5:50 when he staggered from the room, heading he knew not where or for how long, but hoping only that whoever had been guiding him lately would not desert him now.At 5.52am paramedics from the St. Petersburg Fire Department and SunStar Medic One ambulance service responded to a medical emergency call at 12201 Ninth Street North, St. Petersburg, apartment 2210.One, two, three, four, five, six… She wound each clock in turn, three turns each, putting just enough power in the springs to get them ticking in time for Mr Westcott’s inspection. Speaking of which…it was five minutes to six. Five minutes before Mr Westcott would arrive to inspect his clocks. Helena swallowed. She could hear footsteps thundering in the room below and the occasional exclamation from Stanley.Billy doesn’t drive to the parking garage. The parking garage is done. At five to six he parks on Main Street a few blocks from the Gerard Tower. Plenty of curbside spaces at this hour and the sidewalk is deserted.It was 5.55am and raining hard when I pedalled up to the bike stand just outside the forecourt of the station and dashed inside. I raced past the bookstall, where all the placards of the Yorkshire Post (a morning paper) read 'York Horror', but also 'Terrific February Gales at Coast'.She smiles a bit but the next breath comes out louder like a moan. At 05.57 I say, “Ma, it’s nearly six,” so she gets up to make dinner but she doesn’t eat any.She smiles a bit but the next breath comes out louder like a moan. At 05.57 I say, “Ma, it’s nearly six,” so she gets up to make dinner but she doesn’t eat any.Loud crashes came from the flat below at 5.58 this morning, though she’d been clock-watching long before that.Annika Giannini woke with a start. She saw that it was 5.58 a.m.Sammy was bright awake at six, giddy with excitement, Daddy was coming, and no settling him to anything. By late morning he was climbing the walls; I suggested we go for a walk, take a little picnic. He didn’t want to leave in case Daddy came while we were gone. “How ’bout we head up the hill? We can look out for him from there. Like pirates.” And that did the trick.Monday morning. I woke at six with my head pillowed on Patrick’s chest, my knee over his thigh. I’d slept all night without surfacing once. I don’t know when I had last slept like that. He got up to make coffee and we drank it in bed.Dan lay awake until six. Then he dressed and once more made the trek to the Red Apple. This time he did not hesitate, only instead of extracting two bottles of Bird from the cooler, he took three. What was it they used to say? Good big or go home.The day after Olga was released from the hospital she commenced making shoes again. At six in the morning she is at her bench; she knocks out two pairs of shoes a day. Eugene complains that Olga is a burden, but the truth is that Olga is supporting Eugene and his wife with her two pairs of shoes a day. If Olga doesn’t work there is no food. So everyone endeavors to pull Olga to bed on time, to give her enough food to keep going, etc.Ursula invites me into the wardrobe. “You haven’t aged a day, Timbo, and neither has 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 snaky fellow!” Her furry fawn rubs up against my Narnian-sized lamppost and mothballs . . . but then, as ever, I awoke, my swollen appendage as welcome as a swollen appendix, and as useful. Six o’clock. The heating systems composed works in the style of John Cage. Chillblains burned my toe knuckles. I thought about Christmases gone, so many more gone than lay ahead.Amazingly, the routines of everyday life lurched along as spring dissolved into flamboyant summer. Holly rose every morning at six, walked and fed Buster, roused her children, made sure the youngest dressed appropriately for school, fed them, nestled lunch boxes into their backpacks, waited at the corner for the bus, waved them off.When she woke up, the inarguably sane light of six AM was streaming through the windows. There were things that needed to be done and decisions that needed to be made, but for the moment it was enough to be alive and in her own bed instead of stuffed into a culvert.She glanced at Bob’s clock after what felt like an hour of going around that wretched worry-circle and saw that only twelve minutes had passed. She got up on one elbow and turned the clock’s face to the window. 𝘏𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘹 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, she thought . . . “Well, good night, Pooh,” said Piglet, when they had got to Pooh’s house. “And we meet at six o’clock tomorrow morning by the Pine Trees, and see how many Heffalumps we’ve got in our Trap.”Lars watched from his living room window as the family, who must’ve left Iowa around 6:00 a.m. to arrive here so early, trudged through the snow toward the lobby of his building.On Sunday morning he was woken at six A.M. by the telephone. It was Major Heathcote, and he got straight to the point. “What do you know about this mob at the cathedral?”`And ever since that,’ the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won’t do a thing I ask! It’s always six o’clock now.’‘What’s the time?’ I ask, and telling him so that he knows, ‘My mother likes “peace and quiet” to sleep late on Saturday mornings.’ ‘She does, does she? It’s six o’clock. I couldn’t sleep,’ he says wearily, like an afterthought, as if it’s what he expects. ‘Why are you up so early?’ ‘I woke up and needed my panda. I can’t find him.’ ‘Where do you think he can be?’ His face changes and he smiles again, bending down to look under the table and behind the curtain. But he isn’t clowning or teasing. He’s in earnest.But every morning, even if there's been a nighttime session and he has only slept two hours, he gets up at six and reads his paper while he drinks a strong cup of coffee. In this way Papa constructs himself every day.I had risen half-an-hour before her entrance, and had washed my face, and put on my clothes by the light of a half-moon just setting, whose rays streamed through the narrow window near my crib. I was to leave Gateshead that day by a coach which passed the lodge gates at six a.m.Lying awake in my attic room, i hear a clock strike six downstairs. It was fairly light and people were beginning to walk up and down the stairs...- i heard the clock strike eight downstairs before i rose and got dressed... I looked up - the clock tower of our saviour's showed ten.On the 15th of September 1840, about six o'clock in the morning, the Ville-de-Montereau, ready to depart, pouring out great whirls of smoke by the quai Saint-Bernard.Rise from bed ............... . 6.00 A.M.The ball went on for a long time, until six in the morning; all were exhausted and wishing they had been in bed for at least three hours; but to leave early was like proclaiming the party a failure and offending the host and hostess who had taken such a lot of trouble, poor dears.Bimingham New Street 5.25. Walsall 5.55. This train does not stop at Birchills, for reasons George has never been able to ascertain. Then it is Bloxwich 6.02, Wyrley & Churchbridge 6.09. At 6.10 he nods to Mr Merriman the stationmaster.A second man went in and found the shop empty, as he thought, at five minutes past six. That puts the time at between 5:30 and 6:05.At 6:06, every toilet on Merit Street suddenly exploded in a geyser of shit and raw sewage as some unimaginable reversal took place in the pipes which fed the holding tanks of the new waste-treatment plant in the Barrens.At six oh-eight a.m. two men wearing ragged trench coats approached the Casino. The shorter of the men burst into flames.The bus left the station at ten past six - and she sat proud, like an accustomed traveller, apart from her father, John Henry, and Berenice. But after a while a serious doubt came in her, which even the answers of the bus-driver could not quite satisfy.It's 06:13 .........Ma says I ought to be wrapped up in Rug already, Old Nick might possibly come.Dumbbell exercise and wall-scaling ..... . 6.15-6.30Father expected his shaving-water to be ready at a quarter past six. Just seven minutes late, Dorothy took the can upstairs and knocked at her father's door.It was 6.15 am. Just starting to get light. A small knot of older teenagers were leaning against a nearby wall. They looked as though they had been out all night.Two of the guys stared at us. Their eyes hard and threatening.It was 6.15 am. Just starting to get light. A small knot of older teenagers were leaning against a nearby wall. They looked as though they had been out all night.Two of the guys stared at us. Their eyes hard and threatening.Dizzy, come on.' He turned slowly, coaxing the animal down on to the pillow. The clock read six-seventeen. A second cat, Miles, purred on contentedly from the patch in the covers where Resnick's legs had made a deep V.6.19 am, 8th June 2004, the jet of your pupil set in the gold of your eye.It was 6:20 a.m., and my parents and I were standing, stunned and haf-awake, in the parking lot of a Howard Johnson's in Iowa.Simon is happy to travel scum class when he's on his own and even sometimes deliberately aims for the 6.25. But today the .25 is delayed to 6.44."Still, it's your consciousness that's created it. Not somethin' just anyone could do. Others could be wanderin' around forever in who-knows-what contradictory chaos of a world. You're different. You seem t'be the immortal type.” “When's the turnover into that world going to take place?” asked the chubby girl. The Professor looked at his watch. I looked at my watch. Six-twenty-five. Well past daybreak. Morning papers delivered. “According t'my estimates, in another twenty-nine hours and thirty-five minutes,” said the Professor. “Plus or minus forty-five minutes. I set it at twelve noon for easy reference. Noon tomorrow."06:27:52 by the chip in her optic nerve; Case had been following her progress through Villa Straylight for over an hour, letting the endorphin analogue she'd taken blot out his hangover.Early in the morning, late in the century, Cricklewood Broadway. At 0627 hours on January 1, 1975, Alfred Archibald Jones was dressed in corduroy and sat in a fume-filled Cavalier Musketeer Estate, facedown on the steering wheel, hoping the judgment would not be too heavy upon him.I sat up. There was a rug over me. I threw that off and got my feet on the floor. I scowled at a clock. The clock said a minute short of six-thirty.Two whores on their way down from Portland to take us deep sea fishing in a boat! it made it tough to stay in bed until the dorm lights came on at six-thirty.Tony gets up at six-thirty, as she always does. West sleeps on, groaning a little. Probably in his dreams he’s shouting; sounds in dreams are always louder.But when you shave 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 breakfast like she has me do some mornings—six-thirty in the morning in a room all white walls and white basins, and long-tube-lights in the ceiling making sure there aren’t any shadows, and faces all round you trapped screaming behind the mirrors—then what chance you got against one of their machines?At the beginning of each day the properly dated OD card is inserted in a slot in the steel door and the walls hum up: Lights flash on in the dorm at six-thirty: the Acutes up out of bed quick as the black boys can prod them out, get them to work buffing the floor, emptying ash trays, polishing the scratch marks off the wall where one old fellow shorted out a day ago, went down in an awful twist of smoke and smell of burned rubber.Inside now MJ ordered. She pushed the three of us into the hotel room, thern shut the soor. I glanced at the clock by the bed. 6.30 am. Why were they waking Mum and Dad up this early?"Daniel and the FBI men listened to the sounds of his mother waking up his father. Daniel still held the door-knob. He was ready to close the door the second he was told to.“What time is it?” said his father in a drugged voice. “Oh my God, it's six-thirty,” his mother said.""It was six-thirty. When the baby's cry came, they could not pick it out, and Sam, eagerly thrusting his face amongst their ears, said, “Listen, there, there, that's the new baby.” He was red with delight and success."It was very cold sitting in the truck and after a while he got out and walked around and flailed at himself with his arms and stamped his boots. Then he got back in the truck. The bar clock said six-thirty...By eight-thirty he’d decided that it that was it would take to make the cab arrive then that’s what he would do and he started the engine.Nervously she jumped up and listened; the house itself was as still as ever; the footsteps had retreated. Through her wide-open window the brilliant rays of the morning sun were flooding her room with light. She looked up at the clock; it was half-past six—too early for any of the household to be already astir.Six-thirty was clearly a preposterous time and he, the client, obviously hadn't meant it seriously. A civilised six-thirty for twelve noon was almost certainly what he had in mind, and if he wanted to cut up rough about it, Dirk would have no option but to start handing out some serious statistics. Nobody got murdered before lunch. But nobody. People weren't up to it. You needed a good lunch to get both the blood-sugar and blood-lust levels up. Dirk had the figures to prove it.Sometimes they were hooded carts, sometimes they were just open carts, with planks for seats, on which sat twelve cloaked and bonneted women, six a side, squeezed together, for the interminable journey. As late as 1914 I knew the carrier of Croydon-cum-Clopton, twelve miles from Cambridge; his cart started at 6.30 in the morning and got back at about ten at night. Though he was not old, he could neither read nor write; but he took commissions all along the road - a packet of needles for Mrs. This, and a new teapot for Mrs. That - and delivered them all correctly on the way back.BURBANK AIRPORT 6:32 A.M. Rush hour traffic crept forward in the pale morning light. Casey twisted her rearview mirror, and leaned over to check her makeup.The familiar radium numerals on my left wrist confirmed the clock tower. It was twenty-eight minutes to seven. I seemed to be filling a set of loud maroon pajamas which were certainly not mine. My vis-a-vis was wearing a little number in yellow.Woke 6.33 a.m. Last session with Anderson. He made it plain he's seen enough of me, and from now on I'm better alone. To sleep 8:00? (These count-downs terrify me.) He paused, then added: Goodbye, Eniwetok.My watch lay on the dressing-table close by; glancing at it, I saw that the time was twenty-five minutes to seven. I had been told that the family breakfasted at nine, so I had nearly two-and-a-half hours of leisure. Of course, I would go out, and enjoy the freshness of the morning.Kaldren pursues me like luminescent shadow. He has chalked up on the gateway '96,688,365,498,702'. Should confuse the mail man. Woke 9:05. To sleep 6:36.The dashboard clock said 6.37am Town frowned, and checked his wristwatch, which blinked that it was 1.58pm. Great, he thought. I was either up on that tree for eight hours, or for minus a minute.The clock on the dashboard said it was 6.38am. He left the keys in the car, and walked toward the tree.At eleven o'clock the phone rang, and still the figure did not respond, any more than it has responded when the phone had rung at twenty-five to seven in the morning, and again at twenty to sevenTo London on the 6.43am. Jessica is back from her holiday. Things are looking up, she called me Chris, instead of Minister, when we talked on the phone this afternoon.Simon is happy to travel scum class when he's on his own and even sometimes deliberately aims for the 6.25. But today the .25 is delayed to 6.44.Six-forty-five the shavers buzz and the Acutes line up in alphabetical order at the mirrors, A, B, C, D. . . . The walking Chronics like me walk in when the Acutes are done, then the Wheelers are wheeled in. The black boy’s dwarf head swivels and comes nose to knuckle with that hand. He frowns at it, then takes a quick check where’s the other two black boys just in case, and tells McMurphy they don’t open the cabinet till six-forty-five. “It’s a policy,” he says.As the clock pointed to a quarter to seven, the dog woke and shook himself. After waiting in vain for the footman, who was accustomed to let him out, the animal wandered restlessly from one closed door to another on the ground floor; and, returning to his mat in great perplexity, appealed to the sleeping family, with a long and melancholy howl.'"He was still hurriedly thinking all this through, unable to decide to get out of the bed, when the clock struck quarter to seven. There was a cautious knock at the door near his head. “Gregor”, somebody called - it was his mother - “it's quarter to seven. Didn't you want to go somewhere?”"At one minute after the quarter to seven I heard the rattle of the cans outside. I opened the front door, and there was my man, singling out my cans from a bunch he carried and whistling through his teeth.Then I hung about in the hall waiting for the milkman. That was the worst part of the business, for I was fairly choking to get out of doors. Six-thirty passed, then six-forty, but still he did not come. The fool had chosen this day of all days to be late. At one minute after the quarter to seven I heard the rattle of the cans outside. I opened the front door, and there was my man, singling out my cans from a bunch he carried and whistling through his teeth. He jumped a bit at the sight of me.Night ends, 6:49. Meet in the coffee shop at 7:30; press conference at 10:00.That night I lay in my jangling single bed across from Sammy’s and I watched him sleep, and then I stared at the ceiling. I got up and took a blanket and went and made a cup of tea, and lay on the sofa and tried to read one of the wrinkled paperbacks. I blinked my way through a hallucinatory half chapter, set it aside and closed my eyes. I woke and it was six fifty, and I winced my way upstairs and lay down in my bed, to be there when Sammy woke up again.Will, my fiancé, was coming from Boston on the six-fifty train - the dawn train, the only train that still stopped in the small Ohio city where I lived.At 6:55 am Lisa parked and took the lift from the frozen underground car park up to level 1 of Green Oaks Shopping Centre."It was 6.59 a.m. on Maundy Thursday as Blomkvist and Berger let themselves into the “Millennium” offices."“It was about seven o’clock and so still I felt that, if someone had spoken a mile away, I could have answered him.”At seven the next morning the telephone rang. Slowly I swam up from the bottom of a black sleep. I already had a telegram from Jay Cee stuck in my mirror, telling me not to bother to come in to work but to rest for a day and get completely well, and how sorry she was about the bad crabmeat, so I couldn’t imagine who would be calling.Anne made her way across the dooryard, trailing a steadying hand along the side of Bobbi’s truck. When she had passed the truck, she reached at once for the porch railing. She looked up, and in the slanting light of seven o’clock, Gardener thought the woman looked both aged and ageless.Grant immediately understood the advantages. It was now seven o’clock in the morning. They had at least eight miles to go. If they could take a raft along the river, they would make much faster progress than going overland.Through September and right into October, the North Carolina skies were clear and the air was warm even at seven in the morning, when I left my second-floor apartment by the outside stairs. If I started with a light jacket on, I was wearing it tied around my waist before I’d finished half of the three miles between the town and the amusement park.The call was early: seven AM, two hours before the park opened its doors on another summer. The three of us walked down the beach together. Tom talked most of the way. He always talked. It would have been wearisome if he hadn’t been so amusing and relentlessly cheerful.Thirty-seven times my mother and I woke up together, bleary and exhausted at seven A.M., tried to get up, but fell back into bed and slept on while cartoons flashed from the small television on her bedside table.In his hotel room at the Bon Voyage, Dr. Rufus Sixsmith reads a sheaf of letters written to him nearly half a century ago by his friend Robert Frobisher. Sixsmith knows them by heart, but their texture, rustle, and his friend’s faded handwriting calm his nerves. These letters are what he would save from a burning building. At seven o’clock precisely, he washes, changes his shirt, and sandwiches the nine read letters in the Gideon’s Bible—this he replaces in the bedside cabinet. Sixsmith slips the unread letters into his jacket pocket for the restaurant.This morning everything is clean; the storm has left branches strewn around the yard, which I will presently go out and pick up: all the beach’s sand has been redistributed and laid down fresh in an even blanket pocked with impressions of rain, and the daylilies bend and glisten in the white seven a.m. light.By 7:00 A.M., the coastline of Malibu was engulfed in flames. Because, just as it is in Malibu’s nature to burn, so was it in one particular person’s nature to set fire and walk away.“Which means we finish around 7 a.m.,” she added. “Still enough time to get to work.” I was surprised. “Work?” “You must work tomorrow, yes?” “I figured I’d write the day off.” “Then you do not need to worry.”Seven o’clock the mess hall opens and the order of line-up reverses: the Wheelers first, then the Walkers, then Acutes pick up trays, corn flakes, bacon and eggs, toast—and this morning a canned peach on a piece of green, torn lettuce.“What? No. I mean, yeah, that’s when we have to be in the lot, but there’s a bunch of stuff before, you know, costumes, makeup, all that. I usually get there at seven. I can’t believe nobody told you any of this.”It was seven a.m. on the day before her eleventh birthday, and Eva was on her knees in her favorite stretchy blue jeans, hard at work in her closet. She was checking the dryness of her hydroponic chile plants when her mom knocked on her door.Why was this woman here? They would have a glass of wine and then Cindy would say that she had a 7:00 a.m. yoga class (which was true) and boy, was she tired.At seven o’clock precisely, a tiny Italian man entered James’s office. He was wearing a very ancient tuxedo and a white bow tie, which was almost exactly the same size and shape as the mustache on his upper lip."“Seven o'clock, already”, he said to himself when the clock struck again, “seven o'clock, and there's still a fog like this.”"At seven o’clock in the morning, Rubashov was awakened by a bugle, but he did not get up. Soon he heard sounds in the corridor. He imagined that someone was to be tortured, and he dreaded hearing the first screams of pain. When the footsteps reached his own section, he saw through the eye hole that guards were serving breakfast. Rubashov did not receive any breakfast because he had reported himself ill. He began to pace up and down the cell, six and a half steps to the window, six and a half steps back.I had left directions that I was to be called at seven; for it was plain that I must see Wemmick before seeing any one else, and equally plain that this was a case in which his Walworth sentiments, only, could be taken. It was a relief to get out of the room where the night had been so miserable, and I needed no second knocking at the door to startle me from my uneasy bed.She locked herself in, made no reply to my bonjour through the door; she was up at seven o'clock, the samovar was taken in to her from the kitchen.07:02:18 One and a half hours. 'Case,' she said, 'I wanna favour.'7:03am General Tanz woke up as though aroused by a mental alarm-clock.He really couldn't believe that the old woman who'd phoned him last night would show up this morning, as she'd said she would. He decided he'd wait until five minutes after seven o'clock, and then he'd call in, take the day off, and make every effort in the book to locate someone reliable.Outside my window the sky hung low and gray. It looked like snow, which added to my malaise. The clock read five after seven. I punched the remote control and watched the morning news as I lay in bed.Ryan missed the dawn. He boarded a TWA 747 that left Dulles on time, at 7:05 A.M. The sky was overcast, and when the aircraft burst through the cloud layer into sunlight, Ryan did something he had never done before. For the first time in his life, Jack Ryan fell asleep on an airplane.So far so good. There followed a little passage of time when we stood by the duty desk, drinking coffee and studiously not mentioning what we were all thinking and hoping: that Percy was late, that maybe Percy wasn't going to show up at all. Considering the hostile reviews he'd gotten on the way he'd handled the electrocution, that seemed at least possible. But Percy subscribed to that old axiom about how you should get right back on the horse that had thrown you, because here he came through the door at six minutes past seven, resplendent in his blue uniform with his sidearm on one hip and his hickory stick in its ridiculous custom-made holster on the other.Percy subscribed to that old axiom about how you should get right back on the horse that had thrown you, because here he came through the door at six minutes past seven, resplendent in his blue uniform with his sidearm on one hip and his hickory stick in its ridiculous custom-made holster on the other.Reacher had no watch but he figured when he saw Gregory it must have been between eight and nine minutes after seven o'clock.We wake up and the air is shiverier. Watch says 07:09, he has a battery, that’s his own little power hidden inside.In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o 'clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would. The morning house lay empty. The clock ticked on, repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness. Seven-nine, breakfast time, seven-nine!Seven-nine, breakfast time, seven-nine!A search in Bradshaw informed me that a train left St Pancras at 7.10, which would land me at any Galloway station in the late afternoon.There were many others waiting to execute the same operation, so she would have to move fast, elbow her way to the front so that she emerged first. The time was 7:10 in the morning. The manoeuvre would start at 7:12. She looked apprehensively at the giant clock at the railway station.He taught me that if I had to meet someone for an appointment, I must refuse to follow the 'stupid human habit' of arbitrarily choosing a time based on fifteen-minute intervals. 'Never meet people at 7:45 or 6:30, Jasper, but pick times like 7:12 and 8:03!'It was all the more surprising and indeed alarming a little later, said Austerlitz, when I looked out of the corridor window of my carriage just before the train left at seven-thirteen, to find it dawning upon me with perfect certainty that I had seen the pattern of glass and steel roof above the platforms before.I jump onto Rocker to look at Watch, he says 07:14. I can skateboard on Rocker without holding on to her, then I whee back onto Duvet and I’m snowboarding instead.At 7.14 Harry knew he was alive. He knew that because the pain could be felt in every nerve fibre.The raft drifted steadily north. “There must be a current.” The current was carrying them north, toward the hotel. He looked at his watch and was astonished to see it was fifteen minutes past seven. Only fifteen minutes had passed since he had last looked at his watch. It seemed like two hours.It was early in the year ’83 that I woke one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and 5as the clock on the mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits.At 7:15 A.M., January 25th, we started flying northwestward under McTighe's pilotage with ten men, seven dogs, a sledge, a fuel and food supply, and other items including the plane's wireless outfit.Gough again knocked on Mr and Mrs Kent's bedroom door. This time it was opened - Mary Kent had got out of bed and put on her dressing gown, having just checked her husband's watch: it was 7.15. A confused conversation ensued, in which each woman seemed to assume Saville was with the other.Gough again knocked on Mr and Mrs Kent's bedroom door. This time it was opened - Mary Kent had got out of bed and put on her dressing gown, having just checked her husband's watch: it was 7.15. A confused conversation ensued, in which each woman seemed to assume Saville was with the other.It was early in April in the year ’83 that I woke one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits.As of 7.17am local time on 30 June 1908, Padzhitnoff had been working for nearly a year as a contract employee of the Okhrana, receiving five hundred rubles a month, a sum which hovered at the exorbitant end of spy-budget outlays for those years.I opened the sunroof and turned up the CD player volume to combat fatigue, and at 7.19am on Saturday, with the caffeine still running all around my brain, Jackson Browne and I pulled into Moree.And this was my timetable when I lived at home with Father and I thought that Mother was dead from a heart attack (this was the timetable for a Monday and also it is an approximation). 7.20 a.m. Wake upHe who had been a boy very credulous of life was no longer greatly interested in the possible and improbable adventures of each new day. He escaped from reality till the alarm-clock rang, at seven-twenty.He tried one more time at 7:25, and nothing had changed. It ran and ran, eleven, twelve, thirteen times. He threw his guitar in his dad’s car and drove south toward Prescott. The Built to Spill tape was still in the tape deck, and he just let it keep going; it might as well be the damn soundtrack to everything.7.25 a.m. clean teeth and wash faceHis appointment with the doctor was for 8.45. It was 7.27.McMurphy is whispering and nudging the Acutes sitting around him, and in a minute they all nod, and he lays three dollars on the table and leans back. Everybody turns in his chair and watches that butter sneak on down the wall, starting, hanging still, shooting ahead and leaving a shiny trail behind it on the pain. Nobody says a word. They look at the butter, then at the clock, then back at the butter. The clock’s moving now. The butter makes it down to the floor about a half minute before seven-thirty, and McMurphy gets back all the money he lost.At 7.29 in the morning of 1 July, the cinematographer finds himself filming silence itself.About half-past seven I woke, and opened my window on a fine sunshiny day. The clock had struck eight, and I was just going out to chain up the dogs again, when I heard a sudden whisking of petticoats on the stairs behind me.At seven-thirty, Chetta Reynolds blew into the examining room where the Stones and their ceaselessly screaming baby daughter had been stashed. The poet rumored to be on the short list for Presidential Medal of Freedom was dressed in straight-leg jeans and a BU sweatshirt with a hole in one elbow.At seven-thirty the next morning, after less than three hours of broken, nightmare-haunted sleep, Tess booted up her office computer. But not to write. Writing was the farther thing from her mind.Seven-thirty back to the day room. The Big Nurse looks out through her special glass, always polished till you can’t tell it’s there, and nods at what she sees, reaches up and tears a sheet off her calendar one day closer to the goal.McMurphy is whispering and nudging the Acutes sitting around him, and in a minute they all nod, and he lays three dollars on the table and leans back. Everybody turns in his chair and watches that butter sneak on down the wall, starting, hanging still, shooting ahead and leaving a shiny trail behind it on the pain. Nobody says a word. They look at the butter, then at the clock, then back at the butter. The clock’s moving now. The butter makes it down to the floor about a half minute before seven-thirty, and McMurphy gets back all the money he lost.At half-past seven the next morning he rang the bell of 21 Blenheim Avenue.Precisely at half past seven the station-master came into the traffic office. He weighed almost sixteen stone, but women always said that he was incredibly light on his feet when he danced.At 7:32, he suffered a fatal stroke.7:34. Monday morning, Blackeberg. The burglar alarm at the ICA grocery store on Arvid Morne's way is set off.I told him that it was me and he said, ‘It’s 7.35 on a Sunday morning. This is terribly inconsiderate of you. I realize you’re besotted with Marigold, but you must try and restrain your passion. Come to lunch. I’ve got something to show you.’At 7:35am Ishigami left his apartment as he did every weekday morning.I looked at my watch. Seven thirty-five.7:36, sunrise. The hospital blinds were much better, darker than her own.Now, at the station, do you recall speaking to Mr Joseph Markew?' 'Yes, indeed. I was standing on the platform waiting for my usual train - the 7.39 - when he accosted me.'7.40 a.m. Have breakfast.“So he really had no choice but to pay an occasional visit to the living room instead, where the hands on the grandfather clock now indicated, rather unambiguously, that it was 7:42” “I had been in the tech ninja sleeve only a few hours—seven, and forty-two minutes according to the time display chipped into my upper-left field of vision—but there were none of the usual download side effects.”Seven forty-two am., Mr Gasparian: I curse you. I curse your arms so they will wither and die and fall off your body..."And there I was, complaining that all this was just inconvenient, Anna castigates herself. The Goth was obviously right. What does it matter, really, if I'm a bit late for work? She voices her thoughts: “It's not exactly how you'd choose to go, is it? You'd rather die flying a kite with your grandchildren, or at a great party or something. Not on the seven forty-four.”""The Goth was obviously right. What does it matter, really, if I'm a bit late for work? She voices her thoughts: “It's not exactly how you'd choose to go, is it? You'd rather die flying a kite with your grandchildren, or at a great party or something. Not on the seven forty-four.”"Tony marks papers until quarter to eight. Sunlight floods the room, made golden by the yellow leaves outside; a jet flies over; the garbage truck approaches along the street, clanking like a tank.Seven-forty-five the black boys move down the line of Chronics taping catheters on the ones that will hold still for it. Catheters are second-hand condoms the ends clipped off and rubber-banded to tubes that run down pantlegs to a plastic sack marked DISPOSABLE NOT TO BE RE-USED, which it is my job to wash out at the end of each day.“Contrary to his habit of being late, Pierre on that day arrived at the Bergs’ house, not at ten but at fifteen minutes to eight.”Mr Green left for work at a quarter to eight, as he did every morning. He walked down his front steps carrying his empty-looking leatherette briefcase with the noisy silver clasps, opened his car door, and ducked his head to climb into the driver's seat.Mr Green left for work at a quarter to eight, as he did every morning. He walked down his front steps carrying his empty-looking leatherette briefcase with the noisy silver clasps, opened his car door, and ducked his head to climb into the driver's seat.He awoke with a start. The clock on his bedside table said 7.46 a.m. He cursed, jumped out of bed and dressed. He stuffed his toothbrush and toothpaste in his jacket pocket, and parked outside the station just before 8 a.m. In reception, Ebba beckoned to him.At about ten minutes to eight, Jim had squared the part of the work he had been doing - the window - so he decided not to start on the door or the skirting until after breakfast."Vimes fished out the Gooseberry as a red-hot cabbage smacked into the road behind him. “Good morning!” he said brightly to the surprised imp. “What is the time, please?” “Er...nine minutes to eight, Insert Name Here,” said the imp.""“What time is it?” “Seven to eight. Won't be long now ...”"At five minutes to eight , the Prime Minister emerged from Wilson’s office, followed by Halifax and Cadogan. Wilson was the last to appear. He looked irritated. Legat guessed he must have had a further argument with Cadogan.at 7.55 this morning the circus ran away to join me.I sit by the window, crunching toast, sipping coffee, and leafing through the paper in a leisurely way. At last, after devouring three slices, two cups of coffee, and all the Saturday sections, I stretch my arms in a big yawn and glance at the clock. I don't believe it. It's only seven fifty-six.The Castle Gate - only the Castle Gate - and it was four minutes to eight.I'd spent fifty two days in 1958, but here it was 7.59 in the morning.“His landlady’s cook, who always brought him his breakfast at eight o’clock, failed to appear on this occasion. That had never happened before.”Tom Tooney devours his fettucini alfredo with a napkin tucked into the collar of his shirt, eating and slurping with abandon, and follows it up with a mixed-nut panna cotta. Holly has an antipasto and refuses dessert, settling for a cup of decaf (she eschews caffeine after 8A.M.).“With no expectation of pleasure, but with the strongest curiosity, Elizabeth opened the letter, and, to her still increasing wonder, perceived an envelope containing two sheets of letter paper, written quite through, in a very close hand. — The envelope itself was likewise full. - Pursuing her way along the lane, she then began it. It was dated from Rosings, at eight o’clock in the morning, and was as follows: -”The jungle river became narrower. The banks closed in on both sides until the trees and foliage overhanging the banks met high above to block out the sun. Tim heard the cry of birds, and saw small chirping dinosaurs leaping among the branches. But mostly it was silent, the air hot and still beneath the canopy of trees. Grant looked at his watch. It was eight o’clock.He sat in front of the consoles and gulped another cup of coffee. All around him, the control room was strewn with paper plates and half-eaten sandwiches. Arnold was exhausted. It was 8:00 A.M. on Saturday.“My fiddle would be the better for new strings,” he remarked. “Put your pistol in your pocket. When the fellow comes, speak to him in an ordinary way. Leave the rest to me. Don’t frighten him by looking at him too hard.” “It is eight o’clock now,” I said, glancing at my watch.The mother nodded. She didn’t seem able to get out a word. The daughter burst into tears. I felt more than ever that these people knew something of the matter. “At what o’clock did Mr. Drebber leave your house for the train?” I asked. “At eight o’clock,” she said, gulping in her throat to keep down her agitation.When the owner’s meal was ready at eight o’clock, she pushed the room service cart into the elevator and rode up to the sixth floor. It was the standard meal for him: a half bottle of red wine with the cork loosened, a thermal pot of coffee, a chicken entrée with steamed vegetables, rolls and butter. The heavy aroma of cooked chicken quickly filled the little elevator. It mingled with the smell of rain. Water droplets dotted the elevator floor, suggesting that someone with a wet umbrella had recently been aboard. Going down the Rue des Dames I bump into Peckover, another poor devil who works on the paper. He complains of getting only three or four hours’ sleep a night—has to get up at eight in the morning to work at a dentist’s office. It isn’t for the money he’s doing it, so he explains—it’s for to buy himself a set of false teeth.I felt my head get heavy. Harrison Ford was my dream man. My heart slowed, but still, I couldn’t sleep. I frank from the jug of gin. It seemed to settle my stomach. At eight A.M., I called Trevor again. This time he didn’t answer. “Just checking in,” I said in my message. “It’s been a while. Curious how you’ve been and what you’ve been up to. Let’s catch up soon.”The creature stuck her booty into a little burglar’s bag. “No more valuables to be taken care of?” “Put those items back! Now! Or I’ll have your job, I swear it!” “I’ll take that as a no. Breakfast is eight 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘱. Boiled eggs with toast soldiers today. None for the tardy.”Last night I left a letter under the manager’s day-office door—he’ll find it at eight A.M. tomorrow—informing him of the change in my existential status, so with luck an innocent chambermaid will be spared an unpleasant surprise. See, I do think of the little people.This morning I plain don’t remember. They got enough of those things they call pills down me so I don’t know a thing till I hear the ward door open. That ward door opening means it’s at least eight o’clock, means there’s been maybe an hour and a half I was out cold in that Seclusion Room when the technicians could of come in and installed anything the Big Nurse ordered and I wouldn’t have the slightest notion what.“Agh ...” I gasped hoarsely, turning over onto my back. Through the heavy curtains I couldn’t see whether it was still night or the day was well advanced. I squinted at the clock: The glowing figures showed eight.”Eight o’clock the walls whirr and hum into full swing. The speaker in the ceiling says, “Medications,” using the Big Nurse’s voice.“I’ll give you a ride, of course!” Sarah said, slapping Kendra’s shoulder. “It’s really no problem.” Kendra grabbed where she’d been slapped. “We start at eight?” she said, kneading her shoulder.It was only eight in the morning, too early for the lazy sods on the board to show up for their stab at municipal work. Still, the wee hour didn’t stop Thomas from kicking the blue council doors in unadulterated rage before retreating to his Land Rover to await Councilman Padraig Carey’s arrival.“It was dated from Rosings, at eight o’clock in the morning, and was as follows:”“A man who had been in motion since eight o’clock in the morning, and might now have been still, who had been long talking, and might have been silent, who had been in more than one crowd, and might have been alone!”They were to call for her at her house in the Taurida Gardens at ten o’clock, but it was already five minutes to ten, and the girls were not yet dressed. Natásha was going to her first grand ball. She had got up at eight that morning and had been in a fever of excitement and activity all day.Philip Lombard had the habit of waking at daybreak. He did so on this particular morning. He raised himself on an elbow and listened. The wind had somewhat abated but was still blowing. He could hear no sound of rain… At eight o’clock the wind was blowing more strongly, but Lombard did not hear it. He was asleep again."“I'm not crying,” Maria said when Carter called from the desert at 8 a.m. “I'm perfectly alright”. “You don't sound perfectly alright"8.00 a.m. Put school clothes onAt 8 o'clock on Thursday morning Arthur didn't feel very good.At eight o'clock on Thursday morning Arthur didn't feel very good. He woke up blearily, got up, wandered blearily round his room, opened a window, saw a bulldozer, found his slippers and stomped off to the bathroom to wash.At eight o’clock, a shaft of daylight came to wake us. The thousand facets of the lava on the rock face picked it up as it passed, scattering like a shower of sparks.But for now it was still eight o'clock, and as I walked along the avenue under that brilliant blue sky, I was happy, my friends, as happy as any man who had ever lived.By eight o'clock Stillman would come out, always in his long brown overcoat, carrying a large, old-fashioned carpet bag. For two weeks this routine did not vary. The old man would wander through the streets of the neighbourhood, advancing slowly, sometimes by the merest of increments, pausing, moving on again, pausing once more, as though each step had to be weighed and measured before it could take its place among the sum total of steps.Dressed in sweater, anorak and long johns, he lay in bed, hemmed in on three sides by chunky wooden beams, and ate all the salted snacks in the minibar, and then all the sugary snacks, and when he was woken by reception at eight the following morning to be told that everyone was waiting for him downstairs, the wrapper of a Mars bar was still folded in his fist.I hear noise at the ward door, off up the hall out of my sight. That ward door starts opening at eight and opens and closes a thousand times a day, kashash, click."It was dated from Rosings, at eight o'clock in the morning, and was as follows: - “Be not alarmed, madam, on receiving this letter, by the apprehension of its containing any repetition of those sentiments or renewal of those offerings which were last night so disgusting to you."Mr. Pumblechook and I breakfasted at eight o'clock in the parlour behind the shop, while the shopman took his mug of tea and hunch of bread-and-butter on a sack of peas in the front premises.Mrs. Rochester! She did not exist: she would not be born till to-morrow, some time after eight o'clock a.m.; and I would wait to be assured she had come into the world alive, before I assigned to her all that property.So here I'll watch the night and wait To see the morning shine, When he will hear the stroke of eight And not the stroke of nine;Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K. for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning. His landlady's cook, who always brought him breakfast at eight o'clock, failed to appear on this occasion.The next morning I woke up at oh eight oh oh hours, my brothers, and as I still felt shagged and fagged and fashed and bashed and as my glazzies were stuck together real horrorshow with sleepglue, I thought I would not go to school .Three days after the quarrel, Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky--Stiva, as he was called in the fashionable world-- woke up at his usual hour, that is, at eight o'clock in the morning, not in his wife's bedroom, but on the leather-covered sofa in his study.Through the curtained windows of the furnished apartment which Mrs. Horace Hignett had rented for her stay in New York rays of golden sunlight peeped in like the foremost spies of some advancing army. It was a fine summer morning. The hands of the Dutch clock in the hall pointed to thirteen minutes past nine; those of the ormolu clock in the sitting-room to eleven minutes past ten; those of the carriage clock on the bookshelf to fourteen minutes to six. In other words, it was exactly eight; and Mrs. Hignett acknowledged the fact by moving her head on the pillow, opening her eyes, and sitting up in bed. She always woke at eight precisely.When he opened the windows in the morning, the sky was as overcast as it had been, but the air seemed fresher, and regret set in. Had giving notice not been impetuous and wrongheaded, the result of an inconsequential indisposition? If he had held off a bit, if he had not been so quick to lose heart, if he had instead tried to adjust to the air or wait for the weather to improve, he would now have been free of stress and strain and looking forward to a morning on the beach like the one the day before. Too late. He must go on wanting what he had wanted yesterday. He dressed and rode down to the ground floor at eight for breakfast.Eight-one, tick-tock, eight-one o'clock, off to school, off to work, run, run, eight-one!... bingeley ... Eight oh two eh em, Death of Corporal Littlebottombottom ... Eight oh three eh em ... Death of Sergeant Detritus ... Eight oh threethreethree eh em and seven seconds seconds ... Death of Constable Visit ... Eight oh three eh em and nineninenine seconds ... Death of death of death of ...8:03 A.M. People in Evanston moved so goddamn slow. it was one thing when the sidewalks were covered in ice and lake-effect snow. But this was June, the day after Braque’s cousin Eva’s birthday, which used to mean a big family party marking the beginning of summer, at least before her dad left and her brother Randy went into rehab.... bingeley ... Eight oh two eh em, Death of Corporal Littlebottombottom ... Eight oh three eh em ... Death of Sergeant Detritus ... Eight oh threethreethree eh em and seven seconds seconds ... Death of Constable Visit ... Eight oh three eh em and nineninenine seconds ... Death of death of death of ...He taught me that if I had to meet someone for an appointment, I must refuse to follow the 'stupid human habit' of arbitrarily choosing a time based on fifteen-minute intervals. 'Never meet people at 7:45 or 6:30, Jasper, but pick times like 7:12 and 8:03!'... every clerk had his particular schedule of hours, which coincided with a single pair of tram runs coming from the city: A had to come in at 8, B at 8:04, C at 8:08 and so on, and the same for quitting times, in such a manner that never would two colleagues have the opportunity to travel in the same tramcar.8.05 a.m. Pack school bag... every clerk had his particular schedule of hours, which coincided with a single pair of tram runs coming from the city: A had to come in at 8, B at 8:04, C at 8:08 and so on, and the same for quitting times, in such a manner that never would two colleagues have the opportunity to travel in the same tramcar.He followed the squeals down a hallway. A wall clock read 8:09 - 10:09 Dallas time.“He was half delirious, and kept calling something about a chemistry lecture at 8:10.”8.10 a.m. Read book or watch videoAmory rushed into the house and the rest followed with a limp mass that they laid on the sofa in the shoddy little front parlor. Sloane, with his shoulder punctured, was on another lounge. He was half delirious, and kept calling something about a chemistry lecture at 8:10.Cell count down to 400,000. Woke 8:10. To sleep 7:15. (Appear to have lost my watch without realising it, had to drive into town to buy another.)'Care for a turn on the engine?' he called to the doxies, and pointed up at the footplate. They laughed but voted not to, climbing up with their bathtub into one of the rattlers instead. They both had very fetching hats, with one flower apiece, but the prettiness of their faces made you think it was more. For some reason they both wore white rosettes pinned to their dresses. I looked again at the clock: eight-eleven.At 8:12 a.m., just before the moment of pff, all the business of the cellars was being transacted - garbage transferred from small cans into large ones; early wide-awake grandmas, rocky with insomnia, dumped wash into the big tubs; boys in swimming trunks rolled baby carriages out into the cool morning.At 8:13 a.m. the alarm clock in the laboratory gave the ringing word. Eddie touched a button in the substructure of an ordinary glass coffeepot, from whose spout two tubes proceeded into the wall.No one at the desk asked Louis for identification or payment. An elderly woman showed him to a tiny, spotlessly clean room, and left without offering a word. The earliest direct flight from Prague to Vienna left at 8:15 a.m., and Most had decided that Louis should not spend the intervening hours waiting in an airport lounge. Casey Kingsley wasn’t entirely surprised to see his new hire sitting outside his office when he arrived at quarter past eight that morning. Nor was he surprised to see the bottle Torrance was holding in his hands, first twisting the cap off, then putting it back on and turning it tight again—he’d had that special look from the start, the thousand-yard Kappy’s Discount Liquor Store stare.It was in the winter when this happened, very near the shortest day, and a week of fog into the bargain, so the fact that it was still very dark when George woke in the morning was no guide to him as to the time. He reached up, and hauled down his watch. It was a quarter-past eight."You scrutinized your wrist: “It's eight fifteen. (And here time forked.) I'll turn it on.” The screen In its blank broth evolved a lifelike blur, And music welled."I walk through the fruit trees toward a huge, square, brown patch of earth with vegetation growing in serried rows. These must be the vegetables. I prod one of them cautiously with my foot. It could be a cabbage or a lettuce. Or the leaves of something growing underground, maybe. To be honest, it could be an alien. I have no idea. I sit down on a mossy wooden bench and look at a nearby bush covered in white flowers. Mm. Pretty. Now what? What do people do in their gardens? I feel I should have something to read. Or someone to call. My fingers are itching to move. I look at my watch. Still only eight sixteen. Oh God."Breakfast over, my uncle drew from his pocket a small notebook, intended for scientific observations. He consulted his instruments, and recorded: “Monday, July 1. “Chronometer, 8.17 a.m.; barometer, 297 in.; thermometer, 6° (43° F.). Direction, E.S.E.” This last observation applied to the dark gallery, and was indicated by the compass."Come on, I can't give up yet. I'll just sit here for a bit and enjoy the peace. I lean back and watch a little speckled bird pecking the ground nearby for a while. Then I look at my watch again: eight seventeen. I can't do this.I had arranged to meet the Occupational Health Officer at 10:30. I took the train from Watford Junction at 8.19 and arrived at London Euston seven minutes late, at 8.49.Eight-twenty the cards and puzzles go out. . . .When the typewriters happen to pause (8:20 and other mythical hours), and there are no flights of American bombers in the sky, and the motor traffic's not too heavy in Oxford Street, you can hear winter birds cheeping outside, busy at the feeders the girls have put up."And then Wedderburn looked at his watch. “Twenty-three minutes past eight. I am going up by the quarter to twelve train, so that there is plenty of time. I think I shall wear my alpaca jacket - it is quite warm enough - and my grey felt hat and brown shoes. I suppose”"At 8:23 there seemed every chance of a lasting alliance starting between Florin and Guilder. At 8:24 the two nations were very close to war.At 8:23 there seemed every chance of a lasting alliance starting between Florin and Guilder. At 8:24 the two nations were very close to war.Eight-twenty-five some Acute mentions he used to watch his sister taking her bath; the three guys at the table with him fall over each other to see who gets to write it in the log book. . . .It exploded much later than intended, probably a good twelve hours later, at twenty-six minutes past eight on Monday morning. Several defunct wristwatches, the property of victims, confirmed the time. As with its predecessors over the last few months, there had been no warning.The lecture was to be given tomorrow, and it was now almost eight-thirty.And at 8.28 on the following morning, with a novel chilliness about the upper lip, and a vast excess of strength and spirits, I was sitting in a third-class carriage, bound for Germany, and dressed as a young sea-man, in a pea-jacket, peaked cap, and comforter.At 8.29 I punched the front doorbell in Elgin Crescent. It was opened by a small oriental woman in a white apron. She showed me into a large, empty sitting room with an open fire and a couple of huge oil paintings.Gard stood bent over the cut in the earth for some time, shining the big light into the black depths. Here it was, only eight-thirty in the morning, and already he wanted a drink.At half past eight Millicent Hammitt barged in, without a preliminary knock, to say goodbye.Sir John was normally awakened at half past eight every morning by a butler who brought him his breakfast, another butler who brought him his clothes, a third butler whose job it was to feed Adolf and Stalin if necessary, and a fourth butler who was basically a spare. Outside, the wind continued to rise. Every now and then it gave a blood-curdling scream around the eaves that made him look up from his book. Around eight thirty, the snow began. It was heavy and wet, quickly coating his window and blocking his view of the mountains. In a way, that was worse. The snow had blocked the windows in the Overlook, too.We had made our arrangements at lunch the day before, and when I turned my old car into the driveway of the big green Victorian at eight-thirty on Tuesday morning, Annie and Mike were ready to go. So was Milo.At eight thirty, I called and said, “I’ve been thinking I might get a boob job, just take them clean off. What do you think? Could I pull off the flat-chested look?”Eight-thirty the ward door opens and two technicians trot in, smelling like grape wine; technicians always move at a fast walk or a trot because they’re always leaning so far forward they have to move fast to keep standing.At 8:30 A.M. Filomina walked into the Ale House white, round, and heaving from the extra hundred and forty-six pounds she carried on her small frame.“What nonsense!” thought Vronsky, and glanced at his watch. It was half-past eight already.At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.It is around 8:30. Sunshine comes through the windows at right. As the curtain rises, the family has just finished breakfast.On July 25th, 8:30 a.m. the bitch Novaya dies whelping. At 10 o'clock she is lowered into her cool grave, at 7:30 that same evening we see our first floes and greet them wishing they were the last.The lecture was to be given tomorrow, and it was now almost eight-thirty.When he woke, at eight-thirty, he was alone in the bedroom. He put on his dressing gown and put in his hearing aid and went into the living room.I can see by my watch, without taking my hand from the left grip of the cycle, that it is eight-thirty in the morning.It’s 8:32 a.m. on the twenty-fourth of December and Henry and I are on our way to Meadowlark House for Christmas. It’s a beautiful clear day, no snow here in Chicago, but six inches on the ground in South Haven.'Does anybody know the time a little more exactly is what I'm wondering, Don, since Day doesn't.' Gately checks his cheap digital, head still hung over the sofa's arm. 'I got 0832:14, 15, 16, Randy.' ''ks a lot, D.G. man.'8.32 a.m. Catch bus to schoolIt’s too late for any TV because of the cake, Watch says it is 08:33. My yellow hoody nearly rips my head off when Ma is pulling it.Delivery had been by messenger service and the office stamp showed 8.35 a.m. as the time out. I opened the envelope and drew out the shiny 4¼ by 3¼ photo that was all there was inside.It was thirty-five minutes past eight by the big clock of the central building when Mathieu crossed the yard towards the office which he occupied as chief designer. For eight years he had been employed at the works where, after a brilliant and special course of study, he had made his beginning as assistant draughtsman when but nineteen years old, receiving at that time a salary of one hundred francs a month.Old gummy granny (thrusts a dagger towards Stephen's hand) Remove him, acushla. At 8.35 a.m. you will be in heaven and Ireland will be free (she prays) O good God take him!Eight thirty-seven am., Patrice Lane, Biohazard: The dog's clean. The Good Samaritan was a woman with an accent of some sort. Why haven't you called me?This is because when the first shot was fired at 8:39 A.M., I was sleeping beside my girlfriend, Carmen, as bourbon soaked our livers, coke drip lingered in our throats, and her birth control eliminated the risk of getting pregnant on a night we would scarcely remember. As haram of a night as one could live; I might as well have changed my name to Patrick and launched a blog for atheists.Doug McGuire noticed the early hour, 8:39 A.M. on the one wall clock that gave Daylight Savings Time for the East Coast.At 8:40 A.M. she was wheeled out on a stretcher headed for Mayo General Hospital, blistered and burned by a tanning bed turned torture chamber.At this moment the clock indicated 8.40. 'Five minutes more,' said Andrew Stuart. The five friends looked at each other. One may surmise that their heart-beats were slightly accelereted, for, even for bold gamblers, the stake was a large one.'It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine.It’s 08:41 and I’m in Bed practicing. Ma’s filled a plastic bag with really hot water and tied it tight so none spills out, she puts it in another bag and ties that too.By forty-one minutes past eight we are five hundred yards from the water’s edge, and between our road and the foot of the mountain we descry the piled-up remains of a ruined tower."“You understand this tape recorder is on?” “Uh huh” “And it's Wednesday, May 15, at eight forty-three in the mornin'.” “If you say so”"8.43 a.m. Go past tropical fish shopSeveral soldiers - some with their uniforms unbuttoned - were looking over a motorcycle, arguing about it. The sergeant looked at his watch; it was eight forty-four. They had to wait until nine. Hladik, feeling more insignificant than ill-fortuned, sat down on a pile of firewood.When Gardner woke up, bright light was streaming into his face through the western window. His back hurt like a bastard, and when he stood up his neck gave a wretched arthritic creak that made him wince. It was quarter of nine.When it got to be a quarter to nine and still no one had shown up, Gardener began to wonder if maybe they were quitting. He toyed with the idea as he sat in Bobbi’s rocker on the porch, fingering the big, puffy bruise on the side of his face where Bozeman had clouted him.At eight forty-five, I called and said, “I need some financial advice. Actually, I’m serious. I’m in a bind.”He paid the waitress and left the café. It was 8:45. The sun pressed against the inside of a thin layer of cloud. He unbuttoned his jacket as he hurried down Queensway. His mind, unleashed, sprang forwards."“Just on my way to the cottage. It's, er, ..8.47. Bit misty on the roads.....”"8.47. Bit misty on the roadsI had arranged to meet the Occupational Health Officer at 10:30. I took the train from Watford Junction at 8.19 and arrived at London Euston seven minutes late, at 8.49.“He rang up his servant, dressed in haste, and went out onto the steps, completely forgetting the dream and only worried at being late. As he drove up to the Karenins’ entrance he looked at his watch and saw it was ten minutes to nine.”At ten to nine the clerks began to arrive.When they had hung up their coats and hates they came to the fireplace and stood warming themselves. If there was no fire, they stood there all the same"It was 8:50 in the morning and Bernie and I were alone on an Astoria side street, not far from a sandwich shop that sold a sopressatta sub called “The Bypass”. I used to eat that sandwich weekly, wash it down with espresso soda, smoke a cigarette, go for a jog. Now I was too near the joke to order the sandwich, and my son's preschool in the throes of doctrinal schism."Punctually at ten minutes to nine, a quarter hour after early mass, the boy stood in his Sunday uniform outside his father's door.8:51 A.M. Braque had never been at Whole Foods this time of morning before. It was way less slammed with rubes than at lunchtime. It sucked balls having to skip weight training, but after vomiting, she needed two bananas, reverse-osmosis water, and a protein shake to replenish, along with an extra protein shake for Patricia to make it up to her.8.51 a.m. Arrive at schoolMessage one. Tuesday, 8.52am. Is anybody there? Hello?It was Mrs. Poppets that woke me up next morning. She said: “Do you know that it’s nearly nine o’clock, sir?” “Nine o’ what?” I cried, starting up. “Nine o’clock,” she replied, through the keyhole. “I thought you was a- oversleeping yourselves.”“Linus began to walk down the hallway slowly. Rain lashed against the windows to his left. The lights in the sconces to his right flicked slightly. His loafers squeaked on the floor. He pulled at his tie. By the time he reached the opposite end of the hallway, four minutes had passed. According to his watch, it was five till nine.”At five to nine, the exam room door opened and the Stones’ pediatrician walked in. Dr. John Dalton was a fellow Dan Torrance would have recognized, although not by last name. To Dan he was just Doctor John, who made the coffee at the Thursday night Big Book meeting in North Conway."At five minutes to nine, Jacques, in his gray butler's livery, came down the stairs and said, “Young master, your Herr Papá is coming.”"George pulled out his watch and looked at it: it was five minutes to nine!It was nearly nine o'clock and the sun was fiercer every minute.'She points up at Watch that says 08:57, that’s only three minutes before nine. So I run into Wardrobe and lie down on my pillow and wrap up in Blanket that’s all grey and fleecy with the red piping.She points up at Watch that says 08:57, that’s only three minutes before nine. So I run into Wardrobe and lie down on my pillow and wrap up in Blanket that’s all grey and fleecy with the red piping.You'll have to hurry. Many a long year before that, in one of the bygone centuries, a worthy citizen of Wrychester, Martin by name, had left a sum of money to the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral on condition that as long as ever the Cathedral stood, they should cause to be rung a bell from its smaller bell-tower for three minutes before nine o'clock every morning, all the year round.It was two minutes of nine now - two minutes before the bombs were set to explode - and three or four people were gathered in front of the bank waiting for it to open.She had been lying in bed reading about Sophie and Alberto's conversation on Marx and had fallen asleep. The reading lamp by the bed had been on all night. The green glowing digits on her desk alarm clock showed 8:59.Promptly at nine o’clock the next morning the green-whiskered soldier came to them, and four minutes later they all went into the Throne Room of the Great Oz.She thought she had seen something different about Peter, but hadn’t been able to tell exactly what it was. When Anderson woke up the next morning (at a perfectly normal nine o’clock), she saw it almost at once. The storm held off until nine o’clock, and by then Anderson was pretty sure they were going to have a good one - what Havenites called “a real Jeezer.”The clock struck nine when I did send the Nurse. In half an hour she promised to return.By nine o’clock the next morning I was punctually opening the school; tranquil, settled, prepared for the steady duties of the day.At nine o’clock his secretary came and read him his appointments for the day. When he did so this morning, though, he found him still staring at his plate with a strange expression.When I got off the train, I anxiously wondered where I should head for. Nightclubs were a great place to buy coke, but precious few were open at nine o’clock in the morning.He’d woken up at nine, worked for a while in his room, and then said he felt sleepy. He went to the kitchen, made some coffee, and drank it. But the coffee didn’t help. “I think I’ll take a nap,” he said. “I hear a buzzing sound in the back of my head.” Those were his last words. He curled up in bed, went to sleep, and never woke up again.Today it is lovely again, and along the Champs-Élysées at twilight it is like an outdoor seraglio choked with dark-eyed houris. The trees are in full foliage and of a verdure so pure, so rich, that it seems as though they were still wet and glistening with dew. From the Palais du Louvre to the Etoile it is like a piece of music for the pianoforte. For five days I have not touched the typewriter nor looked at a book; nor have I had a single idea in my head except to go to the American Express. At nine this morning I was there, just as the doors were being opened, and again at one o’clock.He keeps smiling all the time, smiling like a rosy little bedbug that has had its fill. “It was nine o’clock,” he says once again, “when I called you up, wasn’t it?” I nod my head wearily. Yes, it was nine o’clock. He is certain now that it was nine o’clock because he remembers having taken out his watch.At nine o’clock, I called again. He answered. “What do you want?” he asked. “I was hoping to hear you say you miss me.” “I miss you,” he said. “Is that it?” I hung up.A work routine is developing. Ayrs and I are in the music room by nine o’clock every morning his various ailments and pains let him. I sit at the piano, Ayrs on the divan, smoking his vile Turkish cigarettes, and we adopt one of our three modi operandi. "Revisionals"—he asks me to run through the previous morning’s work. I hum, sing, or play, depending on the instrument, and Ayrs modifies the score.There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke bright and cloudless. At nine o’clock Lestrade called for us with the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe Pool.“Don’t give it another thought, old sport.” The familiar expression held no more familiarity than the hand which reassuringly brushed my shoulder. “And don’t forget we’re going up in the hydroplane tomorrow morning, at nine ”At nine o’clock, one morning late in July, Gatsby’s gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three-noted horn. It was the first time he had called on me, though I had gone to two of his parties, mounted in his hydroplane, and, at his urgent invitation, made frequent use of his beach.It was nine o’clock when we finished breakfast and went out on the porch. The night had made a sharp difference in the weather and there was an autumn flavor in the air.“The Earth was created on Sunday the 21st of October, 4004 B.C., at exactly 9:00 A.M., because God liked to get work done early in the morning while he was feeling fresh.”At only nine in the morning, the kitchen was already pregnant to its capacity, every crevice and countertop overtaken by Marjan’s gourmet creations. Marinating vegetables (𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘴 of mango, eggplant, and the regular seven-spice variety), packed to the briny brims of five-gallon see-through canisters sat on the kitchen island. Large blue bowls were filled with salads (angelica lentil, tomato, cucumber and mint, and Persian fried chicken), 𝘥𝘰𝘭𝘮𝘦𝘩, and dips (cheese and walnut, yogurt and cucumber, baba ghanoush, and spicy hummus), which along with feta, Stilton, and cheddar cheeses, were covered and stacked in the enormous glass-door refrigerator.By the time he was fully dressed it was nine o’clock. There were six hours left until Hitler’s ultimatum expired. He went in search of breakfast.“However, at nine o’clock the prince, in his velvet coat with a sable collar and cap, went out for his usual walk. "“It was nine o’clock in the morning. The fog lay unbroken like a sea down below, but higher up at the village of Schlappanitz where Napoleon stood with his marshals around him, it was quite light. Above him was a clear blue sky, and the sun’s vast orb quivered like a huge hollow, crimson float on the surface of that milky sea of mist. "“When the gong sounded for breakfast at nine o’clock it found every one up and awaiting the summons.”At nine o’clock, Emily Brent rose to her feet. She said: “I’m going to bed.” 'I could never get all the way down there before nine o'clock.''Look. Ignatius. I'm beat. I've been on the road since nine o'clock yesterday morning.'On the third morning after their arrival, just as all the clocks in the city were striking nine individually, and somewhere about nine hundred and ninety-nine collectively, Sam was taking the air in George Yard, when a queer sort of fresh painted vehicle drove up, out of which there jumped with great agility, throwing the reins to a stout man who sat beside him, a queer sort of gentleman, who seemed made for the vehicle, and the vehicle for him.14 June 9:00 am woke up9.00 a.m. School assembly"A fly buzzed, the wall clock began to strike. After the nine golden strokes faded, the district captain began. “How is Herr Colonel Marek?” “Thank you, Papá, he's fine.” “Still weak in geometry?” “Thank you, Papá, a little better.” “Read any books?” “Yessir, Papá.”"As nine o' clock was left behind, the preposterousness of the delay overwhelmed me, and I went in a kind of temper to the owner and said that I thought he should sign on another cook and weigh spars and be off.At nine o'clock, one morning late in July, Gatsby's gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three-noted horn"He was at breakfast at nine, and for the twentieth time consulted his “Bradshaw,” to see at what earliest hour Dr. Grantly could arrive from Barchester."He won't stand beating. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!It was around nine o'clock that I crossed the border into Cornwall. This was at least three hours before the rain began and the clouds were still all of a brilliant white. In fact, many of the sights that greeted me this morning were among the most charming I have so far encountered. It was unfortunate, then, that I could not for much of the time give to them the attention they warranted; for one may as well declare it, one was in a condition of some preoccupation with the thought that - barring some unseen complication - one would be meeting Miss Kenton again before the day's end.Opening his window, Aschenbach thought he could smell the foul stench of the lagoon. A sudden despondency came over him. He considered leaving then and there. Once, years before, after weeks of a beautiful spring, he had been visited by this sort of weather and it so affected his health he had been obliged to flee. Was not the same listless fever setting in? The pressure in the temples, the heavy eyelids? Changing hotels again would be a nuisance, but if the wind failed to shift he could not possibly remain here. To be on the safe side, he did not unpack everything. At nine he went to breakfast in the specially designated buffet between the lobby and the dining room.Sometimes what I wouldn't give to have us sitting in a bar again at 9.00am telling lies to one another, far from God.The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; In half an hour she promised to return. Perchance she cannot meet him: that's not so.To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many. Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. Flowed up the hill and down King William Street, To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.9:01am lay in bed, staring at ceiling.9:02am lay in bed, staring at ceiling.9:03am lay in bed, staring at ceiling."This isn't a very good start to the new school year.” I stared at her. What was she talking about? Why was she looking at her watch? I wasn't late. Okay, the school bell had rung as I was crossing the playground, but you always get five minutes to get to your classroom. “It's three minutes past nine,” Miss Beckworth announced. “You're late.”"9:04am lay in bed, staring at ceilingIn the light of a narrow-beam lantern, Pierce checked his watch. It was 9.04.9:05am lay in bed, staring at ceilingKaldren pursues me like luminescent shadow. He has chalked up on the gateway '96,688,365,498,702'. Should confuse the mail man. Woke 9:05. To sleep 6:36.The tour of the office doesn't take that long. In fact, we're pretty much done by 9:05 a.m. … and even though it's just a room with a window and a pin board and two doors and two desks... I can't help feeling a buzz as I lead them around. It's mine. My space. My company.The tour of the office doesn't take that long. In fact, we're pretty much done by 9:05 a.m. Ed looks at everything twice and says it's all great, and gives me a list of contacts who might be helpful, then has to leave for his own office.9:06am lay in bed, staring at ceiling9:07am lay in bed, staring at ceilingIt was a sparkling morning, 9:07 by the clock when Mrs. Flett stepped aboard the Imperial Limited at the Tyndall station, certain that her life was ruined, but managing, through an effort of will, to hold herself erect and to affect an air of preoccupation and liveliness.9.08am rolled over onto left side.9.09am lay in bed, staring at wall.9.10am lay in bed, staring at wall.“What train can I get?” “There’s one about 9:11 if you really must go.”9:11am lay in bed, staring at wall9.12am lay in bed, staring at wall.9:13am lay in bed, staring at wallShe tucked the phone in the crook of her neck and thumbed hurriedly through her pink messages. Dr. Provetto, at 9:13 A.M.9.14am lay in bed, staring at wall.The breakfast crowd at the Sunspot is clearing out. Soon the woman in charge, no longer sleepy-eyed, will take in the signboard with the breakfast specials and replace it with the one for the lunch specials. Quarter past nine and the smoke billowing above the courthouse seems to be thinning. Billy is starting to wonder if there’s been a glitch.It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker Street."“Great!” Jones commented. “I've never seen it do that before. That's all right. Okay.” Jones pulled a handful of pencils from his back pocket. “Now, I got the contact first at 0915 or so, and the bearing was about two-six-nine.”"9:15am doubled over pillow, sat up to see out window9.15 a.m. First morning classMiss Pettigrew pushed open the door of the employment agency and went in as the clock struck a quarter past nine.9.16am sat in bed, staring out window.9.17am sat in bed, staring out window.9.18am sat in bed, staring out window.9.19am sat in bed, staring out window.Grant knew animals often performed such mating rituals for hours at a time. They went without food, they paid attention to nothing else. . . . He glanced at his watch. Nine-twenty.I'll compromise by saying that I left home at eight and spent an hour travelling to a nine o'clock appointment. Twenty minutes later is nine-twenty.At twenty minutes past nine, the Duke of Dunstable, who had dined off a tray in his room, was still there, waiting for his coffee and liqueur.The following morning at 9.20 Mr Cribbage straightened his greasy old tie, combed his Hitler moustache and arranged the few strands of his hair across his bald patch.It was nine twenty-one. With one minute to go, there was no sign of Herbert's mother.No more throwing stones at him, and I'll see you back here exactly one week from now. She looked at her watch. 'At nine twenty-two next Wednesday.'9.23. What possessed me to buy this comb?9.24 I'm swelled after that cabbage. A speck of dust on the patent leather of her boot.A man I would cross the street to avoid at nine o'clock - by nine twenty-five I wanted to fuck him until he wept. My legs trembled with it. My voice floated out of my mouth when I opened it to speak. The glass wall of the meeting room was huge and suddenly too transparent.From twenty minutes past nine until twenty-seven minutes past nine, from twenty-five minutes past eleven until twenty-eight minutes past eleven, from ten minutes to three until two minutes to three the heroes of the school met in a large familiarity whose Olympian laughter awed the fearful small boy that flitted uneasily past and chilled the slouching senior that rashly paused to examine the notices in assertion of an unearned right."“This clock right?” he asked the butler in the hall. “Yes, sir.” The clock showed twenty-eight minutes past nine. “The clocks here have to be right, sir,” the butler added with pride and a respectful humour, on the stairs.""He entered No. 10 for the first time, he who had sat on the Government benches for eight years and who had known the Prime Minister from youth up. “This clock right?” he asked the butler in the hall. “Yes, sir.” The clock showed twenty-eight minutes past nine. “The clocks here have to be right, sir,” the butler added with pride and a respectful humour, on the stairs."We have three years of the past to discuss. Let that suffice until half-past nine, when we start upon the notable adventure of the empty house.Grant opened his eyes. Brilliant blue light was streaming into the building through the bars of the gate. Quartz light: the power was back on! Groggily, he looked at his watch. It was just nine-thirty. He’d been asleep only a couple of minutes.“Strictly speaking—wait a second—strictly speaking, my last round of vomiting occurred on July 14, at nine thirty in the morning when I brought up my toast, tomato salad, and milk.”It was morning—nine thirty A.M.—and the sun threw small, golden dots on the water. When everything was calm, the lake looked like a dark-blue mirror cutting straight through the hills, and it seemed, if she were careful, she could walk out on it and not get wet.The platform was deserted. He checked his watch. It was a good watch, a Rolex, given to him by his mother on his twenty-first birthday. With beautiful efficiency they had arrived at 9.30 a.m. precisely. He wondered if the British delegation had taken off yet.At nine-thirty he was sitting on the edge of his bed looking at his watch. He put it to his ear. Then his lips drew back from his teeth in that curious wolf-like smile characteristic of the man. He said very softly: “I think the time has come to do something about this.”he looked at his watch; it was half-past nineIt was nine-thirty. In another ten minutes she would turn off the heat; then it would take a while for the water to cool. In the meantime there was nothing to do but wait. “Have you thought it through April?” Never undertake to do a thing until you’ve –“ But she needed no more advice and no more instruction. She was calm and quiet now with knowing what she had always known, what neither her parents not Aunt Claire not Frank nor anyone else had ever had to teach her: that if you wanted to do something absolutely honest, something true, it always turned out to be a thing that had to be done alone.The body came in at nine-thirty this morning. One of Holding's men went to the house and collected it. There was nothing particularly unusual about the death. The man had had a fear of hospitals and had died at home, being cared for more than adequately by his devoted wife.Up the welcomingly warm morning hill we trudge, side by each, bound finally for the Hall of Fame. It's 9.30, and time is in fact a-wastin'.He said he couldn't say for certain of course, but that he rather thought he was. Anyhow, if he wasn't the 11.5 for Kingston, he said he was pretty confident he was the 9.32 for Virginia Water, or the 10 a.m. express for the Isle of Wight, or somewhere in that direction, and we should all know when we got there.Sandy barely made the nine-thirty-two and found a seat in no-smoking. She'd been looking forward to this visit with Lisbeth. They hadn't seen each other in months, not since January, when Sandy had returned from Jamaica. And on that day Sandy was sporting a full-blown herpes virus on her lower lip.Next, he remembered that the morrow of Christmas would be the twenty-seventh day of the moon, and that consequently high water would be at twenty-one minutes past three, the half-ebb at a quarter past seven, low water at thirty-three minutes past nine, and half flood at thirty-nine minutes past twelve.Tess looked at her watch and was astounded to see it was only twenty-five to ten. It seemed that she had fed Fritzy double rations and left the house four years ago. Maybe five, She thought she heard an approaching engine, then decided she didn’t.Nine-thirty-five. He really must be gone. The bird is no longer feeding but sitting at the apex of a curl of razor wire.Nine-thirty-five. He really must be gone. The bird is no longer feeding but sitting at the apex of a curl of razor wire.I grab a pen and the pad of paper by the phone and start scribbling a list for the day. I have an image of myself moving smoothly from task to task, brush in one hand, duster in the other, bringing order to everything. Like Mary Poppins. 9:30-9:36 Make Geigers' bed 9:36-9:42 Take laundry out of machine and put in dryer 9:42-10:00 Clean bathrooms I get to the end and read it over with a fresh surge of optimism. At this rate I should be done easily by lunchtime. 9:36 Fuck. I cannot make this bed. Why won't this sheet lie flat? 9:42 And why do they make mattresses so heavy?Monday February 6th. '9.36am. Oh god, Oh god. Maybe he's fallen in love in New York and stayed there'.It comprised all that was required of the servant, from eight in the morning, exactly at which hour Phileas Fogg rose, till half-past eleven, when he left the house for the Reform Club - all the details of service, the tea and toast at twenty-three minutes past eight, the shaving-water at thirty-seven minutes past nine, and the toilet at twenty minutes before ten.9:39 A.M. Braque was in the ground-floor women’s bathroom at Chapin Hall with her pants to her knees, but her whole day wasn’t f*cked yet. Yes, this was a substantial detour, but she still had an hour to make it to her last Micro 1 discussion group before the final.Hartmann closed the door of the banqueting hall and stopped to fasten his watch. It was twenty minutes to ten. From the office along the corridor came a faint sound of typing; a telephone rang.It comprised all that was required of the servant, from eight in the morning, exactly at which hour Phileas Fogg rose, till half-past eleven, when he left the house for the Reform Club—all the details of service, the tea and toast at twenty-three minutes past eight, the shaving-water at thirty-seven minutes past nine, and the toilet at twenty minutes before ten.Must have the phone disconnected. Some contractor keeps calling me up about payment for 50 bags of cement he claims I collected ten days ago. Says he helped me load them onto a truck himself. I did drive Whitby's pick-up into town but only to get some lead screening. What does he think I'd do with all that cement? Just the sort of irritating thing you don't expect to hang over your final exit. (Moral: don't try too hard to forget Eniwetok.) Woke 9:40. To sleep 4:15.I grab a pen and the pad of paper by the phone and start scribbling a list for the day. I have an image of myself moving smoothly from task to task, brush in one hand, duster in the other, bringing order to everything. Like Mary Poppins. 9:30-9:36 Make Geigers' bed 9:36-9:42 Take laundry out of machine and put in dryer 9:42-10:00 Clean bathrooms I get to the end and read it over with a fresh surge of optimism. At this rate I should be done easily by lunchtime. 9:36 Fuck. I cannot make this bed. Why won't this sheet lie flat? 9:42 And why do they make mattresses so heavy?At a quarter to ten on the morning of August 15th, Leandro crossed into the town of Troy. His stomach was tight with anticipation and — let’s face it, folks — a tingle of fear. His skin felt cold.She looked at the clock on the night table and saw it was quarter to ten. She’d slept another two hours. For a moment she was alarmed; maybe she’d suffered a concussion or a fracture after all.“At twenty-five minutes to ten he was tapping on the closed door of Blore’s room. The latter opened it cautiously. His hair was tousled and his eyes were still dim with sleep.”9.15, 9.30, 9.45, 10! Bond felt the excitement ball up inside him like cat's fur.When I’m hungry again I check Watch but he only says 09:47. Cartoons are over so I watch football and the planet where people win prizes.Finally at 9:47, the call came. Elaine answered, listened for a second, then silently handed me the receiver. “I want you to be my Secretary of State.”Monday February 6th. '9.47am. Or gone to Las Vegas and got married'.Leaning in your corner like a candidate for wax Sidewalk social scientist don’t get no satisfaction from your cigarette It’s ten to ten and time is running out Lock up all your memories, get outa here, you know that we can run Today can last another million years Today could be the end of me It’s 11:59, and I want to stay aliveShe reaches Radiance at ten to ten, early for once, and lets herself in with her key, and puts on the mauve-and-aqua smock that Shanita designed for them so the customers will know they aren’t customers themselves.Nine o’clock young residents wearing leather elbows talk to Acutes for fifty minutes about what they did when they were little boys. The Big Nurse is suspicious of the crew-cut looks of these residents, and that fifty minutes they are on the ward is a tough time for her.Philip Lombard said: “What’s the time now?” “Ten minutes to ten, sir.” Lombard’s eyebrows rose. He nodded slowly to himself.9.50am. Hmmm. Think will go inspect make-up in case he does come in"Ten minutes to ten. “I had just time to hide the bottle (after the nurse had left me) when you came into my room.”""“She caught the 9:52 to Victoria. I kept well clear of her on the train and picked her up as she went through the barrier. Then she took a taxi to Hammersmith.” “A taxi?” Smiley interjected. “She must be out of her mind.”"People did not speak to her in such a manner. Her father was a lawyer. It was seven minutes to ten.Miss Pettigrew went to the bus-stop to await a bus. She could not afford the fare, but she could still less afford to lose a possible situation by being late. The bus deposited her about five minutes' walk from Onslow Mansions, an at seven minutes to ten precisely she was outside her destination.9:54 This is sheer torture. My arms have never ached so much in my entire life. The blankets weigh a ton, and the sheets won't go straight and I have no idea how to do the wretched corners. How do chambermaids do it?They were to call for her at her house in the Taurida Gardens at ten o’clock, but it was already five minutes to ten, and the girls were not yet dressed. Natásha was going to her first grand ball. She had got up at eight that morning and had been in a fever of excitement and activity all day.At five to ten I'm ready in the hall. Nathaniel's mother's house is nearby but apparently tricky to find, so the plan is to meet here and he'll walk me over. I check my reflection in the hall mirror and wince. The streak of bleach in my hair is as obvious as ever. Am I really going out in public like this?"Good-morning, Lucien, good-morning, said Albert; “your punctuality really alarms me. What do I say? punctuality! You, whom I expected last, you arrive at five minutes to ten, when the time fixed was half-past! Has the ministry resigned?”"I didn't sleep too long, because I think it was only around ten o'clock when I woke up. I felt pretty hungry as soon as I had a cigarette. The last time I'd eaten was those two hamburgers I had with Brossard and Ackley when we went in to Agerstown to the movies. That was a long time ago. It seemed like fifty years ago.One minute to ten. With a heavy heart Bert watched the clock. His legs were still aching very badly. He could not see the hands of the clock moving, but they were creeping on all the same.“Shanghai’s clocks were set an hour ahead so the city could ‘save daylight’, but the Bai family said: “We go by the old clock.” Ten o’clock to them was eleven to everyone else. Their singing was behind the beat; they couldn’t keep up with the huqin Chinese string instrument producing bleak and desolate sounds] of life.”“It was at ten o’clock to-day that the first of all Time Machines began its career. I gave it a last tap, tried all the screws again, put one more drop of oil on the quartz rod, and sat myself in the saddle. I suppose a suicide who holds a pistol to his skull feels much the same wonder at what will come next as I felt then.”If he jumps, he thinks, he will plummet, a slow sweep through empty space, a horrible way to die. He feels, momentarily, the heat of the impact, the ghostly wet of his skull collapsing. The illusion of weightlessness gives way. The elevator rebounds shut with a clang. It’s a little after ten a.m. on a Saturday.
10:00|ten-o’ clock|“The ten-o’ clock breakfasters began to appear: nervous, little men, morose, preoccupied, who wiped their plates with crusts of bread; rude, massive women who, like primitive idols dug out of the soil, had grown rotten in the years; flowery dandies with repulsive faces, reminding him uncomfortably of illustrations in medical tracts.”||Henry Miller|unknown
There are some good things about living alone. The room is cool, but cool air tones up the skin. One nice thing about her job is that it doesn’t start until ten, which gives her a long morning, time to grow slowly into her day.“The short hand is pointing to 10,” says Poppy, “and the big hand is pointing to 12. So it must be 10 o’clock.” “That’s right,” says Mrs. Boot. “Well done, Poppy.”At ten o’clock, he went to Shinjuku and bought a Fujitsu word processor with his credit card. It was the latest model, far lighter than earlier versions.It was ten o’clock. And now he is dead, and the police will be called in, and I shall be suspected of having had a hand in it. Oh, yes, I am sure I shall. But you don’t think so, gentlemen? Surely you don’t think that it was I? Is it likely that I would have brought you here if it were I? Oh dear! oh dear! I know that I shall go mad!Billy is ready to go early the next morning, but Bucky asks him to wait until ten o’clock because he has an errand to run. While he does it, Billy visits the summerhouse one final time. He takes the picture of the hedge animals off the wall and carries it to the end of the path. He looks out over the gorge for a minute or two, across to the place where the reputedly haunted hotel once stood.That first day was a madhouse, all right. I ran the Carolina Spin with Lane until 10 o’clock, then alone for the next ninety minutes while he rushed around the park putting out opening day fires.At around ten every morning, my wife and I would take a cooler down to the beach. We’d lather up with sunblock, then sprawl out on mats on the sand. I’d listen to the Stones or Marvin Gaye on a Walkman, while my wife plowed through a paperback of Gone With the Wind. She claimed that she’d learned a lot about life from that book. I’d never read it, so I had no idea what she meant.“My mother in law’s not a bad person. I don’t have any negative feelings toward her. It’s just that she’s the nervous type, and has always relied too much on other people. Do you understand the situation?” “I think so,” I said. She crossed her legs, waiting for me to write something new on my pad. But I didn’t write anything down. “She called us at ten one Sunday morning. Two Sundays—ten days—ago.” At ten I turned off the TV, went back to my room, and went to sleep.She spent that night in Junpei’s room. They drank wine—a gift from the restaurant—had sex, and went to sleep. When Junpei woke at ten o’clock the next morning, she was gone, leaving only an indentation like a missing memory in the pillow next to his, and a note: “I have to go to work. Get in touch with me if you like.” She included her cell phone number.A new life opening up for me at the Villa Borghese. Only ten o’clock and we have already had breakfast and been out for a walk. Anyway, when he looked at his watch again it was ten o’clock. At ten o’clock she was lying on the divan with her boobies in her hands. That’s the way he gives it to me—in driblets.The heat had started in the small hours of the morning, swiftly building up. Around ten o’clock, it had fully erupted into being, just after Turks and Greeks on each side of the Green Line had finished their morning coffees. By ten o’clock she was ravenous. She cooked herself a huge brunch and ate every bite. Then she took her movie back to Blockbuster and asked if they had 𝘒𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩. They didn’t, but after ten minutes of browsing, she settled on a substitute called 𝘓𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘧𝘵.Ten o’clock the mail comes up. Sometimes you get the torn envelope. . . .Frodo woke and found himself lying in bed… ‘Where am I, and what is the time?’ he said aloud to the ceiling. ‘In the House of Elrond, and it is ten o’clock in the morning.’ said Gandalf]. ‘It is the morning of October the twenty-fourth, if you want to know.’They brought him back to the ward about ten in the morning—"Fulla piss an’ vinegar, buddies; they checked my plugs and cleaned my points, and I got a glow on like a Model T spark coil. Ever use one of those coils around Halloween time? 𝘡𝘢𝘮! Good clean fun."Hours of sitting and watching, and all she had to report back to the hungry beaks of Ballinacroagh’s ten o’clock parishioners was a sinful Benny Corcoran and a bunch of dirty tinkers. It was simply not good enough for a week’s work.It was ten in the morning, and Lars was just about to make the drive to the old butcher shop to acquire the key ingredient for the surprise when Amy Jo and Wojtek Dragelski’s Mazda 626 pulled into a guest parking space outside.They were to call for her at her house in the Taurida Gardens at ten o’clock, but it was already five minutes to ten, and the girls were not yet dressed. Natásha was going to her first grand ball. She had got up at eight that morning and had been in a fever of excitement and activity all day.Meanwhile, the blood of the city’s saints had taken on a whole range of properties hitherto unknown to science. One lady’s was liquefying at precisely ten o’clock every Tuesday, while San Giovanni’s bubbled away obligingly whenever it heard Holy Scripture.––In assaying to put on his regimental coat and waistcoat, my uncle Toby found the same objection in his wig, ––so that went off too: ––So that with one thing and what with another, as always falls out when a man is in the most haste, ––'twas ten o'clock, which was half an hour later than his usual time before my uncle Toby sallied out.’Tis but an hour ago since it was nine, And after one hour more ‘twill be eleven.For some seconds the light went on becoming brighter and brighter, and she saw everything more and more clearly and the clock ticked louder and louder until there was a terrific explosion right in her ear. Orlando leapt as if she had been violently struck on the head. Ten times she was struck. In fact it was ten o'clock in the morning. It was the eleventh of October. It was 1928. It was the present moment.The trial was irretrievably over; everything that could be said had been said, but he had never doubted that he would lose. The written verdict was handed down at 10:00 on Friday morning, and all that remained was a summing up from the reporters waiting in the corridor outside the district court.According to military records no US bombers or any other kind of aircraft were flying over that region at the time, that is around 10 am on November 7,1944.At about ten o'clock in the morning the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows, and in and out of the beam flies shot like rushing stars.I went to bed and the next thing I knew I was awake again and it was getting on for ten o' clock in the morning. Ring, ring, said the telephone, ring, ring.If Wednesday should ever come! It did come, and exactly when it might be reasonably looked for. It came - it was fine - and Catherine trod on air. By ten o'clock, the chaise and four conveyed the two from the abbey; and, after an agreeable drive of almost twenty miles, they entered Woodston, a large and populous village, in a situation not unpleasant.King Richard: Well, but what's o'clock? Buckingham: Upon the stroke of ten.Monday 30 March 1668 Up betimes, and so to the office, there to do business till about 10 o’clockOn July 25th, 8:30 a.m. the bitch Novaya dies whelping. At 10 o'clock she is lowered into her cool grave, at 7:30 that same evening we see our first floes and greet them wishing they were the last.The pundit sighed. 'Only a fool like me would leave his door open when a riot can occur at any moment, and only a fool like me would say yes to you,' he said. 'What time?' Just his head was sticking out of the partially opened door. The money from blessing the ice-cream factory must have dulled his desire for work, I thought. 'Ten.' 'Ten-thirty.' Without another word, he closed the door.The Saturday immediately preceding the examinations was a very busy day for Kennedy. At ten o' clock he was entering Willey's room; the latter had given him a key and left the room vacant by previous arrangement - in fact he had taken Olivia on another house hunting trip.The summer holidays were near at hand when I made up my mind to break out of the weariness of school-life for one day at least. With Leo Dillon and a boy named Mahoney I planned a day's mitching. Each of us saved up sixpence. We were to meet at ten in the morning on the Canal Bridge.The written verdict was handed down at 10:00 on Friday morning, and allthat remained was a summing up from the reporters waiting in the corridor outside the district court.10:01 A.M. Goddamn cataclysmic devastation, pretty much.At about ten o'clock in the morning the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows, and in and out of the beam flies shot like rushing stars.'It was two minutes after ten; she was not satisfied with her clothes, her face, her apartment. She heated the coffee again and sat down in the chair by the window. Can't do anything more now, she thought, no sense trying to improve anything the last minute.It's 10.03 according to his watch, and he is travelling down through the Scottish highlands to Inverness, tired and ever-so-slightly anxious in case he falls asleep between now and when the train reaches the station, and misses his cue to say to Alice, Drew and Aleesha: 'OK, this is Inverness, let's move it.'The date was the 14th of May and the clock on his desk said the time was twenty three minutes past ten, so he tapped in the numbers 10.23. At least, that's what he meant to do. In fact he typed in the numbers 10.03.On Saturday. November 12. 1955, the Hill Valley Courthouses clock tower was struck by lightning, which poured 1.21 gigawatts of energy into the structure. Time stood still at 10:04 on the clocks face from that day on,We both watch as a pair of swans sail regally under the little bridge. Then I glance at my watch. It's already five past ten. “We should get going,” I say with a little start. Your mother will be waiting.” “There's no rush,” Nathaniel calls as I hasten down the other side of the bridge. “We've got all day.” He lopes down the bridge. “It's OK. You can slow down.” I try to match his relaxed pace. But I'm not used to this easy rhythm. I'm used to striding along crowded pavements, fighting my way, pushing and elbowing.10.07 am: In a meeting with Rod, Momo and Guy. We are rehearsing the final for the third time, with Rod and Guy taking the parts of the clients, when Rod's secretary, Lorraine, bursts in.He followed the squeals down a hallway. A wall clock read 8:09-10:09 Dallas time.10:10 A.M. To Braque, the Humanities dorm was like an icicle up the glory hole. She’d put it down as her fifth choice of five. Only after getting to school did she learn that anyone who’d put it down as 𝘢𝘯𝘺 choice got stuck there.10:10 Shot is fired.Saturday morning was bright and sunny, and at ten minutes past 10 Donald arrived at the Embankment entrance of Charing Cross Underground Station, carrying a small suitcase full of clothes suitable for outdoor sports and pastimes.Through the curtained windows of the furnished apartment which Mrs. Horace Hignett had rented for her stay in New York rays of golden sunlight peeped in like the foremost spies of some advancing army. It was a fine summer morning. The hands of the Dutch clock in the hall pointed to thirteen minutes past nine; those of the ormolu clock in the sitting-room to eleven minutes past ten; those of the carriage clock on the bookshelf to fourteen minutes to six. In other words, it was exactly eight; and Mrs. Hignett acknowledged the fact by moving her head on the pillow, opening her eyes, and sitting up in bed. She always woke at eight precisely.“I'll take the coffee tray out,” I suggest humbly. As I pick it up I glance again at my watch. Ten twelve. I wonder if they've started the meeting.He stood up once, early on, to lock his office door, and then he was reading the last page, and it was exactly 10:12 a.m., and the sun beating on his office windows was a different sun from the one he'd always known."“By the bye,” said the first, “I was able this morning to telegraph the very words of the order to my cousin at seventeen minutes past ten.” “And I sent it to the Daily Telegraph at thirteen minutes past ten.” “Bravo, Mr. Blount!” “Very good, M. Jolivet.”"“Okay. Ten fourteen: Mrs. Narada reports that her cat has been attacked by a large dog. Now I send all the boys out looking, but they don't find anything until eleven. Then one of them calls in that a big dog has just bitten holes in the tires on his golf cart and run off. Eleven thirty: Dr. Epstein makes his first lost-nap call: dog howling. Eleven thirty-five: Mrs. Norcross is putting the kids out on the deck for some burgers when a big dog jumps over the rail, eats the burgers, growls at the kids, runs off. First mention of lawsuit.”Domino two had me standing sentinel in Mr. Meek’s room watching through the crack in the door. Due to his advanced state of decay, our loyal boiler room mascot wasn’t in on the great escape, but his room was opposite mine, and he understood “Shush!” At a quarter past ten Ernie went to Reception to announce my death to Nurse Noakes.When she finally struggled awake—headachey, miserable, feeling hungover—the other half of the bed was empty. Bob had turned his clock back around, and she saw it was quarter past ten. It was the latest she’d slept in years, but of course she hadn’t dropped off until first light, and such sleep as she’d gotten was populated with horrors.At 10.15 Arlena departed from her rondezvous, a minute or two later Patrick Redfern came down and registered surprise, annoyance, etc. Christine's task was easy enough. Keeping her own watch concealed she asked she asked Linda at twenty-five past eleven what time it was. Linda looked at her watch and replied that it was a quarter to twelve.10:16 At last. Forty minutes of hard work and I have made precisely one bed. I'm way behind. But never mind. Just keep moving. Laundry next.She looked at the corner of the screen. It was only 10.17am. She’d been at her desk for forty-seven minutes exactly."“By the bye,” said the first, “I was able this morning to telegraph the very words of the order to my cousin at seventeen minutes past ten.” “And I sent it to the Daily Telegraph at thirteen minutes past ten.“n “Bravo, Mr. Blount!” “Very good, M. Jolivet.” “I will try and match that!”"I know that it was 10:18 when I got home because I look at my watch a lot.When I closed my eyes, the scent of the wind wafted up toward me. A May wind, swelling up like a piece of fruit, with a rough outer skin, slimy flesh, dozens of seeds. The flesh split open in midair, spraying seeds like gentle buckshot into the bare skin of my arms, leaving behind a faint trace of pain. “What time is it?” my cousin asked me. About eight inches shorter than me, he had to look up when he talked. I glanced at my watch. “Ten twenty.”How much is the clock fast now? His mother straightened the battered alarm clock that was lying on its side in the middle of the mantelpiece until its dial showed a quarter to twelve and then laid it once more on its side. An hour and twenty-five minutes, she said. The right time now is twenty past ten.Liz Headleand stares into the mirror, as though entranced. She does not see herself or the objects on her dressing-table. The clock abruptly jerks to 10.21.I listened to them, and listened to them again, and then before I had time to figure out what to do, or even what to think or feel, the phone started ringing. It was 10:22:27. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was him.The date was the 14th of May and the clock on his desk said the time was twenty three minutes past ten, so he tapped in the numbers 10.23. At least, that's what he meant to do. In fact he typed in the numbers 10.0310:25: Phone call from Lüding, very worked up, urging me to return at once and get in touch with Alois, who was equally worked up.One meal is enough now, topped up with a glucose shot. Sleep is still 'black', completely unrefreshing. Last night I took a 16 mm. film of the first three hours, screened it this morning at the lab. The first true-horror movie. I looked like a half-animated corpse. Woke 10:25. To sleep 3:45.10:26 No. Please, no. I can hardly bear to look. It's a total disaster. Everything in the washing machine has gone pink. Every single thing. What happened? With trembling fingers I pick out a damp cashmere cardigan. It was a cream when I put it in. It's now a sickly shade of candy floss. I knew K3 was bad news. I knew it -In the exact centre of my visual field was the alarm clock, hands pointing to ten-twenty-six. An alarm clock I received as a memento of somebody's wedding.Mr. Harcourt woke up with mysterious suddenness at twenty-seven minutes past 10, and, by a curious coincidence, it was at that very instant that the butler came in with two footmen laden with trays of whisky, brandy, syphons, glasses, and biscuits.She is on holiday in Norfolk. The substandard clock radio says 10:27 a.m. The noise is Katrina the Cleaner thumping the hoover against the skirting boards and the bedroom doors. Her hand is asleep. It is still hooked through the handstrap of the camera. She unhooks it and shakes it to get the blood back into it. She puts her feet on top of her trainers and slides them across the substandard carpet. It has the bare naked feet of who knows how many hundreds of dead or old people on it.Even when I had to say something, the right words just wouldn’t come out. And every time I hesitated, every time I swallowed back something I was about to say, my cousin looked at me with a slightly confused look on his face. His left ear tilted ever so slightly toward me. “What time is it now?” he asked me. “Ten twenty nine,” I replied.He checked on Anderson and saw she was still sleeping like a stone. Gardener had decided to wake Bobbi up by ten-thirty if she hadn’t awakened on her own.Still, despite her endless consternation, for the third night in a row she slipped out at half past ten and made her way to the edge of the estate, where Aleandro would wait for her near an abandoned wine cellar, which had become their meeting place.“So be it, then,” replied the count; and extending his hand towards a calendar suspended near the chimney piece, he said, “today is the 21st of February”, and drawing out his watch, added, “it is exactly half past 10 o’clock. Now promise me to remember this, and expect me on the 21st of May at half past 10 in the forenoon.”“So be it, then,” replied the count; and extending his hand towards a calendar suspended near the chimney piece, he said, “today is the 21st of February”, and drawing out his watch, added, “it is exactly half past 10 o’clock. Now promise me to remember this, and expect me on the 21st of May at half past 10 in the forenoon.”At ten thirty, Kendra found herself on the couch again, this time with Christy. She felt uncomfortable sitting next to her, especially after the barrage of hate her coworkers had thrown at the blonde, but Christy seemed unusually approachable right then, all smiles and laughs and easy-flowing gestures.10.30 a.m. Breakaccording to the clock on the wall, it is barely ten thirty.At ten-thirty I'm cleaned up, shaved and dressed in my Easter best - a two-piece seersucker Palm Beach I've had since college."“If you please. You went to bed at what time, Madame?” “Just after half past ten.”"It was ten thirty-two when the bus finally rolled into view. The bus that came was a new type, not like the one I used to take to high school. "“If you please. You went to bed at what time, Madame?” “Just after half past ten.”"Five-and-twenty to eleven. A horrible hour - a macabre hour, for it is not only the hour of pleasure ended, it is the hour when pleasure itself has been found wanting."“Strand post mark and dispatched ten thirty-six” said Holmes reading it over and over. “Mr Overton was evidently considerably excited when he sent it over and somewhat incoherent in consequence.”"I quite agree with you,' said Mr Murbles. 'It is a most awkward situation. Lady Dormer died at precisely 10.37 a.m. on November 11th.'There must be a solution, there must be. Frantically I scan the cans of products stacked on the shelves. Stain Away. Vanish. There has to be a remedy. ... I just need to think. ... 10:38 OK, I have the answer. It may not totally work—but it's my best shot.When fifteen minutes have passed and the bogus DPW truck hasn’t returned, Billy decides they have either moved on to another part of the city, maybe to check out the house on Evergreen Street, or have gone back to the McMansion to await further orders from Nick. He closes the curtain, shutting out the view, and looks at his watch. It’s twenty to eleven. How time flies when you’re having fun, he thinks.10:40: Call from Katharina asking me whether I had really said what was in the News.24 January, 10.43 a.m: one month and two days later I wonder if I should worry about the fact that my darling boyfriend bought me a birthday present that has the potential to cause instant death...Ramona Norville turned out to be a broad-shouldered, heavy-breasted, jovial woman of sixty or so with flushed cheeks, a Marine haircut, and a take-no-prisoners handshake. She was waiting for Tess outside the library, in the middle of the parking space reserved for Today’s Author of Note. Instead of wishing Tess a very good morning (it was quarter to eleven), or complimenting her on her earrings (diamond drops, an extravagance reserved for her few dinners out and engagements like this), she asked a man’s question: had Tess come by the 84?If this is so, we have now to determine what Barker and Mrs. Douglas, presuming they are not the actual murderers, would have been doing from quarter to eleven, when the sound of the shot brought them down, until quarter past eleven, when they rang for the bell and summoned the servants'.They reached King's Cross at a quarter to eleven. Mr Weasley dashed across the road to get trolleys for their trunks and they all hurried into the station.He reached blindly for his phone and flicked it open. 10:46 am. Shit. Already late for work and… then, he remembered.He whistles in the shower. It is 10.47 and he is ready for the off.Alex is. Well, Alex is probably losing his mind. It’s 10:48. He’s pacing. He threw his jacket and tie over the back of the chair as soon as he returned to his room, and he’s got the first two buttons of his dress shirt undone. His hands are twisted up in his hair. This is fine. It’s fine. It’s definitely a terrible idea. But it’s fine.At 10.48am, I closed my folder but didn't bother putting it back in my bag, so you knew I was on my way to a committee or meeting room nearby. Before I stood up, I folded my paper napkin and put it and the spoon into my coffee cup, a neat sort of person, you thought.By forty-nine minutes past ten, we fall in again with a fine portion of the ancient road, which the modern track constantly follows, and descend by some steep windings, hewn in the side of a precipitous cliff, to the place where the Ouad-el-Haoud commences.10.50 a.m. Art class with Mrs PetersAs he walked back to the flight office, airmen were forming a line to await the arrival of the NAAFI van with morning tea and cakes. Lambert looked at his watch; it was ten to eleven.He begins to make a record of our observations.'10.53 hrs,' he writes, as we crouch at the top of the stairs, listening to his mother in the hall below.I gaze and gaze again at that face, which seems to me both strange and familiar, said Austerlitz, I run the tape back repeatedly, looking at the time indicator in the top left-hand corner of the screen, where the figures covering part of her forehead show the minutes and seconds, from 10:53 to 10:57, while the hundredths of a second flash by so fast that you cannot read and capture them.“She sat down facing the empty desk, smiled at it in a way she hoped showed competence and intelligence, then sighed and slumped back and checked her watch. The interview was for eleven o’clock. It was 10:55.”The clock was still saying five minutes to eleven when Pooh and Piglet set out on their way half an hour later.I run the tape back repeatedly, looking at the time indicator in the top left-hand corner of the screen, where the figures covering part of her forehead show the minutes and seconds, from 10.53 to 10.57.One day Joe was sitting in the office waiting for his 11 o'clock appointment, and at 10:58 this black gal came in.Harry grunted in his sleep and his face slid down the window an inch or so, making his glasses still more lopsided, but he did not wake up. An alarm clock, repaired by Harry several years ago, ticked loudly on the sill, showing one minute to eleven.“Shanghai’s clocks were set an hour ahead so the city could ‘save daylight’, but the Bai family said: “We go by the old clock.” Ten o’clock to them was eleven to everyone else. Their singing was behind the beat; they couldn’t keep up with the huqin Chinese string instrument producing bleak and desolate sounds] of life.”A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, 11 o’clock.She quit at eleven. Fuck it. She went around the house to the shed, got the spade and shovel, paused, and added a crowbar. She started out of the shed, went back, and took a screwdriver and an adjustable wrench from the toolbox.Baba Diop spent the final thirty-six hours of his life at Fleury-Mérogis. At 11 a.m. pm on the second day, he was stabbed in the throat with a sharpened comb while being led under escort to the governor’s office.An ending, then. November 11, 1991, at eleven o’clock in the morning, the eleventh hour of the eleventh month. It’s a Monday.An ending, then. November 11, 1991, at eleven o’clock in the morning, the eleventh hour of the eleventh month. It’s a Monday.“She sat down facing the empty desk, smiled at it in a way she hoped showed competence and intelligence, then sighed and slumped back and checked her watch. The interview was for eleven o’clock. It was 10:55.”It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.She discovered the necessary servants by breakfasting in bed one morning (still at the hotel), and giving her maid a holiday on condition that the girl “would begin enjoying herself by fetching Miss Clack.” I found her placidly fanning herself in her dressing-gown at eleven o’clock.Sue had only a driver’s permit, but she took the keys to her mother’s car from the pegboard beside the refrigerator and ran to the garage. The kitchen clock read exactly 11:00.The Delacours arrived the following morning at eleven o’clock. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were feeling quite resentful towards Fleur’s family by this time, and it was with an ill grace that Ron stumped back upstairs to put on matching socks, and Harry attempted to flatten his hair.It happened the Wednesday morning of my second week, when I was in the library making some Xeroxes for Dr Roland before my eleven o’clock class.The name of your supposed ghost is Linda Gray, and she was from Florence. That’s over South Carolina way. She and her boyfriend—if that’s what he was; the cops found no trace of him—spent her last night on earth at the Luna Inn, half a mile south of here along the beach. They entered Joyland around eleven o’clock the next day. “Would you make up the bed for me?” the friend who died of a heart attack had asked his wife. He was a furniture designer. It was eleven o’clock in the morning. At eleven o’clock it was all settled; they were going to run away, to Borneo. F*** the husband! She never loved him anyway. She would never have written the first letter if the husband wasn’t old and passionless.Around eleven o’clock the door was unlocked. I readied myself to reject apologies and go for the jugular. A once stately woman sailed in. Seventy years old, eighty, eighty-five, who knows when they’re that old? A rickety greyhound in a blazer followed his mistress.At about eleven o’clock Snowman retreats back into the forest, out of sight of the sea altogether, because the evil rays bounce off the water and get at him even if he’s protected from the sky, and then he reddens and blisters.We were married, you know, at St. Clement’s, because Wickham’s lodgings were in that parish. And it was settled that we should all be there by eleven o’clock. My uncle and aunt and I were to go together; and the others were to meet us at the church.There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and peering through the floom I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and unkempt, staring out at me. “My God! It’s Watson,” said he. He was in a pitiable state of reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. “I say, Watson, what o’clock is it?” “Nearly eleven.”The day agreed upon was pouring rain. At eleven o’clock a man in a raincoat, dragging a lawn-mower, tapped at my front door and said that Mr. Gatsby had sent him over to cut my grass.“Pooh always liked a little something at eleven o’clock in the morning, and he was very glad to see Rabbit getting out the plates and mugs; and when Rabbit said, “Honey or condensed milk with your bread?” he was so excited that he said, “Both,” and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, “but don’t bother about the bread, please.”Around eleven she and Stan have another doughnut. Then they make a hopeful stop at a dumpster out behind a soup joint, but no luck, the stuff has already been picked over.At eleven o’clock the doctor comes to the day-room door and calls over to McMurphy that he’d like to have him come down to his office for an interview. “I interview all new admissions on the second day.”“We were married, you know, at St. Clement’s, because Wickham’s lodgings were in that parish. And it was settled that we should all be there by eleven o’clock.”“At eleven o’clock I went over to the Quai d’Orsay in a taxi and went in and sat with about a dozen correspondents, while the foreign-office mouthpiece, a young Nouvelle Revue Française diplomat in horn-rimmed spectacles, talked and answered questions for half an hour. "“I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o’clock,” he read. “Armstrong must have gone into the sea sometime during the night of the 10th-11th - and I’ll explain why. We found the point where the body was washed up - it had been wedged between two rocks and there were bits of cloth, hair, etc. on them. It must have been deposited there at high water on the 11th - that’s to say round about 11 o’clock A.M. After that, the storm subsided, and succeeding high water marks are considerably lower.”'Who can - what can -” asked Mrs Dalloway (thinking it was outrageous to be interrupted at eleven o'clock on the morning of the day she was giving a party), hearing a step on the stairs."“By 11 o'clock I have finished the first chapter of Mr Y. The winter sun is peeping meekly through the thin curtains and I decide to get up”"He was rather a long time, and I began to feel muffled, weighed down by thick stuffs and silence. I thought: He'll never come back; and when he did his figure seemed to come at me from very far away, dream-like and dwindled, making his way back along a tunnel...I dare say it was champagne at eleven in the morning.As her husband had told him, she was still in bed although it was past 11 o'clock. Her normally mobile face was encased in clay, rigid and menacing as an Aztec mask.As they looked the whole world became perfectly silent, and a flight of gulls crossed the sky, first one gull leading, then another, and in this extraordinary silence and peace, in this pallor, in this purity, bells struck eleven times the sound fading up there among the gulls.At eleven o'clock in the morning, large flakes had appeared from a colourless sky and invaded the fields, gardens and lawns of Romerike like an armada from outer space.At eleven o'clock the phone rang, and still the figure did not respond, any more than it had responded when the phone had rung at twenty-five to seven, and again for ten minutes continuously starting at five to seven...Big Ben was striking as she stepped out into the street. It was eleven o'clock and the unused hour was fresh as if issued to children on a beach.It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four millon dollars.My sister is terrified that I might write and tell all the family secrets. Why do I feel like a rebel, like an iconoclast? I am only trying to do a writing class, what is wrong with that? I keep telling myself that once in the car I will be fine, I can listen to Radio Four Woman’s Hour and that will take me till eleven o’clock when the class starts.ON the morning following the events just narrated, Mrs. Arlington was seated at breakfast in a sweet little parlour of the splendid mansion which the Earl of Warrington had taken and fitted up for her in Dover Street, Piccadilly. It was about eleven o'clock; and the Enchantress was attired in a delicious deshabillé. With her little feet upon an ottoman near the fender, and her fine form reclining in a luxurious large arm-chair, she divided her attention between her chocolate and the columns of the Morning Herald. She invariably prolonged the morning's repast as much as possible, limply because it served to wile away the time until the hour for dressing arrived.Quiet as I am, I become at Eleven o'Clock in the Morning on every day of the week save Sunday a raving, ranting maniac -- a dangerous lunatic, panting with insane desires to do, not only myself but other people, a mischief, and possessed less by hallucination than by rabies.Though perhaps' – but here the bracket clock whirred and then hectically struck eleven, its weights spooling downwards at the sudden expense of energy. She had to sit for a moment, when the echo had vanished, to repossess her thoughts.We got to Waterloo at eleven, and asked where the eleven-five started from. Of course nobody knew; nobody at Waterloo ever does know where a train is going to start from, or where a train when it does start is going to, or anything about it.We got to Waterloo at eleven, and asked where the eleven-five started from.Of course nobody knew; nobody at Waterloo ever does know where a train is going to start from, or where a train when it does start is going to, or anything about it.We passed a few sad hours until eleven o'clock, when the trial was to commence. My father and the rest of the family being obliged to attend as witnesses, I accompanied them to the court. During the whole of this wretched mockery of justice I suffered living torture.O'Neil rises and takes the tray. He has finished the tea, but the muffins are still here in a wicker basket covered with a blue napkin. The clock above the stove says that it is just past eleven, and guests will be arriving at the house now.On August 9th, three days later, at 11.02am, another B−29 dropped the second bomb on the industrial section of the city of Nagasaki, totally destroying 1 1/2 square miles of the city, killing 39,000 persons and injuring 25,000 more."“What makes you think it's for real?” “Just a hunch, really. He sounded for real. Sometimes you can just tell about people”-he smiled-“even if you're a dull old WASP.” “I think it's a setup.” “Why?” “I just do. Why would someone from the government want to help you?” “Good question. Guess I'll find out.” She went back into the kitchen.“What time are you meeting him?” she called out. “Eleven oh-three,” he said. “That made me think he's for real. Military and intelligence types set precise appointment times to eliminate confusion and ambiguity. Nothing ambiguous about eleven oh-three.”"On the fourth, at 11.03am, the editor of the Yidische Zaitung put in a call to him; Doctor Yarmolinsky did not answer. He was found in his room, his face already a little dark, nearly nude beneath a large, anachronistic cape.As her husband had told him, she was still in bed although it was past 11 o'clock. Her normally mobile face was encased in clay, rigid and menacing as an Aztec mask.July 3: 5 3/4 hours. Little done today. Deepening lethargy, dragged myself over to the lab, nearly left the road twice. Concentrated enough to feed the zoo and get the log up to date. Read through the operating manuals Whitby left for the last time, decided on a delivery rate of 40 rontgens/min., target distance of 530 cm. Everything is ready now. Woke 11:05. To sleep 3:15.Sansom arrived in a Town Car at five past eleven. Local plates, which meant he had ridden up most of the way on the train. Less convenient for him, but a smaller carbon footprint than driving all the way, or flying. Every detail mattered, in a campaign.11:06 And ... oh. The ironing. What am I going to do about that?Despite the remaking of the BookWorld, some books remained tantalisingly out of reach [...] It was entirely possible that they didn't know there was a BookWorld, and still they thought they were real. A fantastic notion, until you consider that up until 11.06am on 12 April 1948, everyone else had thought the same.At exactly seven minutes past eleven by the ship's clock the Adventurer gave a prolonged screech and, moorings cast off, edged her way out of the basin and dipped her nose in the laughing waters of the bay, embarked at last on a voyage that was destined to fully vindicate her new name.“This is my first pass,” Wilson said. “East to west, at 11:08. We’re looking from the left-wing camera which is running at ninety-six frames per second. As you can see, my altitude is falling rapidly. Straight ahead is the main street of the target …”The bursar was standing in the hall with his arms folded across his chest and when he caught sight of the fat young man he looked significantly at the clock. It was eight minutes past eleven.The first time I saw them it was around eleven, eleven-fifteen, a Saturday morning, I was about two thirds through my route when I turned onto their block and noticed a '56 Ford sedan pulled up in the yard with a big open U-Haul behind.She backed down the driveway, checked for traffic, and turned toward the turnpike. Ten past eleven. Plenty of time. That’s what she thought then.Ten minutes after eleven in Archie McCue's room on the third floor of the extension to the Robert Matthews' soaring sixties' tower - The Queen's Tower, although no queen was ever likely to live in it.The LCD face on his Super G Digital Athletic Chronometer blinks, 11:11, on and off and on and off. Eleven eleven. Eleven eleven. Eleven eleven.11:12 I have a solution, via the local paper. A girl from the village will collect it, iron it all overnight at £3 a shirt, and sew on Eddie's button."I squinted down the street at the bank clock: 11:12, 87 degrees. “It's only a block and a half and it's not that hot, Daddy. The walk will do you good.” This conversation made me breathless, as if I were wearing a girdle with tight stays."The report was dated Sunday, 25 September, 1966, at 11.14am. The text was laconic. Call from Hrk Vanger; stating that his brother's daughter (?) Harriett Ulrika Vanger, born 15 June 1960 (age 1960) has been missing from her home on Hedley Island since Saturday afternoon.A stretch of curb in front of Gerard Tower has been stenciled AUTHORIZED PARKING ONLY. At quarter past eleven a truck with a big sombrero on the side pulls up there. Below the sombrero, JOSE’S EATS. And below that, TODOS COMEN! People start leaving the building, trundling toward the truck like ants drawn to sugar.The chalet stand isolated at the end of a blind valley. Higher up, there’s only the reservoir, and behind it the treacherous glacier. At a quarter past eleven, she concludes that it’s impossible for Nick to be wandering out there, in this weather.We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran in this way: Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. Leave Paddington by the 11:15."“Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. Leave Paddington by the 11:15.”"The first time I saw them it was around eleven, eleven-fifteen, a Saturday morning, I was about two thirds through my route when I turned onto their block and noticed a '56 Ford sedan pulled up in the yard with a big open U-Haul behind. There are only three houses on Pine, and theirs was the last house,the others being the Murchisons, who'd been in Arcata a little less than a year, and the Grants, who'd been here about two years. Murchison worked at Simpson Redwood, and Gene Grant was a cook on the morning shift at Denny's. Those two, then a vacant lot, then the house on the end that used to belong to the Coles.Mrs. Mooney glanced instinctively at the little gilt clock on the mantelpiece as soon as she had become aware through her revery that the bells of George's Church had stopped ringing. It was seventeen minutes past eleven: she would have lots of time to have the matter out with Mr. Doran and then catch short twelve at Marlborough Street. She was sure she would win.It is 11.18. A row of bungalows in a round with a clump of larch tree in the middle.A whistle cut sharply across his words. Peter got onto his knees to look out the window, and Miss Fuller glared at him. Polly looked down at her watch: 11:19. The train. But the stationmaster had said it was always late.On Friday 17 September at 11.20am, my life changed forever. I was standing in the master bedroom of a house in Mosman, staring at the queen-sized bed and deciding whether to dress it in neutral colours or go lavish with a silver-beaded throw, when my mobile phone rang, giving me a start.OFFICER'S NOTES Disruption alert logged 11h20 from Stones' Pool Hall (Premises ID 33CBD-Long181). Officer and Aito /379 responded. On arrival found subject shouting threats and acting in aggressive manner. A scan of the subject's SIM ID register revealed that the subject has recent priors including previous public disruptions and a juvenile record.Sweeney pointed to the clock above the bar, held in the massive and indifferent jaws of a stuffed alligator head. The time was 11.20.At 10.15 Arlena departed from her rondezvous, a minute or two later Patrick Redfern came down and registered surprise, annoyance, etc. Christine's task was easy enough. Keeping her own watch concealed she asked Linda at twenty-five past eleven what time it was. Linda looked at her watch and replied that it was a quarter to twelve.When, at about 11.25am, Katharina Blum was finally taken from her apartment for questioning, it was decided not to handcuff her at all.It's from one of the more recent plates the tree has scanned: 11.27 in the morning of 4 April 1175From twenty minutes past nine until twenty-seven minutes past nine, from twenty-five minutes past eleven until twenty-eight minutes past eleven, from ten minutes to three until two minutes to three the heroes of the school met in a large familiarity whose Olympian laughter awed the fearful small boy that flitted uneasily past and chilled the slouching senior that rashly paused to examine the notices in assertion of an unearned right.You are four minutes too slow. No matter; it's enough to mention the error. Now from this moment, twenty-nine minutes after eleven, a.m., this Wednesday, 2nd October, you are in my service.Five minutes later another truck pulls up behind the first. On the side of this one is a grinning cartoon boy woofing down a double cheeseburger. At eleven-thirty, while people are lined up for burgers and fries and tacos and enchiladas, a hotdog wagon appears.I woke up in a panic, not screaming, just a groan from deep in my throat. I’d dozed off in the hard plastic chair by the window. The clock above the door showed 11:30 and the ICU was dead silent. Adrenaline supply not yet depleted, I staggered to my feet.And so it was that around half past eleven, I found myself riding down to the Village on the Fifth Avenue bus with the street address of Hobart and Blackwell in my pocket, written on a page from one of the monogrammed notepads Mrs Barbour kept by the telephone.“The extraordinary thing is,” he told Livia at eleven-thirty, “you seem to be the only applicant. Or at least, the only one who’s showed up.”'It is now 11.30. The door to this room is shut, and will remain shut, barring emergencies, until 12.00. I am authorised to inform you that we are now under battle orders."“O, Frank - I made a mistake! - I thought that church with the spire was All Saints', and I was at the door at half-past eleven to a minute as you said...”""“Thank-you,” said C.B. quietly; but as he hung up his face was grim. In a few minutes he would have to break it to John that, although they had braved such dredful perils dring the earlier part of the night they had, after all, failed to save Christina. Beddows had abjured Satan at a little after half-past eleven. By about eighteen minutes the Canon had beaten them to it again.”"This time it was Kumiko. The wall clock said 11.30.Albatross 8 passed over Pamlico Sound at 1131 local time. Its on-board programming was designed to trace thermal receptors over the entire visible horizon, interrogating everything in sight and locking on any signature that fit its acquisition parameters.And after that, not forgetting, there was the Flemish armada, all scattered, and all officially drowned, there and then, on a lovely morning, after the universal flood, at about eleven thirty two was it? Off the coast of Cominghome..."Christmas Eve 1995. 11.34am. The first time, Almasa says it slowly and softly, as if she is really looking for an answer, “Are you talking to me?” She peers into the small, grimy mirror in a train toilet."This was exactly the kind of case I’d been hoping for. I went through the motions of checking my schedule, though, and pretended to be shuffling a few things around. If you instantly agree to take a case, the client might suspect some ulterior motive. “Luckily I’m free until later this afternoon,” I said, shooting my watch a glance. It was eleven thirty-five. “If you don’t mind, could you take me over to your building now? I’d like to see the last place you saw your husband.”The Prime Minister’s plane came to a stop at Oberweisenfeld airport at 11.35 a.m. The engines whined and died. Inside the cabin, after three hours of flight the silence was a noise in itself.At 11.35 the Colonel came out; he looked hot and angry as he strode towards the lift. There goes a hanging judge, thought Wormold.I ran up the stairs, away from the heat and the noise, the mess and the confusion. I saw the clock radio by my bed. Eleven thirty-six.At 11:38, she left her desk and walked to the side door of the auditorium, arriving ten minutes before noon."Did escape occur to him? … But the door was locked, and the window heavily barred with iron rods. He sat down again, and drew his journal from his pocket. On the line where these words were written, “21st December, Saturday, Liverpool,” he added, “80th day, 11.40am,” and waited."During the sessions at Ito he read the Lotus Sutra on mornings of play, and he now seemed to be bringing himself to order through silent meditation. Then, quickly, there came a rap of stone on board. It was twenty minutes before noon."Spagnola took a deep breath and started into the log again. “Eleven forty-one: large dog craps in Dr. Yamata's Aston Martin. Twelve oh-three: dog eats two, count 'em, two of Mrs. Wittingham's Siamese cats. She just lost her husband last week; this sort of put her over the edge. We had to call Dr. Yamata in off the putting green to give her a sedative. The personal-injury lawyer in the unit next to hers was home for lunch and he came over to help. He was talking class action then, and we didn't even know who owned the dog yet.”"The front door opens. Her heart pounds. She looks at the time on the bottom right of her screen. 11.42.11:42 I'm doing fine. I'm doing well. I've got the Hoover on, I'm cruising along nicely- What was that? What just went up the Hoover? Why is it making that grinding noise? Have I broken it?At 10.15 Arlena departed from her rondezvous, a minute or two later Patrick Redfern came down and registered surprise, annoyance, etc. Christine's task was easy enough. Keeping her own watch concealed she asked Linda at twenty-five past eleven what time it was. Linda looked at her watch and replied that it was a quarter to twelve.She pressed a spot above her heart, just to the right of her left breast. He made some joke about that, and she laughed again. I looked at my watch. It was eleven forty-five but my cousin still wasn’t back. It was getting close to lunchtime and the cafeteria was starting to get more crowded. All sorts of sounds and voices mixed together like smoke enveloping the room. I returned once more to the realm of memory. And that small gold pen she had in her breast pocket.11:45 AM - 06/05/2014 More details have emerged in the investigation into the killings at Val-de-Grâce early Wednesday morning.”"...I waited till a quarter to twelve, and found then that I was in All Souls'. But I wasn't much frightened, for I thought it could be tomorrow as well.”""“I will tell you the time,” said Septimus, very slowly, very drowsily, smiling mysteriously. As he sat smiling at the dead man in the grey suit the quarter struck, the quarter to twelve."As he sat smiling, the quarter struck - the quarter to twelve.I arrived at St. Gatien from Nice on Tuesday, the 14th of August. I was arrested at 11.45am on Thursday, the 16th by an agent de police and an inspector in plain clothes and taken to the Commissariat.She tucked the phone in the crook of her neck and thumbed hurriedly through her pink messages. .... Dr. Provetto, at 11:45 A.M.At 10.15 Arlena departed from her rondezvous, a minute or two later Patrick Redfern came down and registered surprise, annoyance, etc. Christine's task was easy enough. Keeping her own watch concealed she asked Linda at twenty-five past eleven what time it was. Linda looked at her watch and replied that it was a quarter to twelve.It was a vast plain with no one on it, neither living on the earth nor dead beneath it; and I walked a long time beneath a colourless sky, which didn't let me judge the time (my watch, set like all military watches to Berlin time, hadn't stood up to the swim and showed an eternal thirteen minutes to noon).At 11:38, she left her desk and walked to the side door of the auditorium, arriving ten minutes before noon.The man who gave them to him handed him a ten-shilling note and promised him another if it were delivered at exactly ten minutes to twelve.The next day, at nine minutes to twelve o'clock noon, the last clock ran down and stopped. It was then placed in the town museum, as a collector's item, or museum piece, with proper ceremonies, addresses, and the like."At any rate, we whirled into the station with many more, just as the great clock pointed to eight minutes to twelve o'clock. “Thank God! We are in time,” said the young man, “and thank you, too, my friend, and your good horse...”"He swilled off the remains of [his beer] and looked at the clock. It was six minutes to twelve.It’s five to twelve Hermione, three turns should suffice. Good luck. Dumbledore stepped out and lifted his wand to magically seal the doorMr. Justice Wargrave said: “It is now five minutes to eleven. I think we should summon Miss Brent to join our conclave.”He was tearing off on his bicycle to one of the jobs about five minutes to twelve to see if he could catch anyone leaving off for dinner before the proper time.It was 11:55 a.m. on April 30.What time did you arrive at the site? It was 11:55. I remember since I happened to glance at my watch when we got there. We rode our bicycles to the bottom of the hill, as far as we could go, then climbed the rest of the way on foot.A few minutes' light around noon is all that you need to discover the error, and re-set the clock – provide that you bother to go up and make the observation.I wondered what the time is?' said the latter after a pause'. 'I don't know exactly', replied Easton, 'but it can't be far-off twelve.'I wondered what the time is?' said the latter after a pause'. 'I don't know exactly', replied Easton, 'but it can't be far-off twelve.'And when you go down the steps, it's always 11.58 on the morning of September ninth, 1958.Two minutes before the clock struck noon, the savage baron was on the platform to inspect the preparation for the frightful ceremony of mid-day. The block was laid forth-the hideous minister of vengeance, masked and in black, with the flaming glaive in his hand, was ready. The baron tried the edge of the blade with his finger, and asked the dreadful swordsman if his hand was sure? A nod was the reply of the man of blood. The weeping garrison and domestics shuddered and shrank from him. There was not one there but loved and pitied the gentle lady.Leaning in your corner like a candidate for wax Sidewalk social scientist don’t get no satisfaction from your cigarette It’s ten to ten and time is running out Lock up all your memories, get outa here, you know that we can run Today can last another million years Today could be the end of me It’s 11:59, and I want to stay aliveThere is a big grandfather clock there, and as the hands drew near to twelve I don't mind confessing I was as nervous as a cat.Holly tries to ignore the headache her mother’s calls — and this call in particular — almost always bring on. She assures her mother that yes, she will be there on Sunday to help, and yes, she will be there by noon, so they can eat one more meal as a family.“I like to eat breakfast alone, and almost never before noon; anybody with a terminally jangled lifestyle needs at least one psychic anchor every twenty-four hours, and mine is breakfast.”Then my doctor sent me to a psychiatrist at this big hospital. I had an appointment for twelve o’clock, and I was in an awful state.When she woke up it was noon, and someone was pounding on the door. Probably it was West, come back because he’d forgotten something. (His underwear was gone from the drawer, his neatly arranged socks, washed by Tony and folded carefully in pairs. He’d taken a suitcase.)A tub was brought in to melt snow for mortar. They heard somebody saying it was twelve o’clock already. “It’s sure to be twelve,” Shukhov announced. “The sun’s over the top already.” “If it is,” the captain retorted, “it’s one o’clock, not twelve.” “How do you make that out?” Shukhov asked in surprise. “The old folk say the sun is highest at dinnertime.” “Maybe it was in their day!” the captain snapped back. “Since then it’s been decreed that the sun is highest at one o’clock.” “Who decreed that?” “The Soviet government.”“Do you you include violin playing in your category of rows?” he asked, anxiously. “It depends on the player,” I answered, “A well-played violin is a treat for the gods - a badly played one --” “Oh, that’s all right, he cried, with a merry laugh. “I think we may consider the thing as settled — that is, if the rooms are agreeable to you.” “When shall we see them?” “Call for me at noon to-morrow, and we’ll go together and settle everything,” he answered. “All right — noon exactly,” said I, shaking his hand.Prowling around aimlessly. A beautiful day—so far. The Rue de Buci is alive, crawling. The bars wide open and the curbs lined with bicycles. All the meat and vegetable markets are in full swing. Arms loaded with truck bandaged in newspapers. A fine Catholic Sunday—in the morning, at least. High noon and here I am standing on an empty belly at the confluence of all these crooked lanes that reek with the odor of food.“What’s the time?” he said to the clock. It dipped its head, sproinged upright again. “It’s noon. It’s noon, it’s noon, it’s . . .” “Shut up,” said Jimmy. The clock wilted. It was programmed to respond to harsh tones.“Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?” “By no means.” “Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?” “I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am in town. But I shall return by the twelve o’clock train, so as to be there in time for your coming.”I am writing this at noon. Ben is downstairs, reading. He thinks I am resting but, even though I am tired, I am not. I don’t have time. I have to write this down before I lose it. I have to write my journal.I did Danièle’s math in my head. “If we start at ten, walk for four hours, rest for one, walk for another two, that’s seven hours in total. That will take us to five in the morning. Seven hours back, it won’t be noon until we resurface.”Mercutio. Good ye good den, fair gentlewoman. Nurse. Is it good den? Mercutio. "T is no less, I tell you, for the hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon. Nurse. Out upon you! what a man are you!Before noon Stan takes her to the laundromat in one of the malls - they’ve used that one before, two of the machines are still working - and he watches the car while she does a load and then pays for it on their phone.At noon each day every last one of them, from Don Bernardo the priest to the widow Esmerelda, the village prostitute, stopped work and strolled over to the Pertinis’ vine-shaded terrace, where for two hours they ate like royalty and drank wine made from the same grapes which ripened above their heads.'There's nobody here!' I insisted. 'It was yourself, Mrs. Linton: you knew it a while since.' 'Myself!' she gasped, 'and the clock is striking twelve!A cheap little clock on the wall struck twelve hurriedly, and served to begin the conversation.He had saved [the republic] and it was now in the present, alive now and everywhere in the present, and the hovering faces brightened and blurred about him, became the sound of a canal in the morning, the look of some roofs in the noon sun, and the fragrance of a certain evening flower. Here he was, home at last. Behind him were the mountains and the Sleeping Woman in the sky, and before him, like smoky flames in the sunset, the whole beautiful beloved city.It was precisely twelve o'clock; twelve by Big Ben; whose stroke was wafted over the northern part of London; blent with that of other clocks, mixed in a thin ethereal way with the clouds and wisps of smoke and died up there among the seagulls, twelve o'clock struck as Clarissa Dalloway laid her green dress on her bed and the Warren Smiths walked down Harley Street. Twelve was the hour of their appointment.It was precisely twelve o'clock; twelve by Big Ben; whose stroke was wafted over the northern part of London; blent with that of other clocks, mixed in a thin ethereal way wth the clouds and wisps of smoke and died up there among the seagulls - twelve o'clock struck as Clarissa Dalloway laid her green dress on the bed, and the Warren Smiths walked down Harley Street.It was precisely twelve o’clock; twelve by Big Ben; whose stroke was wafted over the northern part of London; blent with that of other clocks, mixed in a thin ethereal way with the clouds and wisps of smoke and died up there among the seagulls—twelve o’clock struck as Clarissa Dalloway laid her green dress on her bed, and the Warren Smiths walked down Harley StreetIt was precisely twelve o’clock; twelve by Big Ben; whose stroke was wafted over the northern part of London; blent with that of other clocks, mixed in a thin ethereal way with the clouds and wisps of smoke, and died up there among the seagulls.Noon found him momentarily alone, while the family prepared lunch in the kitchen. The cracks in the ceiling widened into gaps. The locked wheels of his bed sank into new fault lines opening in the oak floor beneath the rug. At any moment the floor was going to give.On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travellers into the gulf below.Roaring noon. In a well-fanned Forty-second Street cellar I met Gatsby for lunch.The Birds begun at Four o'clock — Their period for Dawn — A Music numerous as space — But neighboring as Noon —"The Oxen Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. “Now they are all on their knees,” An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in hearthside ease. We pictured the meek mild creatures where They dwelt in their strawy pen, Nor did it occur to one of us there To doubt they were kneeling then. So fair a fancy few would weave In these years! Yet, I feel, If someone said on Christmas Eve, “Come; see the oxen kneel “In the lonely barton by yonder coomb Our childhood used to know,” I should go with him in the gloom, Hoping it might be so."Then came the stroke of noon, and all these working and professional people dispersed like a trampled anthill into all the streets and directions. The white bridge was swarming with nimble dots. And when you considered that each dot had a mouth with which it was now planning to eat lunch, you couldn't help bursting into laughter.And on all sides there were the clocks. Conrad noticed them immediately, at every street corner, over every archway, three quarters of the way up the sides of buildings, covering every conceivable angle of approach. Most of them were too high off the ground to be reached by anything less than a fireman's ladder and still retained their hands. All registered the same time: 12:01. Conrad looked at his wristwatch, noted that it was just 2:45. ‘‘They were driven by a master dock’’ Stacey told him. ‘‘When that stopped, they all ceased at the same moment. One minute after midnight, thirty-seven years ago.’’It was the twelfth of December, the twelfth month. A was twelve. The electric clock/radio by his bedside table said 12:01.It was the twelfth of December, the twelfth month. A was twelve. The electric clock/radio by his bedside table said 12:01. A was waiting for it to read 12:12, he hoped there would be some sense of cosmic rightness when it did.At two minutes past twelve the door opens and two men come into the lobby. One is tall with black hair combed in a 50’s pompadour. The other is short and bespectacled. Both are wearing suits."It had struck twelve o'clock two minutes and a quarter. The Baron's footman hastily seized a large goblet, and gasped with terror as he filled it with hot, spiced wine. “Tis past the hour, 'tis past,” he groaned in anguish, “and surely I shall now get the red hot poker the Baron hath so often promised me, oh! Woe is me! Would that I had prepared the Baron's lunch before!”"At 12.03 the sun has already punched its ticket. Sinking, it stains the cobbles and stucco of the platz in a violin-coloured throb of light that you would have to be a stone not to find poignant.When it’s 12:04 it can be lunch so I cut a can of baked beans open, I’m careful. I wonder would Ma wake up if I cutted my hand and screamed help?I wake up the next day seized by panic. I bolt out of bed and stumble into the kitchen where I look at the clock on the microwave: 12:04 P.M.At four minutes past twelve, Frank Macintosh and Paulie Logan enter the lobby dressed in their suits. There are handshakes all around. Fran’s pompadour appears to have had an oil change. “Need to check out?” “Taken care of.” “Then let’s go.”"Though by then it was by Tina's own desk clock 12.04pm I was always touched when, out of a morning's worth of repetition, secretaries continued to answer with good mornings for an hour or so into the afternoon, just as people often date things with the previous year well into February; sometimes they caught their mistake and went into a “This is not my day” or “Where is my head?” escape routine; but in a way they were right, since the true tone of afternoons does not take over in offices until nearly two."A few minutes' light around noon is all that you need to discover the error, and re-set the clock – provide that you bother to go up and make the observation.A few minutes' light around noon is all that you need to discover the error, and re-set the clock – provide that you bother to go up and make the observation.On a Monday Simon Hirsch was going to break his leg at seven minutes after 12, noon, and as soon as Satan told us the day before, Seppi went to betting with me that it would not happen, and soon they got excited and went to betting with me themselves.When a clock struck noon in Washington, D.C., the time was 12:08 in Philadephia, 12:12 in new York, and 12:24 in Boston.Madame Dumas arrived at noon, and ten minutes later Trause handed her his ATM card and instructed her to go to the neighborhood Citibank near Sheridan Square and transfer forty thousand dollars from his savings account to his checking account.They paid for only one room and kept Einstein with them because they were not going to need privacy for lovemaking. Exhausted, Travis barely managed to kiss Nora before falling into a deep sleep. He dreamed of things with yellow eyes, misshapen heads, and crocodile mouths full of sharks’ teeth. He woke five hours later, at twelve-ten Thursday afternoon."At 12:11 there was a knock on the door. It was Terry, A could tell. He hadn't known Terry long, but there was something calmer, more patient, that separated Terry's knocks from the rest of the staff. He knocked from genuine politeness, not formality. “Come in,” A said, although the lock was on the other side. Terry did. “It's your mother,” he said. “There's no easy way to say this.” Though he had just used the easiest, because A now knew the rest. A’s face froze, as it tried to catch up, as it tried to register the news. Then it crumpled, and while he considered this fresh blow, the tears came."Were you on Carlin Street at approximately 12:12 when Carietta White came out of the First Congregational Church on that street?It was the twelfth of December, the twelfth month. A was twelve. The electric clock/radio by his bedside table said 12:01. A was waiting for it to read 12:12, he hoped there would be some sense of cosmic rightness when it did.It’s 12:13, so it can be lunch. My favorite bit of the prayer is the daily bread. I’m the boss of play, but Ma’s the boss of meals, like she doesn’t let us have cereal for breakfast and lunch and dinner in case we’d get sick and anyway that would use it up too fast.She left London on the twelve-fourteen from Paddington, arriving at Bristol (where she had to change) at two-fifty.Very well, dear,' she said. 'I caught the 10.20 to Eastnor, which isn't a bad train, if you ever want to go down there. I arrived at a quarter past twelve, and went straight up to the house--you've never seen the house, of course? It's quite charming--and told the butler that I wanted to see Mr Ford on business. I had taken the precaution to find out that he was not there. He is at Droitwich.'What shall I think of that's liberating and refreshing? I'm in the mood when I open my window at night and look at the stars. Unfortunately it's 12.15 on a grey dull day, the aeroplanes are activeKava ordered two glasses of coffee for himself and his beloved and some cake. When the pair left, exactly seventeen minutes after twelve, the club began to buzz with excitement.In a bus of the S-line, 10 meters long, 3 wide, 6 high, at 3 km. 600m. from its starting point, loaded with 48 people at 12:17 p.m., a person of the masculine sex aged 27 years 3 months and 8 days, 1 m. 72 cm tall and weighing 65 kg. and wearing a hat 35 cm. in height round the crown of which was a ribbon 60 cm.“But by the time he reached the top of the hill the woman’s body had basically been eaten up already by the flies, right?” my friend said. “In a sense,” his girlfriend replied. “In a sense being eaten by the flies makes it a sad story, doesn’t it?” my friend said. “Yes, I guess so,” she said after giving it some thought. “What do you think?” she asked me. “Sounds like a sad story to me,” I replied. It was twelve twenty when my cousin came back.By twelve-twenty in the afternoon, Vince was seated in a rattan chair with comfortable yellow and green cushions at a table by the windows in that same restaurant. He’d spotted Haines on entering. The doctor was at another window table, three away from Vince, half-screened by a potted palm. Haines was eating shrimp and drinking margaritas with a stunning blonde. She was wearing white slacks and a gaily striped tube-top, and half the men in the place were staring at her.It is 12:20 in New York a Friday three days after Bastille day, yes it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner and I don’t know the people who will feed meJake think of something. PLEASE! Twelve twenty-one.By twenty-two minutes past twelve we leave, much too soon for our desires, this delightful spot, where the pilgrims are in the habit of bathing who come to visit the Jordan.“It would feel, she realised, altogether too strange to climb into the same bed with a man she hadn’t seen for two years. She noticed the time on the digital alarm clock. 12:23.”"–At what time did the 12:23 p.m. S-line bus proceeding in the direction of Porte de Champerret arrive on that day? —At 12:38 p.m. –Were there many people on the aforesaid S-bus? –Bags of 'em. –Did you particularly notice any of them? –An individual who had a very a long neck and a plait round his hat."12:24 My legs are in total agony. I've been kneeling on hard tiles, cleaning the bath, for what seems like hours. There are little ridges where the tiles have dug into my knees, and I'm boiling hot and the cleaning chemicals are making me cough. All I want is a rest. But I can't stop for a moment. I am so behind ...Boys, do it now. God's time is 12.25.12.25pm. 26. 27. Every time Billy saved a shot he looked heartbroken12.25pm. 26. 27. Every time Billy saved a shot he looked heartbroken12.25pm. 26. 27. Every time Billy saved a shot he looked heartbrokenThe DRINK CHEER-UP COFFEE wall clock read 12.28.Half-past twelve o’clock came; Turkey began to glow in the face, overturn his inkstand, and become generally obstreperous; Nippers abated down into quietude and courtesy; Ginger Nut munched his noon apple; and Bartleby remained standing at his window in one of his profoundest dead-wall reveries."“You'll never believe this but (in Spain) they are two hours late for ever meal - two hours Fanny - (can we lunch at half-past twelve today?)”"12.30 p.m. LunchAt half past twelve, when Catherine’s anxious attention to the weather was over and she could no longer claim any merit from its amendment, the sky began voluntarily to clear. A gleam of sunshine took her quite by surprise; she looked round; the clouds were parting, and she instantly returned to the window to watch over and encourage the happy appearance. Ten minutes more made it certain that a bright afternoon would succeed, and justified the opinion of Mrs. Allen, who had “always thought it would clear up.”Tuesday, 12.30pm… Baker, California… Into the Ballantine Ale now, zombie drunk and nervous. I recognize this feeling: three or four days of booze, drugs, sun, no sleep and burned out adrenalin reserves – a giddy, quavering sort of high that means the crash is coming. But when? How much longer?12:30 What is wrong with this bleach bottle? Which way is the nozzle pointing, anyway? I'm turning it round in confusion, peering at the arrows on the plastic ... Why won't anything come out? OK, I'm going to squeeze it really, really hard- That nearly got my eye. 12:32 FUCK. What has it done to my HAIR?A chutney-biting brigadier named Boyd-Boyd fixed an appointment on the 'phone with Oxted, at Hornborough Station, for the twelve thirty-two. He was to deliver the goods.Stephen Maxie looked him straight in the eye and said almost casually: “It was thirty-three minutes past twelve by my watch.It's 12.33 now and I could do it, the station is just down that side road there.As surely as Apthorpe was marked for early promotion, Trimmer was marked for ignominy. That morning he had appeared at the precise time stated in orders. Everyone else had been waiting five minutes and Colour Sergeant Cork called out the marker just as Trimmer appeared. So it was twelve-thirty-five when they were dismissed.She was going to walk calmly, coolly, up this amazing flight of stairs and into this building. There she was going to find Taylor, because it was already 12.36 and 30 seconds and in his text he’d told her to be on time."–At what time did the 12:23 p.m. S-line bus proceeding in the direction of Porte de Champerret arrive on that day? —At 12:38 p.m. –Were there many people on the aforesaid S-bus? –Bags of 'em. –Did you particularly notice any of them? –An individual who had a very a long neck and a plait round his hat."Next, he remembered that the morrow of Christmas would be the twenty-seventh day of the moon, and that consequently high water would be at twenty-one minutes past three, the half-ebb at a quarter past seven, low water at thirty-three minutes past nine, and half flood at thirty-nine minutes past twelve.“I have received your name from the Skilled Women’s Agency together with their recommendation. I understand they know you personally. I shall be glad to pay you the salary you ask and shall expect you to take up your duties on August 8th. The train is the 12:40 from Paddington and you will be met at Oakbridge station. I enclose five pound notes for expenses."A little ormolu clock in the outer corridor indicated twenty minutes to one. The car was due at one-fifteen. Thirty-five minutes: oh, to escape for only that brief period!The butt had been growing warm in her fingers; now the glowing end stung her skin. She crushed the cigarette out and stood, brushing ash from her black skirt. It was eighteen minutes to one. She went to the house phone and called his room. The telephone rang and rang, but there was no answer.Died five minutes ago, you say? he asked. His eye went to the watch on his wrist. Twelve-forty-three, he wrote on the blotter.It is around quarter to one. No sunlight comes into the room now through the windows at right. Outside the day is fine but increasingly sultry, with a faint haziness in the air which softens the glare of the sun.That Sunday was a picture-book summer day in Maine: clear, bright, warm. At a quarter to one, Ruth McCausland, dressed in a pretty blue summer frock, left her house for the last time."The boy handed in a dispatch. The Professor closed the door again, and after looking at the direction, opened it and read aloud. “Look out for D. He has just now, 12:45, come from Carfax hurriedly and hastened towards the South. He seems to be going the round and may want to see you: Mina”"Because it was raining, and because she was depressed and out of sorts, and because Robbie had not come by quarter to one, Elizabeth treated herself to a Martini while she was waiting, sitting uncomfortably on a narrow chair in the restaurant, watching other unimpressive people go in and out.It is around quarter to one. No sunlight comes into the room now through the windows at right. Outside the day is fine but increasingly sultry, with a faint haziness in the air which softens the glare of the sun.The first victim of the Krefeld raid died at 12:49 hours Double British Summer Time at B Flight, but it wasn't due to carelessness.Ten minutes to one the fog dissolves completely and the black boys are telling Acutes to clear the floor for the meeting. All the tables are carried out of the day room to the tub room across the hall—leaves the floor, McMurphy says, like we was aiming to have us a little dance.So presently Bert was sent up to the top of the house to look at a church clock which was visible therefrom, and when he came down he reported that it was ten minutes to one.The nightclub stood on the junction, flamboyant, still. It was 12.52.Aboot twelve miles. We ought tae pass her at Pinmore. She's due there at 12:53.I listen to the different boats' horns, hoping to learn what kind of boat I'm hearing and what the signal means: is the boat leaving or entering the harbor; is it the ferry, or a whale-watching boat, or a fishing boat? At 5:33 pm there is a blast of two deep, resonant notes a major third apart. On another day there is the same blast at 12:54 pm. On another, exactly 8:00 am.“At home, the kitchen clock was ticking loudly. She unpacked the globe and checked the time. The house felt so quiet and empty without Benny. The clock said five minutes to one. She had an hour before the tech crew arrived. She carried the snow globe into the living room. She would put it next to her computer as a talisman to keep her calm and focused.At five minutes to one, the host of the show emerged from a heated tent to massive applause from the crowd. She was dressed in a fuchsia coat, with a black turtleneck, a knee-length skirt, black tights, and knee-high boots.The inspector glanced at the clock. Five to one. A busy morning.The watch on my wrist showed 12.58pm. I'd have time to hit the morgue.12:59 P.M. After missing both her morning workout and her first lunch, Braque felt her blood sugar falling off a goddamn cliff, and she could smell the turkey grilling even half a block from the Stucco Palace.And I had been looking at my watch since the train had started at 12.59pmHe shut down at one o’clock. He had written two pages, and the feeling that he was reverting to the nervous and neurotic man who’d almost burned down his house three years ago was getting harder to dismiss.A tub was brought in to melt snow for mortar. They heard somebody saying it was twelve o’clock already. “It’s sure to be twelve,” Shukhov announced. “The sun’s over the top already.” “If it is,” the captain retorted, “it’s one o’clock, not twelve.” “How do you make that out?” Shukhov asked in surprise. “The old folk say the sun is highest at dinnertime.” “Maybe it was in their day!” the captain snapped back. “Since then it’s been decreed that the sun is highest at one o’clock.” “Who decreed that?” “The Soviet government.”It was one o’clock when we left No. 3, Lauriston Gardens. Sherlock Holmes led me to the nearest telegraph office, whence he dispatched a long telegram. He then hailed a cab, and ordered the driver to take us to the address given us by LestradeHe bought them day passes, using cash. They rode some rides and then had a late lunch at Rock Lobster, the seafood place down by the concert hall. That was just past one o’clock. As for the time of death, you probably know how they establish it… contents of the stomach and so on…Today it is lovely again, and along the Champs-Élysées at twilight it is like an outdoor seraglio choked with dark-eyed houris. The trees are in full foliage and of a verdure so pure, so rich, that it seems as though they were still wet and glistening with dew. From the Palais du Louvre to the Etoile it is like a piece of music for the pianoforte. For five days I have not touched the typewriter nor looked at a book; nor have I had a single idea in my head except to go to the American Express. At nine this morning I was there, just as the doors were being opened, and again at one o’clock.A silver carriage clock in Judith Rey’s Ewingsville home tinkles one o’clock in the afternoon. Bill Smoke is being talked at by a financier’s wife. “This house never fails to bring out the demon of covetousness in me,” the fifty-something bejeweled woman confides, “it’s a copy of a Frank Lloyd Wright, The original’s on the outskirts of Salem, I believe.”“Oh, I’m a thinker all right,” McMurphy says, and they walk off together down the hall. When they come back what seems like days later, they’re both grinning and talking and happy about something. The doctor is wiping tears off his glasses and looks like he’s actually been laughing, and McMurphy is back as loud and full of brass and swagger as ever. He’s that way all through lunch, and at one o’clock he’s the first one in his seat for the meeting, his eyes blue and ornery from his place in the corner.He had a long-distance phone call from Portland and was down in the phone lobby with one of the black boys, waiting for the party to call again. When one o’clock came around and we went to moving things, getting the day room ready, the least black boy asked if she wanted him to go down and get McMurphy and Washington for the meeting, but she said no, it was all right, let him stay—besides, some of the men here might like a chance to discuss our Mr. Randle Patrick McMurphy in the absence of his dominating presence.“Can’t do it, Findle; I’m with somebody else! Call me up to-morrow about one o’clock!”The more he thought about it the more puzzled he was… He didn’t understand this revolver business… Somebody in the house had got that revolver… Downstairs a clock struck one."“I think,” he said, with a triumphant smile, “that I may safely expect to find the person I seek in the dining-room, fair lady.” “There may be more than one.” “Whoever is there, as the clock strikes one, will be shadowed by one of my men; of these, one, or perhaps two, or even three, will leave for France to-morrow. One of these will be the `Scarlet Pimpernel.'”""“One o'clock pee em! Hello, Insert Name Here!” Said by the Disorganizer"“Czarina Catherine reported entering Galatz at one o'clock today.”1.00 p.m. First afternoon classAfter 1 o'clock checks, Gretta always goes out for a smoke.Gottfried Rembke arrived at 1pm precisely. The moment he walked into the restaurant, handed his coat to the waiter, they knew it was him. The solid, stocky body, the gleaming pate, the open expression, the vigorous handshake: everything about him radiated ease and enthusiasmI got to Schmidt's early, feeling horribly nervous. At one o'clock sharp: Toni. She was looking at the menu she knew well - Schmorbraten? Schnitzel? - when he loomed over her. I had seen him come in. She looked up, through him, at me. 'Traitor.' Jamie, hovering, looking very big, said her pet name, a German diminutive chosen by her. Toni addressed the air. 'If he does not leave at once I shall tell the waiter that I am not sharing my table with this gentleman.' Jamie heard, said her name again, turned to go, I rose to go with him. Toni - with that concentration of will - said, 'YOU are lunching with me.'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.It was one o'clock. I bought some apples and a small pork pie and drove across the bridge to the other side of the riverbank in the direction of Orford Ness.Many moons passed by. Did Baboon ever fly? Did he ever get to the sun? I’ve just heard today That he’s well on his way! He’ll be passing through Acton at one.That day it was one o'clock before John and Roger rowed across and went up to Dixon's farm for the milk and a new supply of eggs and butter.The day-room floor gets cleared of tables and at one o'clock the doctor comes out of his office down the hall, nods once at the nurse as he goes past where he's watching out of her window, sits in his chair just to the left of the door.There's five fathoms out there, he said. It'll be swept up that way when the tide comes in about one. It's nine days today.At about one o'clock the overseer arrived and told them he had no jobs for themIt was a little after one o'clock when I got there, time for lunch, so I had it. The food was awful. But it would go on the expense account, and after I'd eaten I got out my notebook and put it down. Lunch $1.50. Taxi $1.00."“Jesus Christ!” he gasped. “It's four minutes past one!” Linden frantically seized hold of a pair of steps and began wandering about the room with them."“Samantha?” I can hear Trish approaching. “Um ... hold on!” I hurry to the door, trying to block her view. “It's already five past one,” I can hear her saying a little sharply. “And I did ask, most clearly for ...” Her voice trails off into silence as she reaches the kitchen door, and her whole face sags in astonishment. I turn and follow her gaze as she surveys the endless plates of sandwiches. “My goodness!” At last Trish finds her voice. “This is ... this is very impressive!”At five past one Alleyn opened the outer door, knocked his pipe out on the edge of the stone step,and remained staring out on to the drive.And then at precisely 13 hours and 6 minutes - confusion broke out in the rectangle.“I stopped at Mom’s classroom for the last few minutes of lunch. I closed the door behind me and sat down at a desk opposite her. I glanced up at the clock on the wall. 1:08. I had six minutes. I didn’t want more.”The numbers on the clock changed silently, advanced to 1:08.At nine minutes past one, a pair of horses approached (not from the city, from which direction Krieger had expected her to come, but from the Desert, which lay, vast and largely uncharted, out to the West and South-West of the city.)It was at ten minutes past one by Bond’s watch when, at the high table, the whole pattern of play suddenly altered.He says something but I don’t hear it because I am looking at the South Haven Daily. Today is Saturday, October 23, 1993. Our wedding day. The clock above the cigarette rack says 1:10. “Gotta run,” I say to the old man, and I do."“It was ten minutes past one.” “You are sure of that?”"I pursued my inquiries at the other stations along the line an' I found there was a gentleman wi' a bicycle tuk the 1.11 train at Girvan."“There it is! There it is!” shouted the Professor. “Now for the centre of the globe!” he added in Danish. I looked at Hans. “Forüt!” was his tranquil answer. “Forward!” replied my uncle. It was thirteen minutes past one."I got up slowly and made my way down the hall. “I’m 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨,” I hissed through the door. I squinted into the peephole: Reva looks bedraggled and deranged. “Can I come in?” she asked. “I really need to talk.” “Can I just call you later? What time is it?” “One fifteen. I tried calling,” she said. “Here, the doorman sent up your mail. I need to talk. It’s serious.”‘Monsieur has well slept this morning,’ he said, smiling. ‘What o’clock is it, Victor?’ asked Dorian Gray, sleepily. ‘One hour and a quarter, monsieur.’"“Where are the ladies and Gentlemen?” asked Aleyn. “Sir, in the garding”, said Bunce. “What time's lunch?” “One-fifteen”."The clock caught Miss LaFosse´s eye. ´Good heavens!´ she gasped. ´Look at the time. Quarter-past one. You must be starved.' She turned impetuously to Miss Pettigrew.And the first stop had been at 1.16pm which was 17 minutes later.1.17pm An arrest is made at Bristol Airport and police confirm that they’ve detained a person in connection with the investigation.One seventeen and four seconds. That shorter guy’s really got it made, and gets on a scooter, and that taller one, he goes in. One seventeen and forty seconds. That girl there, she’s got a green ribbon in her hair. Too bad that bus just cut her from view.One eighteen exactly. Was she stupid enough to head inside? Or wasn't she? We'll know before long, When the dead are carried out.I woke up and glanced at my watch on the table next to my bed. It was one twenty. My heart was beating furiously. I slid off the bed down onto the carpet, sat cross-legged, and took some deep breaths. Then I held my breath, relaxed my shoulders, sat up straight, and tried to focus. I must have swum too much, I decided, or got too much sun."Kamarov, signal to Purga: 'Diving at—,'” he checked his watch, ”'—1320 hours. Exercise OCTOBER FROST begins as scheduled. You are released to other assigned duties. We will return as scheduled.” Kamarov worked the trigger on the blinker light to transmit the message. The Purga responded at once, and Ramius read the flashing signal unaided: “IF THE WHALES DON'T EAT YOU. GOOD LUCK TO RED OCTOBER!”"The time is coming for action. Today this Vampire is limit to the powers of man, and till sunset he may not change. It will take him time to arrive here, see it is twenty minutes past one, and there are yet some times before he can hither come, be he never so quick.Today this Vampire is limit to the powers of man, and till sunset he may not change. It will take him time to arrive here, see it is twenty minutes past one, and there are yet some times before he can hither come, be he never so quick."And when we got to Swindon Mother had keys to the house and we went in and she said, “Hello?” but there was no one there because it was 1.23pm."The clock marked twenty-three minutes past one. He was suddenly full of agitation, yet hopeful. She had come! Who could tell what she would say? She might offer the most natural explanation of her late arrival. Félicie entered the room, her hair in disorder, her eyes shining, her cheeks white, her bruised lips a vivid red; she was tired, indifferent, mute, happy and lovely, seeming to guard beneath her cloak, which she held wrapped about her with both hands, some remnant of warmth and voluptuous pleasure.Littell checked his watch - 1:24 p.m - Littell grabbed the phone by the bed.I'd really have liked to, I told her, if it weren't for the things I had in the drier. I cast an eye at my watch. One-twenty-five. The drier had already stopped.1:26 P.M. As she walked down Noyes toward campus, past the giant chirping trees and sturdy hundred-year-old homes full of twenty-year-olds, the sky was the bright, eye-stabbing silver that she hated on game days. The beautiful morning had evolved into a classic midwestern scorcher and there was no relief from any incoming low-pressure front from Minnesota.Raymond came back with Masson around one-thirty. His arm was bandaged up and he had an adhesive plaster on the corner of his mouth. The doctor had told him it was nothing, but Raymond looked pretty grim. Masson tried to make him laugh. But he still wouldn't say anything.At one-thirty she’s for hiring a carriage and driving through the Bois. He has only one thought in his head—how to take a leak? “I love you . . . . I adore you,” he says. “I’ll go anywhere you say—Istanbul, Singapore, Honolulu. Only I must go now. . . . It’s getting late.”“I moved down here and painted the room black in high school. To be 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘭,” Reva said sarcastically. “It’s very cool,” I said. I put my shopping bag down, finished the coffee. “When should I wake you up? We should leave here around one thirty. So factor in whatever time you’ll need to get ready.”Ten-thirty the Public Relation comes in with a ladies’ club following him. He claps his fat hands at the day-room door. “Oh, hello, guys; stiff lip, stiff lip . . . look around, girls; isn’t it clean, so bright? This is Miss Ratched. I chose this ward because it’s 𝘩𝘦𝘳 ward. She’s, girls, just like a mother. Not that I mean age, but you girls understand . . .”"Lupin not having come down, I went up again at half-past one, and said we dined at two; he said he “would be there.”"She was a sticker. A clock away in the town struck half past one.Shredding and slicing, dividing and subdividing, the clocks of Harley Street nibbled at the June day, counselled submission, upheld authority, and pointed out in chorus the supreme advantages of a sense of proportion, until the mound of time was so far diminished that a commercial clock, suspended above a shop in Oxford Street, announced, genially and fraternally, as if it were a pleasure to Messrs Rigby and Lowndes to give the information gratis, that it was half-past one.I sat down on the couch again and looked at my watch It was one thirty-two. I shut my eyes and focused on a spot in my head. My mind a total blank, I gave myself up to the sands of time and let the flow take me wherever it wanted.At the third stroke it will be one ... thirty-two ... and twenty seconds. 'Beep ... beep ... beep.' Ford Prefect suppressed a little giggle of evil satisfaction, realized that he had no reason to suppress it, and laughed out loud, a wicked laugh.He waited for the green light to show and then opened the door again on to the now empty cargo hold.'... one ... thirty-three ... and fifty seconds.' Very nice.'At the third stroke it will be ...' He tiptoed out and returned to the control cabin. '... one ... thirty-four and twenty seconds.' The voice sounded as clear as if he was hearing it over a phone in London, which he wasn't, not by a long way.He then went and had a last thorough examination of the emergency suspended animation chamber, which was where he particularly wanted it to be heard. 'At the third stroke it will be one ... thirty ... four ... precisely.'1:35 P.M. Katelyn stood in the hallway, her hands on her hips, enjoying the hell out of the moment. “So I see how it is,” she said. “Your cousin can visit during finals week but my sister can’t.”"He had not dared to sleep in his rented car—you didn't sleep in your car when you worked for Jesus Castro—and he was beginning to hallucinate. Still, he was on the job, and he scribbled in his notebook:” 1.37pm Subject appears to be getting laid.”"And it was now 1.39pm which was 23 minutes after the stop, which mean that we would be at the sea if the train didn't go in a big curve. But I didn't know if it went in a big curve.1:42 P.M. Behind Chapin Hall was the official campus rehearsal and practice space building for more music students. Everyone called it he Beehive, because during school, the building emitted an atonal assemblage of strings, horns, and keys through its windows; Braque guessed that some imaginative people once likened it to the pleasant buzzing of insects.The last note was recorded at 1.42pm: G.M. on site at H-by; will take over the matter.By good luck, the next train was due at forty-four minutes past one, and arrived at Yateland (the next station) ten minutes afterward.That period which is always so dangerous, when the wicket is bad, the ten minutes before lunch, proved fatal to two more of the enemy. The last man had just gone to the wickets, with the score at a hundred and thirty-one, when a quarter to two arrived, and with it the luncheon interval.The blow fell at precisely one forty-five (summer-time). Benson, my Aunt Agatha's butler, was offering me the fried potatoes at the moment, and such was my emotion that I lofted six of them on the sideboard with the spoon.Poppy was sprawled on Brianne's bed, applying black mascara to her stubby lashes. Brianne was sitting at her desk, trying to complete an essay before the 2pm deadline. It was 1.47pm.It was twelve minutes to two in the afternoon when Claude Moreau and his most-trusted field officer, Jacques Bergeron, arrived at the Georges Cinq station of the Paris Metro. They walked, separately, to the rear of the platform, each carrying a handheld radio, the frequencies calibrated to each other.The bookstall clerk had seen the passenger in grey pass the bookstall at 1.49, in the direction of the exit.She had to get out of this goddam camper. It might be the biggest, luxiest one in the world, but right now it felt the size of a coffin. She made her way to the door, holding onto things to keep her balance. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard before she went out. Ten to two. Everything had happened in just twenty minutes. Incredible.Rahel's toy wristwatch had the time painted on it. Ten to two. One of her ambitions was to own a watch on which she could change the time whenever she wanted to (which according to her was what Time was meant for in the first place).The best train of the day was the one-fifty from Paddington which reached Polgarwith just after seven o'clock.At the moment museum officials do not believe anything was stolen from the collection. The museum and church, which are popular tourist attractions, will be closed to the public until further notice. 1:54PM - 05/05/2014"If I was punctual in quitting Mlle. Reuter's domicile, I was at least equally punctual in arriving there; I came the next day at five minutes before two, and on reaching the schoolroom door, before I opened it, I heard a rapid, gabbling sound, which warned me that the “priere du midi” was not yet concluded."1:56 P.M. Happily, Katelyn was out of the dorm room, off doing whatever the hell she did on campus, so Braque could type her computer passwords for Eva without worrying about her cooze of a roommate getting them.Then I opened my eyes and looked at my watch. It was one fifty-seven. Twenty-five minutes had vanished somewhere. Not bad, I told myself. A pointless way of whittling away time. Not bad at all."I looked for a clock. It was three minutes to two. “I hope you can catch him, then. Thank you. I really appreciate it.”"It was almost two o’clock, but nothing moved, Stari Teočak was silent and so empty it seemed abandoned, and yet Tijmen constantly felt he was being observed by invisible eyes."For twenty minutes he sat and watched as the gap between the ship and Epun closed, as the ship's computer teased and kneaded the numbers that would bring it into a loop around the little moon, and close the loop and keep it there, orbiting in perpetual obscurity. 'One ... fifty-nine …'”"Jesiba didn’t bother answering, instead saying, “I’ve got a client coming in at two o’clock. Be ready. And stop letting Lehabah prattle. She has a job to do.” The line went dead.At two that afternoon, Bryant Brown sat numbly in his chair beside his sleeping wife, wondering how he could tell her that their only child was dead, if it became necessary to do so.It’s only two o’clock. She left the office early, telling Dr. Van Vleet she felt she was coming down with something. Really it’s Nate who is coming down with something: he phones from his house, nasal, forlorn, he has to see her. “It’s a delusional painter who finishes a canvas at two o’clock and expects radical societal transformation by four. Even when artists write manifestos, they are (hopefully) aware that their exigent tone is, finally, borrowed, only echoing and mimicking the urgency of the guerrilla’s demands, or the activist’s protests, rather than truly enacting it. The people sometimes demand change. They almost never demand art.”Things started to break up around two in the afternoon. We could have stayed for supper, could have stayed - if Mr Corcoran’s drunken invitations held true (Mrs Corcoran’s frosty smile behind his back informed us that they did not) indefinitely…At 2 p.m. on a weekday, the movie theater was almost deserted, but three people sat two rows back from Andi Steiner and her date. Two men, one quite old and one appearing on the edge of middle age (but appearances could be deceiving), flanked a woman of startling beauty. Her cheekbones were high, her eyes were gray, her complexion creamy. Her masses of black hair were tied back with a broad velvet ribbon.At two every afternoon, the mother and son would appear at the beach. The mother always wore a plain light-colored dress with a broad-brimmed straw hat. The son never wore a hat; he had on sunglasses instead. They’d sit in the shade below the palm trees, the breeze rustling around them, and stare off at the ocean, not really doing anything.“You can take a nap in my room,” she said. “It should be quiet down there. My relatives are over, but they won’t think you’re being rude or anything. We don’t have to be at the funeral home until two.”We followed along the High Street at a reasonable distance, giggling, dodging past people, separating and coming together again. It must have been around two o’clock by then, and the pavement was busy with shoppers.The next few hours are shutter-snaps. Pictures like on her phone. She blinks and there’s a picture. Blinks again and there’s something else. She looks at her watch and it’s 2 p.m., looks a moment later and it’s half past. She couldn’t worry about anything if she tried. It’s good.At two o’clock the doctor begins to squirm around in his chair. The meetings are uncomfortable for the doctor unless he’s talking about his theory; he’d rather spend his time down in his office, drawing on graphs.He told her if he had any of his weekends free he’d ask her for a date, and she said she could come to visit in two weeks if he’d tell her what time, and Billy looked at McMurphy for an answer. McMurphy put his arms around both of their shoulders and said, “Let’s make it two o’clock on the nose.”One afternoon, I don’t recall how long back, we stopped on our way to activities and sat around the lobby on the big plastic sofas or outside in the two-o’clock sun while one of the black boys used the phone to call his bookmaker, and Billy’s mother took the opportunity to leave her work and come out from behind her desk and take her boy by the hand and lead him outside to sit near where I was on the grass.As Big Ben struck two o’clock the door opened and the top half of Cleverly’s body appeared. “Anything?” “No, sir.” “The line still working?” “I believe so.” “We’ll give it another five minutes and then the PM will have to go.” The door closed.“At two o’clock back at the Weatherbys’ Sally asked her if she and Amory had had a “time” in the den. Isabelle turned to her quietly. In her eyes was the light of the idealist, the inviolate dreamer of Joan-like dreams.”“How odd… I’m almost happy. And yet I suppose I’m actually in danger… Somehow - now - nothing seems to matter… not in daylight… I feel full of power - I feel that I can’t die…” Blore was looking at his wrist-watch. He said: “It’s two o’clock. What about lunch?” 'She could have fired the jig, and he could have kept on picking up his packages at the old time, two o'clock. As it was, he had almost been arrested.'"“The old people's home is at Marengo, fifty miles from Algiers. I'll catch the two o'clock bus and get there in the afternoon.”.... “I caught the two o'clock bus. It was very hot.”"At approximately 1400 hours a pair of enemy Skyhawks came flying in at deck level out of nowhere.At two o'clock Gatsby put on his bathing suit and left word with the butler that if any one phoned word was to be brought to him at the pool.At two, the snowplows were in action in Lillestrom.I caught the two o'clock bus. It was very hot. I ate at Céleste's restaurant as usual. They all felt very sorry for me and Céleste told me, 'There's no one like a mother'.The Home for Aged Persons is at Marengo, some fifty miles from Algiers. With the two o'clock bus I should get there well before nightfall. Then I can spend the night there, keeping the usual vigil beside the body, and be back here by tomorrow evening.When Salander woke up it was 2.00 on Saturday afternoon and a doctor was poking at her.At about two o' clock the owners young wife came, carrying a handleless cup and a pot with a quilted cover, to where I was still lying disconsolateThe next day was Saturday and, now that Moon was done, I decided to bring the job to its end. So I sent word that I shouldn't be able to umpire for the team at Steeple Sinderby and, after working through the morning, came down about two o'clock."“I'm not dead. How did that happen?” He was right. It was 14.02 and twenty-six seconds. Destiny had not been fulfilled. We all looked at each other, confused."2.04pm. Once again, the Quartermaster-General's office came on the line asking for Colonel Finckh, and once again Finckh heard the quiet, unemotional, unfamiliar voice...and at five past two on 17 September of that same unforgettable year 1916, I was in the Muryovo hospital yard, standing on trampled withered grass, flattened by the September rain.A man driving a tractor saw her, four hundred yards from her house, six minutes past two in the afternoon.He arrived at her house at 2:10 P.M., two videotapes in one hand, and a single bag of uncooked microwave popcorn in the other. "Mrs Eunice Harris pulls back the sleeve of her good coat and checks her good watch. “Indeed yes. Half twelve,” and waves a hand at the Town Hall clock as if it was hers. “Always ten past two. Someone put a nail in the time years back.”"At the third stroke, it will be two ... thirteen ... and fifty seconds.'I had a date with her next day at 2.15 P.M. In my own rooms, but it was less successful, she seemed to have grown less juvenile, more of a woman overnight.2.15 p.m. Second afternoon classI had a date with her next day at 2.15pm in my own rooms, but it was less successful, she seemed to have grown less juvenile, more of a woman overnight. A cold I caught from her led me to cancel a fourth assignment, nor was I sorry to break an emotional series that threatened to burden me with heart-rending fantasies and peter out in dull disappointment. So let her remain, sleek, slender Monique, as she was for a minute or twoOh, good evening. I think you were on the barrier when I came in at 2.16 this afternoon. Now, do you know that you let me get past without giving up my ticket? Yes, yes he-he! I really think you ought to be more carefulAndrea Mitchell appears on a split screen. “Chet, we understand from a source at Homeland Security that the explosion happened at two-nineteen P.M. I don’t know how the authorities can pinpoint the time that exactly, but apparently they can.”2:19: Duane Hinton walks out. He walks through the backyard. He lugs some clothes. He wore said clothes last night. He walks to the fence. He feeds the incinerator. He lights a match.The having originated a precaution which was already in course of execution, was a great relief to Miss Pross. The necessity of composing her appearance so that it should attract no special notice in the streets, was another relief. She looked at her watch, and it was twenty minutes past two. She had no time to lose, but must get ready at once.Inevitable, implacable, the rainstorm wept itself out. She saw Tom look at his watch. 'What time is it?' 'Twenty past two. Want to go back to the hotel for a while?' 'All right.' They walked out of the gardens and down the rue de Vaugirard. This holiday, unlike those holidays long ago, would not end with her sleeping at home. Two nights from now I will be high over the Atlantic Ocean and on Saturday I will be walking around in the Other Place. I am going to America. I am starting my life over again. But as she said these words to herself, she found it hard to imagine what the new life would be like. And, again, she was afraid.She looked at her watch and it was twenty minutes past two. She had no time to lose but must get ready at once.The watch found at the Weir was challenged by the jeweller as one he had wound and set for Edwin Drood, at twenty minutes past two on that same afternoon; and it had run down, before being cast into the water; and it was the jeweller's positive opinion that it had never been re-wound.Garth here. Sunday afternoon. Sorry to miss you, but I'll leave a brief message on your tape. Two-twenty-two or there-aboutish. Great party.Gary shut himself inside his office and flipped through the messages. Caroline had called at 1:35, 1:40, 1:50, 1:55, and 2:10; it was now 2:25. He pumped his fist in triumph. Finally, finally, some evidence of desperation.It happened to be the case that the sixty-based system coincided with our our current method of keeping time... Apparently they wanted us to know that that something might happen at 28 minutes and 57 seconds after 2pm on a day yet to be specified.She looked at her watch: half past two. A few minutes to calm down before she had to go.So I opened the door again, got out a piece of paper and a thumbtack, and wrote: Out briefly. Back for appointment at 2:30. Dresden That done, I went to the stairs and started down. I rarely use the elevator, even though I’m on the fifth floor. Like I said, I don’t trust machines. They’re always breaking down on me just when I need themAch! It's 2:30. Look how the time is flying. And it's still so much to do today.. It's dishes to clean, dinner to defrost, and my pills I haven't yet counted. I don't get it... Why didn't the Jews at least try to resist? It wasn't so easy like you think. Everybody was so starving and frightened, and tired they couldn't believe even what's in front of their eyes.At 2.30pm on the 13th inst. began to shadow Sir Bobadil the Ostrich, whom I suspect of being the criminal. Shadowing successful. Didn't lose sight of him once.At half past two the same afternoon the boy and the elderly man are standing in the room directly above the Inner Office and Waiting-Room.It was half-past two in the afternoon. The sun hung in the faded blue sky like a burning mirror, and away beyond the paddocks the blue mountains quivered and leapt like sea. Sid wouldn't be back until half-past ten. He had ridden over to the township with four of the boys to help hunt down the young fellow who'd murdered Mr. Williamson. Such a dreadful thing!"It was half-past two o'clock when the knock came. I took my courage a deux mains and waited. In a few minutes Mary opened the door, and announced “Dr. Van Helsing”."May 14th 1800. Wm and John set off into Yorkshire after dinner at 1/2 past 2 o'clock, cold pork in their pockets. I left them at the turning of the Low-wood bay under the trees. My heart was so full that I could barely speak to W. when I gave him a farewell kiss.Like 2.32 p.m., Beecher and Avalon, L3 R2 (which meant left three blocks, right two) 2:35 p.m., and you wondered how you could pick up one box, then drive 5 blocks in 3 minutes and be finished cleaning out another box.“Drive safe,” says Ned. He texted me to send the van. That was at 2:36, I know because I looked at the clock, the art deco one right over there, see? Keeps perfect time. Then, I dunno, he just vanished.I look at my watch. Two thirty-six. All I've got left today is take in the laundry and fix dinner.Noo, there's a report come in fra' the station-master at Pinwherry that there was a gentleman tuk the 2.39 at Pinwherry.If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late? Nobody. “We better hurry,” I said. “The show starts at two-forty.” We started going down the stairs to where the taxis are."If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn when she's late? 'We better hurry', I said. 'The show starts at two-forty.'Members of Big Side marked Michael and Alan as the two most promising three-quarters for Middle Side next year, and when the bell sounded at twenty minutes to three, the members of Big Side would walk with Michael and Alan towards the changing room and encourage them by flattery and genial ragging.At 2.41, when the afternoon fast train to London was pulling out of Larborough prompt to the minute, Miss Pym sat under the cedar on the lawn wondering whether she was a fool, and not caring much anyhow.Jacobson died at 2.43pm the next day after slashing his wrists with a razor blade in the second cubicle from the left in the men's washroom on the third floor.He glanced down at his watch. He had been smiling as he stroked her awake, and was smiling now. “Quarter to three. I sat in my stupid old motel room for almost two hours after we talked, trying to convince myself that what I was thinking couldn’t be true. Only I didn’t get where I am by dodging the truth.”The young tinker girl knocked at the back door at quarter to three in the afternoon. Marjan recognized her as one of the many freckled faces that lingered at the café windows long after other curious schoolchildren had left their mucky handprints behind.He never came down till a quarter to three.Pull the other one, and tell it to the marines, and don't make me laugh, and fuck off out of it, and all that, but the fact remained that it was still only two forty-five'.What time is it?' 'Look for yourself,' the old woman says to me. I look, and I see the clock has no hands. 'There are no hands,' I say. The old woman looks at the clock face and says to me, 'It's a quarter to three'.When it was 2:50 and the bank, too, had not been attacked, it was clear this was not the day of the big coup. Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?“And what do you suppose Father Mahoney is thinking now, sitting there like some Romanian beggar and just before teatime? He knows very well we’re expecting him. If he’s even one minute late—I’m counting, it’s seven minutes to three on my watch—I’ll be telling him a thing or two.”In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn’t cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in about 2.55, when you know you’ve had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o’clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.The superior, the very reverend John Conmee SJ reset his smooth watch in his interior pocket as he came down the presbytery steps. Five to three. Just nice time to walk to Artane.2.56 P.M. Helen is alone now. Her face is out of frame, and through the viewfinder I see only a segment of the pillow, an area of crumpled sheet and the upper section of her chest and shoulders.But generally it’s the other way, the slow way. She’ll turn that dial to a dead stop and freeze the sun there on the screen so it don’t move a scant hair for weeks, so not a leaf on a tree or a blade of grass in the pasture shimmers. The clock hands hang at two minutes to three and she’s liable to let them hang there till we rust.From twenty minutes past nine until twenty-seven minutes past nine, from twenty-five minutes past eleven until twenty-eight minutes past eleven, from ten minutes to three until two minutes to three the heroes of the school met in a large familiarity whose Olympian laughter awed the fearful small boy that flitted uneasily past and chilled the slouching senior that rashly paused to examine the notices in assertion of an unearned right.We betted that it would happen on the morrow; they took us up and gave us the odds of two to one; we betted that it would happen in the afternoon; we got odds of four to one on that; we betted that it would happen at two minutes to three; they willingly granted us the odds of ten to one on that.At three that afternoon it was Peter who raised her from the semidaze in which she had been working, making her aware she was two damn-nears: damn-near starving and damn-near exhausted.The little velociraptor opened her jaws and hissed at Grant, in a posture of sudden intense fury. “Fascinating,” Grant said. “Can I stay and play with her?” Tim said. “Not right now,” Ed Regis said, glancing at his watch. “It’s three o’clock, and it’s a good time for a tour of the park itself, so you can see all the dinosaurs in the habitats we have designed for them.”Three o’clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do. An odd moment in the afternoon.About three o’clock the four couples, frightened at their happiness, were sliding down the Russian mountains, a singular edifice which then occupied the heights of Beaujon, and whose undulating line was visible above the trees of the Champs Élysées.A few moments later, about three o’clock, Courfeyrec chanced to be passing along the Rue Mouffetard in company with Bossuet. The snow had redoubled in violence, and filled the air.At three o’clock on the afternoon there was a loud peal at the bell, an authoritative voice in the hall, and, to my surprise, no less a person than Mr. Athelney Jones was shown up to me. Very different was he, however, from the brusque and masterful professor of common sense who had taken over the case so confidently at Upper Norwood. His expression was downcast, and his bearing meek and even apologetic.“Then good-night, your majesty, and I trust that we shall soon have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson,” he added, as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. “If you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three o’clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you.”The next afternoon at three, I went to meet the new teacher. When I stepped inside Julian’s office I was shocked. It was completely empty. The books, the rugs, the big round table were all gone.At about three o’clock in the afternoon, my whole body is hit by an overwhelming tiredness and I spent the last couple of hours of the day perusing the gift shop for stuffed koalas for Kay and Olivia and chilling out at a table inside the air-conditioned café.All the doors were locked, everything in its proper place. Nothing out of the ordinary. I went back to the janitor’s room, set my alarm for three, and fell fast asleep.When the alarm went off at three, though, I woke up feeling weird. I can’t explain it, but I just felt different. I didn’t feel like getting up—it was like something was suppressing my will to get out of bed. I’m the type who usually leaps right out of bed, so I couldn’t understand it.Luisa crosses the office to Dom Grelsch’s door. Her boss is speaking on the phone in a low, irate voice. Luisa waits outside but overhears. “No—no, no, Mr, Frum, it 𝘪𝘴 black-and-white, tell me—hey, 𝘐’𝘮 talking now—tell me a 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 black-and-white ‘condition’ than leukemia? Know what I think? I think my wife is just one piece of paperwork between you and your three o’clock golf slot, isn’t she?”Jarvis whistled through his teeth. “Will the law help a man of your years bounce back from multiple spinal fractures, Timothy?” Eddie: “Men of your age don’t bounce. They splat.” I fought with all my might, but my sphincter was no longer my own and a cannonade fired off. Amusement or condescension I could have borne, but my tormentors’ pity signified my abject defeat. The toilet chain was pulled. “Three o’clock,” Cavendish-Redux went down the pan. Out trooped the thugs, over my prostrate door. Eddie turned for a last word. “Dermot did a nice little paragraph in his book. On loan defaulters.”I had pushed too hard. “Damn it to hell, Tim, my bank 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥! We were bled dry by those bloodsuckers at Lloyds! The days when I had that kind of spondulics at my beck and call are gone, gone, gone! Out house is mortgaged, twice over! I’m the mighty fallen, you’re the miniscule fallen. Anyway, you’ve got this ruddy book flying out of every bookshop in the known world!” My face said what I had no words for. “Oh Christ, you idiot. What’s the repayment schedule?” I looked at my watch. “Three o’clock this afternoon.”By three o’clock, the heat had morphed into a feral creature, a snake bent on prey. It hissed and slithered across the pavements, poked its flaming tongue through keyholes. People inched closer t their fans, sucked harder on ice cubes and opened the windows, only to close them instantly.When the clock struck three, Elizabeth felt that she must go, and very unwillingly said so. Miss Bingley offered her the carriage, and she only wanted a little pressing to accept it, when Jane testified such concern in parting with her, that Miss Bingley was obliged to convert the offer of the chaise to an invitation to remain at Netherfield for the present.I’m not going to just lie here, she thought, and let my life be ruined! And when she heard, “God give you good morrow, my masters! Past three o’clock and a fair morning!” she flung back the covers and got out of bed, turning to shake Nan.I sat down on the woodpile we kept under a swatch of canvas on this side of the house. “I imagine you’re out here on business. My wife’s.” “I am.” “Well, you’ve had your drink, so we better get down to it. I’ve still got a full day’s work ahead of me, and it’s three o’clock in the afternoon.”The storm swept through all of Europe, raging through the night and on into the next day, and when Cromwell died at three o’clock in the afternoon it was still desolating the island.“ At three o’clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had not yet returned.”“And now it was three o’clock. The Antichrist had been on Earth for fifteen hours, and one angel and one demon had been drinking solidly for three of them.”“The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already—it had not been light all day—and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air.”“When the clock struck three, Elizabeth felt that she must go, and very unwillingly said so.”“Dating from three o’clock yesterday. My perpetual influence could not begin earlier, or you would not have been so much out of humour before.”“Amory saw girls doing things that even in his memory would have been impossible: eating three-o’clock, after-dance suppers in impossible cafes, talking of every side of life with an air half of earnestness, half of mockery, yet with a furtive excitement that Amory considered stood for a real moral let-down. But he never realized how wide-spread it was until he saw the cities between New York and Chicago as one vast juvenile intrigue.”“The afternoon waned from the purging good of three o’clock to the golden beauty of four.”With some difficulty, James battled his way past waves of scent, screeching voices and glossy black hair. “What on earth is going on?” he asked when he reached the safety of his office. Carlo shrugged. “It’s three o’clock.” “I’m aware of the time, Carlo. Why are there so many women outside?” “They are the 𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘦. The women who want to marry Allied servicemen.”'I gotta get uptown by three o'clock.'"“Remember,” they shouted, “battle at three o'clock sharp. There's no time to lose.”"And the sound of the bell flooded the room with its melancholy wave; which receded, and gathered itself together to fall once more, when she heard, distractedly, something fumbling, something scratching at the door. Who at this hour? Three, good Heavens! Three already!At three o'clock on the afternoon of that same day, he called on her. She held out her two hands, smiling in her usual charming, friendly way; and for a few seconds they looked deep into each other's eyes.At three o’clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had not yet returned.At three on the Wednesday afternoon, that bit of the painting was completed.Ditched by the woman I loved, I exalted my suffering into a sign of greatness (lying collapsed on a bed at three in the afternoon), and hence protected myself from experiencing my grief as the outcome of what was at best a mundane romantic break-up. Chloe's departure may have killed me, but it had at least left me in glorious possession of the moral high ground. I was a martyr.He walks into the Hospital for Broken Things at three o'clock on Monday afternoon. That was the arrangement. If he came in after six o'clock, he was to head straight for the house in Sunset Park.I had a three o’clock class in psychology, the first meeting of the semester, and I suspected I was going to miss it. I was right. Victoria made a real ritual of the whole thing, clothes coming off with the masturbatory dalliance of a strip show, the covers rolling back periodically to show this patch of flesh or that, strategically revealed.It was three o'clock in the beautiful breezy autumn day when Mr. Casaubon drove off to his Rectory at Lowick, only five miles from Tipton; and Dorothea, who had on her bonnet and shawl, hurried along the shrubbery and across the park that she might wander through the bordering wood with no other visible companionship than that of Monk, the Great St. Bernard dog, who always took care of the young ladies in their walksLadies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.M. Madeleine usually came at three o'clock, and as punctuality was kindness, he was punctual.On Wednesday at three o'clock, Monsieur and Madame Bovary, seated in their dog-cart, set out for Vaubyessard, with a great trunk strapped on behind and a bonnet-box in front of the apron. Besides these Charles held a bandbox between his knees.The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul-erosion produced by high gambling - a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension - becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it.Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.Three o'clock is the perfect time in Cham, because anything is possible. You can still ski, but also respectably start drinking, the shops have just reopened, the sun is still up. Three o'clock is never too late or too early.Today was the day Alex had appointed for her 'punishment'. I became increasingly nervous as the hour of three o'clock approached. I was alone in the house, and paced restlessly from room to room, glancing at the clocks in each of them.The sun was now setting. It was about three in the afternoon when Alisande had begun to tell me who the cowboys were; so she had made pretty good progress with it - for her. She would arrive some time or other, no doubt, but she was not a person who could be hurried.I check Shingi's mobile phone - it says it's 3.03pm. I get out of bed, open my suitcase to take clean socks out and the smell of Mother hit my nose and make me feel dizzy.He saw the clock in the town-hall tower standing at four minutes past three on that hot and windless late-July afternoon.Woken at 1504 by Michelangelo hammering away with his chisel.For one moment Ruth could see the bones of the bats standing out clearly, as if in an X-ray picture. Then all the green turned black. It was 3:05 P.M."Ultimately, at five minutes past three that afternoon, Smith admitted the falsity of the Fort Scott tale. “That was only something Dick told his family. So he could stay out overnight. Do some drinking.”"The next day was grey, threatening rain. He was there at seven minutes past three. The clock on the church over the way pointed to it. They had arranged to be there at three fifteen. Therefore, if she had been there when he came, she would have been eight minutes before her time.A private wireless telegraph which would transmit by dot and dash system the result of a national equine handicap (flat or steeplechase) of 1 or more miles and furlongs won by an outsider at odds of 50 to 1 at 3 hr 8 m p.m. at Ascot (Greenwich time), the message being received and available for betting purposes in Dublin at 2.59 p.m.On the next day he boarded the London train which reaches Hull at 3.09. At Paragon Station he soon singled out Beamish from Merriman's description.At 3:10 p.m., the restaurant was still about two hours from opening, which was how Randy liked it for their visits. As they passed by the wooden benches and coat racks in the lobby, Eva liked to stop and look at a sepia-toned portrait of the owners, Jack Dougherty and Ishmael Mendoza, and a framed “Story of Lulu’s” that was meant to help pass the time for customers willing to tolerate a substantial wait.This time it was only the simple fact that the hands chanced to point to 3.10pm, the precise moment at which all the clocks of London had stopped.The lift moved. It was thirteen minutes past three. The bell gave out its ping. Two men stepped out of the lift, Alan Norman and another man. Tony Blair walked into the office."A signal sounded. “There's the 3.14 up,” said Perks. “You lie low till she's through, and then we'll go up along to my place, and see if there's any of them strawberries ripe what I told you about.”"I shall be back at exactly THREE fourteen, for our hour of revery together, real sweet revery darlingThe boss had had something rather more spectacular than a bowel movement; at three-fifteen that day he had done something in his pants that was the equivalent of a shit A-bomb.Sixsmith next lines up for an airplane ticket. News of delays lulls him like a litany. He keeps a nervous eye out for sign of Seaboard’s agents coming to pick him up at this late hour. Finally, a ticket clerk waves him over. “I have to get to London. Any destination in the United Kingdom, in fact. Any seat, any airline. I’ll pay in cash.” “Not a 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳, sir.” The clerk’s tiredness shows through her makeup. “Earliest I can manage”—she consults a teleprinted sheet—"London Heathrow . . .. tomorrow afternoon, three-fifteen departure, Laker Skytrains, change at JFK."Gordon was alone. He wandered back to the door. The strawberry-nosed man glanced over his shoulder, caught Gordon's eye, and moved off, foiled. He had been on the point of slipping Edgar Wallace into his pocket. The clock over the Prince of Wales struck a quarter past three."I got out my old clothes. I put wool socks over my regular socks and took my time lacing up the boots. I made a couple of tuna sandwiches and some double-decker peanut-butter crackers. I filled my canteen and attached the hunting knife and the canteen to my belt. As I was going out the door, I decided to leave a note. So I wrote: “Feeling better and going to Birch Creek. Back soon. R. 3:15.” That was about four hours from now."July 3: 5 3/4 hours. Little done today. Deepening lethargy, dragged myself over to the lab, nearly left the road twice. Concentrated enough to feed the zoo and get the log up to date. Read through the operating manuals Whitby left for the last time, decided on a delivery rate of 40 rontgens/min., target distance of 530 cm. Everything is ready now. Woke 11:05. To sleep 3:15.The Nimrod rendezvoused with the light aircraft at 1516 GMT.He checked his watch. Only 3:20, but that was close enough for government work. Claudette Albertson surprised him. “No, it’s Mr. Hayes, right down here on the first floor with us.” “Are you sure?” Dan had played a game of checkers with Charlie Hayes just that afternoon, and for a man with acute myelogenous leukemia, he’d seemed as lively as a cricket.When the phone rang at three twenty I was sprawled out on the tatami, starting at the ceiling. A pool of winter sunlight had formed in the place where I lay. Like a dead fly I lay there, vacant, in a December 1971 spotlight.At twenty minutes past three on Monday, 26 January 1948, in Tokyo, and I am drinking and I am drinking and I am drinking and I am drinking and I am drinking and I am drinking and I am drinking and I am drinking and I am drinking …Three twenty-three! Is that all? Doesn't time - no, I've already said that, thought that. I sit and watch the seconds change on the watch. I used to have a limited edition Rolex worth the price of a new car but I lost it.Three twenty-three! Is that all? Doesn't time - no, I've already said that, thought that. I sit and watch the seconds change on the watch. I used to have a limited edition Rolex worth the price of a new car but I lost it. It was present from...Christine? No, Inez. She got fed up with me always having to ask other people what the time was; embarrassed on my behalf."“Hmm, let's see. It's a three-line rail-fence, a, d, g...d-a-r-l...Got it: 'Darling Hepzibah'—Hepzibah? What kind of name is that?—'Will meet you Reading Sunday 15.25 train Didcot-Reading.' Reading you all right, you idiots.”"And she rang the Reverend Peters and he came into school at 3.27pm and he said, 'So, young man, are we ready to roll?'"“Good heavens!” she said, “it's nearly half-past three. I must fly. Don't forget about the funeral service,” she added, as she put on her coat. “The tapers, the black coffin in the middle of the aisle, the nuns in their white-winged coifs, the gloomy chanting, and the poor cowering creature without any teeth, her face all caved in like an old woman's, wondering whether she wasn't really and in fact dead - wondering whether she wasn't already in hell. Goodbye.”"“Half past three. Tea time,” said Mary Poppins, and she wheeled the perambulator round and shut her mouth tight again as though it were a trap door. She did not say another word all the way home.At first, the change of scene appeared to be working. He managed to digest the roast beef sandwich and asparagus salad he ordered for lunch. At 3:30 he met a friend’s girlfriend in the hotel tearoom, where he sent his stomach a piece of cherry pie and black coffee, which also stayed down.There wasn’t the faintest trace of writing on any of them, not even Auntie Mabel’s Birthday, or dentist, half-past three.“They found two unlocked bicycles in Holder Court and rode out about half-past three along the Lawrenceville Road.”"“Before I am rrroasting the alarm-clock, I am setting it to go off, not at nine o'clock the next morning, but at half-past thrrree the next afternoon. Vhich means half-past thrrree this afternoon. And that”, she said, glancing at her wrist-watch, “is in prrree-cisely seven minutes' time!”"3.30 p.m. Catch school bus homeI must have completed my packing with time to spare, for when the knock came on my door at half past three precisely, I had been sitting in my chair waiting for a good while. I opened the door to a young Chinese man, perhaps not even twenty, dressed in a gown, his hat in his hand.At 3:32 precisely, I noticed Kaitlyn striding confidently past the Wok House. She saw me the moment I raised my hand, flashed her very white and newly straightened teeth at me, and headed over.I picked up my briefcase, glancing at my watch again as I did so. Three thirty-three.By three-thirty-five business really winds down. I have already sold my ladderback chairs and my Scottish cardigans. I'm not even sure now why I've sold all these things, except perhaps so as not to be left out of this giant insult to one's life that is a yard sale, this general project of getting rid quick.If Me flashed a little crazy after a restless night of smoking & prowling the darkened house with owl-eyes alert to suspicious noises outside & on the roof, it didn’t inevitably mean she’d still be in such a state when the schoolbus deposited Wolfie back home at 3:35 P.M."The explosion was now officially designated an “Act of God&rdqout;. But, thought Dirk, what god? And why? What god would be hanging around Terminal Two of Heathrow Airport trying to catch the 15.37 flight to Oslo?"I lived two lives in late 1965 and early 1963, one in Dallas and one in Jodie. They came together at three thirty-nine in the afternoon of April 10.At three-forty, Cliff called to report that Dilworth and his lady friend were sitting on the deck of the Amazing Grace, eating fruit and sipping wine, reminiscing a lot, laughing a little. “From what we can pick up with directional microphones and from what we can see, I’d say they don’t have any intention of going anywhere. Except maybe to bed. They sure do seem to be a randy old pair.” “Stay with them,” Lem said. “I don’t trust him.”At 15:41 GMT, the Cessna's engine began to cut out and the plane - presumably out of fuel - began to lose altitudeMontoya gave his computer an order and the feed blurred to 3:42 p.m. Our vehicle came to the driveway three minutes later.The armed response team hastily assembled from Strängnäs arrived at Bjurman's summer cabin at 3.44 p.m.It’s 3:45 p.m. and dark outside as I walk down the quiet hospice corridor, looking for Luke O’Leary’s room. I find it - his name card is in the holder outside the door, and the door is ajar. I hesitate. Afraid. There’s a small flow from inside. A curtain hangs partially across the doorway. I easy back the curtain and enter quietly.I opened my notebook, flipped almost to the end before I found a blank page, and wrote October 5th, 3:45pm, Dunning to Longview Cem, puts flowers on parents’ (?) graves. Rain.“Well, it’s already three forty-five. You’ll never make it.” “Is the backup bad?” “Looks like a major accident up ahead. This is no ordinary traffic jam. We’ve hardly moved for quite a while.”"I opened my notebook, flipped almost to the end before I found a blank page, and wrote “October 5th, 3.45pm, Dunning to Longview Cem, puts flowers on parents' (?) graves. Rain.” I had what I wanted."One meal is enough now, topped up with a glucose shot. Sleep is still 'black', completely unrefreshing. Last night I took a 16 mm. film of the first three hours, screened it this morning at the lab. The first true-horror movie. I looked like a half-animated corpse. Woke 10:25. To sleep 3:45.3.49 p.m. Get off school bus at homeBut there were more bad things than good things. And one of them was that Mother didn't get back from work til 5.30 pm so I had to go to Father's house between 3.49 pm and 5.30 pm because I wasn't allowed to be on my own and Mother said I didn't have a choice so I pushed the bed against the door in case Father tried to come in.3.50 p.m. Have juice and snack"Date of the telegram, Rome, November 24, ten minutes before twenty-three o'clock. The telegram seems to say, “The Sovereigns and the Royal Children expect themselves at Rome tomorrow at fifty-one minutes after fifteen o'clock.”"It was like the clouds lifting away from the sun. Jodie glanced at Reacher. He glanced at the clock. Seven minutes to four. Less than three hours to go.We were visible in the lower part of the frame of the feed from the east side of Eleventh at 3:54 p.m. Two minutes passed and there it was a placard with the SHOOT THE RICH graffiti on it held by a guy in an LA Dodgers cap, dark sunglasses, a khaki-green shirt, and a black bandana around his neck.3.55 p.m. Give Toby food and waterFour minutes to four. Newman sighed again, lost in thought.It was close upon four before the door opened, and a drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered with an inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it was indeed he."Towards four o'clock the condition of the English army was serious. The Prince of Orange was in command of the centre, Hill of the right wing, Picton of the left wing. The Prince of Orange, desperate and intrepid, shouted to the Hollando-Belgians: “Nassau! Brunswick! Never retreat!”"He looked at his watch: it was nearly 4. He helped Delphine to her feet and led her down a passage to a rear door that gave on to the hospital garden.I followed his gaze to the mantelpiece. The clock had stopped at four o’clock. “Mon ami, someone has tampered with it. It had still three days to run. It is an eight-day clock, you comprehend?” “But what should they want to do that for? Some idea of a false scent by making the crime appear to have taken place at four o’clock?” “No, no; rearrange your ideas, mon ami. Exercise your little grey cells. You are Mayerling. You hear something perhaps—and you know well enough that your doom is sealed. You have just time to leave a sign. Four o’clock, Hastings. Number Four, the destroyer. Ah! an idea!”“It’s a delusional painter who finishes a canvas at two o’clock and expects radical societal transformation by four. Even when artists write manifestos, they are (hopefully) aware that their exigent tone is, finally, borrowed, only echoing and mimicking the urgency of the guerrilla’s demands, or the activist’s protests, rather than truly enacting it. The people sometimes demand change. They almost never demand art.”“If ever you are passing my way,’ said Bilbo, ’don’t wait to knock! Tea is at four, but any of you are welcome at any time.”At four clock, Eva unspools the finished Harvard reference from her typewriter, folds it neatly, and places it inside a good cream envelope. Then she shrugs on her coat, checks her handbag for car keys, purse, compact.But, with a throb of undiluted angst, I realized that I’d felt such restlessness and emptiness in the past. Often. It usually kicked in at about four o’clock on a Sunday, but had arrived slightly late today, no doubt still on New York time.It was four o’clock before we finally got away. Now, for some reason, it was Charles and Camilla who weren’t speaking. They’d fought about something - I’d seen them arguing in the yard - and all the way home, in the back seat, they sat side by side and stared straight ahead, their arms folded across their chests in what I am sure they did not realize was a comically identical fashion.Sammy woke, flushed and disoriented, around four that afternoon. We made our tea together. I put on bread to toast and I put soup in a pan to heat. Outside the weather worsened, tumbling up into a spring storm, all squalls and blusters. Sammy rode on my hip and we made a game of it as I walked around the house checking the window fixings and drawing the curtains, even though it wasn’t yet properly dark.They stood at the iron rail, not talking among themselves, just watching. And taking long slow deep breaths, like tourists from the Midwest standing for the first time on Pemaquid Point or Quoddy Head in Maine, breathing deep of the fresh sea air. As a sign of respect, Rose took off her tophat and held it by her side. At four o’clock they trooped back to their encampment in the parking lot, invigorated. They would return the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. They would return until the good steam was exhausted, and then they would move on.“Good morning, Dr. Tuttle,” I said. “It’s four in the afternoon,” she said. “I’m sorry it took me so long to return your call. My cats had an emergency. Are you feeling better? The symptoms you described in your message, frankly, puzzle me.”Well, it had become pretty clear I wasn’t going to be able to catch E. on her own. She never appeared at the belfry at four P.M. That my communiqués were being intercepted was the only explanation that occurred to me.I propose myself the satisfaction of waiting on you and your family, Monday, November 18th, by four o’clock, and shall probably trespass on your hospitality till the Saturday se’ennight following, which I can do without any inconvenience, as Lady Catherine is far from objecting to my occasional absence on a Sunday, provided that some other clergyman is engaged to do the duty of the day. “At four o’clock, therefore, we may expect this peace-making gentleman," said Mr. Bennet, as he folded up the letter.It was nearly four o’clock when we at last, after passing through the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for us upon the platform.She lay down at four o’clock, not expecting to sleep a wink, but her healing body had its own priorities. She went under almost instantly, and when she woke to the insistent 𝘥𝘢𝘩-𝘥𝘢𝘩-𝘥𝘢𝘩 of her bedside clock, she was glad she had set the alarm. Outside, a gusty October breeze was combing leaves from the trees and sending them across her backyard in colorful skitters. The light had gone that strange and depthless gold which seems the exclusive property of late-fall afternoons in New England.So then my father refused to eat Christmas lunch with us, which my mother finally served at around four p.m., by which time we were all starving and quite drunk, and, well … it was a very dysfunctional Christmas Day.’That’s enough to begin with,’ Humpty Dumpty interrupted: ‘there are plenty of hard words there. “Brillig” means four o’clock in the afternoon — the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.’“It was close upon four before the door opened, and a drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and safe-whiskered, with an inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. Accustomed as I was to my friend’s amazing powers in the use of disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain it was he.”Please join us on Sunday February 2nd 2003 from 4 p.m. at the Hoxton Gallery, London N1, to preview a new exhibition of faecal paintings by Catherine Leidensteiner. “If you ever pass through Bag End, tea is at four. You are welcome anytime. Don’t bother knocking!”Billy Bibbit and his girl mentioned that it was after four o’clock and, if it was all right, if people didn’t mind, they’d like to have Mr. Turkle unlock the Seclusion Room.“4:00, wallow in self-pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one; 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me—I can’t cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness.”“If you should have no objection to receive me into your house, I propose myself the satisfaction of waiting on you and your family, Monday, November 18th, by four o’clock, and shall probably trespass on your hospitality till the Saturday se’ennight following, which I can do without any inconvenience, as Lady Catherine is far from objecting to my occasional absence on a Sunday, provided that some other clergyman is engaged to do the duty of the day.”“Later in the morning, and just as the girls were going to separate in preparation for the regular four o’clock dinner, the hero of this inimitable charade walked in again.”“’Think of me to-morrow, my dear Emma, about four o’clock,” was Mrs. Weston’s parting injunction; spoken with some anxiety, and meant only for her."“The afternoon waned from the purging good of three o’clock to the golden beauty of four.”... when they all sat down to table at four o'clock, about three hours after his arrival, he had secured his lady, engaged her mother's consent, and was not only in the rapturous profession of the lover, but, in the reality of reason and truth, one of the happiest of men."“What else can I answer, When the lights come on at four At the end of another year&rdqout;"4.00 p.m. Take Toby out of his cageAs he turned off towards the fishing village of Cellardyke, the familiar pips announced the four o'clock news. The comforting voice of the newsreader began the bulletin. 'The convicted serial killer and former TV chat show host Jacko Vance has begun his appeal against conviction.Charmian woke at four and sensed the emptiness of the house.Djerzinski arrived punctually at four o’clock. Desplechin had asked to see him. The case was intriguing. Certainly, it was common for a researcher to take a year’s sabbatical to work in Norway or Japan, or one of those sinister countries where middle aged people committed suicide en masse.Four o'clock: wedge-shaped gardens lie Under a cavernous, a wind-picked sky.Four o'clock: when time in the city quivers on its axis - the day not yet spent, the wheels of evening just beginning to turn. The handover hour, was how Marius liked to think of it.Four o’clock has just struck. Good! Arrangement, revision, reading from four to five. Short snooze of restoration for myself, from five to six. Affair of agent and sealed letter from seven to eight. At eight, en route.Four o’clock has just struck. Good! Arrangement, revision, reading from four to five. Short snooze of restoration for myself, from five to six. Affair of agent and sealed letter from seven to eight. At eight, en route.He played for twenty-two days, just as he said he would. Every day at four o'clock in the afternoon, regardless of how much fighting was going on around him.Her eyes caught the kryptonite glow of the digital clock on the front of the microwave. Honest and true, the numbers spelled out the time although she, for a moment, found its calculation to be somehow erroneous. It was four o’clock in the afternoon.I doubt whether anyone was commissioned to send the news along the actual telegraph, and yet Mrs. Proudie knew it before four o'clock. But she did not know it quite accurately.'Bishop', she said, standing at her husband's study door. 'They have committed that man to gaol. There was no help for them unless they had forsworn themselves.'I only found out much later that those flowers were called Four O’clock, and were not magic at all. The magic was in the seed, waiting to be watered and cared for, the real magic was life.In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn’t cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in about 2.55, when you know you’ve had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o’clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul."In the four thousand rooms of the Centre the four thousand electric clocks simultaneously struck four. Discarnate voices called from the trumpet mouths. “Main Day-shift off duty. Second Day-shift take over. Main Day-shift off …”"It was my turn to cook the evening meal so I didn't linger in the common room. It was exactly 4 o'clock as I made my way out of the building, and doors opened behind and before me, discharging salvos of vocal babble and the noise of chair-legs scraping on wooden floors.Miss Douce took Boylan's coin, struck boldly the cashregister. It clanged. Clock clacked. Fair one of Egypt teased and sorted in the till and hummed and handed coins in change. Look to the west. A clack. For me. —What time is that? asked Blazes Boylan. Four? O'clock. Lenehan, small eyes ahunger on her humming, bust ahumming, tugged Blazes Boylan's elbowsleeve. —Let's hear the time, he said.The horrifying R.N. wipes Gately's face off as best she can with her hand and says she'll try to fit him in for a sponge bath before she goes off shift at 1600h., at which Gately goes rigid with dread.Light is coming in through the curtains. Suddenly the digits on the clock radio look like a year. 1601. I woke up a bit early, don't have to be born for another 400 years.I'd just looked up at the clock, to make sure time wasn't getting away from me, when I heard the shot. It was two minutes after four. I didn't know what to do.She read the page carefully and then said, '16.03 - cat goes to the toilet in front garden.'A little after four o'clock, Pippa meandered over to Dot's house carrying a bottle of wine she had been keeping in reserve and wondering if she could possibly be pregnant in spite of the vestigial coil still lodged in her uterus like astronaut litter abandoned on the moon.I had met Irwin on the steps of the Widener Library. I was standing at the top of the long flight, overlooking the red brick buildings that walled the snow-filled quad and preparing to catch the trolley back to the asylum, when a tall young man with a rather ugly and bespectacled, but intelligent face, came up and said, 'Could you please tell me the time?' I glanced at my watch. 'Five past four.'I was standing at the top of the long flight, overlooking the red brick buildings that walled the snow-filled quad and preparing to catch the trolley back to the asylum, when a tall young man with a rather ugly and bespectacled, but intelligent face, came up and said, 'Could you please tell me the time?' I glanced at my watch. 'Five past four.'IT was exactly five minutes past four as Mr. Robert Audley stepped out upon the platform at Shoreditch, and waited placidly … it took a long while to make matters agreeable to all claimants, and even the barrister's seraphic indifference to mundane affairs nearly gave way.At six minutes after four, Benny's Cadillac pulled up in front of Mr. Botelia's store, and Benny's mother stepped out of the car with Penelope, who was gnawing on the tip of an ice cream cone.But he released him immediately because the ladder slipped from under his feet and for an instant he was suspended in air and then he realised that he had died without Communion, without time to repent of anything or to say goodbye to anyone, at seven minutes after four on Pentecost Sunday.It was eight minutes after four. I still don't have a plan. Maybe the guys in the Nova, maybe they had a plan."I have to hang up now, Rosemary said. “I just wanted to know if there was any improvement.” “No, there isn't. It was nice of you to call.” She hung up. It was nine minutes after four."1610h. E.T.A Weight room. Freestyle circuits. The clank and click of various resistance systems.She looks at the clock. She's in the kitchen. A minute left. She waits. It's ten-past four. She picks up the eclair. She licks the cream out of it. She watches herself.It's fuckin' stupid. But. She bites into the chocolate, and the pastry that's been softened by the cream. Jack's not home yet. Leannes's at work. Paula will be leaving, herself, in a bit. She's a year off the drink. Exactly a year. She looks at the clock. A year and a minute.4:11 P.M. Thurs. A Huey helicopter flies east overhead as the last of the U.S. Marines make ready to leave the beach; a buzzard dangles in the thermals closer over the town.At precisely twelve minutes after four a body of cavalry rode into the square, four abreast, clearing a way for the funeral cortege.But at precisely 4.13pm, the fifty thousand spectators saw the totally unexpected happen, before their very eyes. From the most crowded section of the southern grandstand, an apparition suddenly emerged.Then at 4.14pm on March 12 I moved behind zinc-zirconium-not-to-be-revealed-compounds protecting me in this hill, and God have mercy but the struggle is just exchanged for the next one, which is exhausting me further as I say, to separate the true from the false.4:15 P.M. Viewed through the window of the Purple Line train, the southbound Howard stop on the El was crowded—but less so than the northbound side, clustered with the first bloom of suburban commuters, weary from their early mornings and afternoon caffeine and blood sugar crashes.I remember the dread with which I at quarter past four/ Let go with a bang behind me our house front doorIt is only a quarter past four, (shewing his watch) and you are not now in Bath. No theatre, no rooms to prepare for. Half an hour at Northanger must be enough.Must have the phone disconnected. Some contractor keeps calling me up about payment for 50 bags of cement he claims I collected ten days ago. Says he helped me load them onto a truck himself. I did drive Whitby's pick-up into town but only to get some lead screening. What does he think I'd do with all that cement? Just the sort of irritating thing you don't expect to hang over your final exit. (Moral: don't try too hard to forget Eniwetok.) Woke 9:40. To sleep 4:15.On the tenth day of October at quarter past four in the afternoon with a dry hot wind blowing through the passes Maria found herself in Baker. She had never meant to go as far as Baker, had started out that day as every day, her only destination the freeway. But she had driven out the San Bernardino and up the Barstow and instead of turning back at Barstow (she had been out that far before but never that late in the day, it was past time to navigate back, she was Out too far too late, the rhythm was lost) she kept driving.The sun had begun to sink in the west, and the shadow of an oak branch had crept across my knees. My watch said it was 4.15.4.16pm The terrace outside the bar is packed, and Igor feels proud of his ability to plan things, because even though he's never been to Cannes before, he had foreseen precisely this situation and reserved a table.Apparently the great Percy has no sense of humour, for at four-seventeen he got tired of it, and hit Skinner crisply in the right eyeball, blacking the same as per illustration.In the next instant she was running toward her house, unmindful of the bags she had dropped, seeing only the police cars, knowing as she glanced down at her watch and saw that it was seventeen minutes after four, that for her time had stopped.4.18 p.m. Put Toby into his cageJessica [4:19 PM] Don't tease me like that. I haven't been to a play in years. Charles [4:19 PM] Then it'll be my treat. You and the hubby can have big fun on me.4.20 p.m. Watch television or a videoAt twenty minutes past four - or, to put it another, blunter way, an hour and twenty minutes past what seemed to be all reasonable hope - the unmarried bride, her head down, a parent stationed on either side of her, was helped out of the building..."4.21pm As they started on, Doug picked up a twig and after rubbing it off, started to move one end of it inside his mouth. “What are you doing?” Bob asked. “Brushing my teeth, nature style,” Doug answered. Bob grunted, smiling slightly. “I'll use my toothbrush,” he said."Monday, 4.22pm Washington, D.C. Paul Hood took his daily late-afternoon look at the list of names on his computer monitor.They were hurrying west, trying to reach the river before sunset. The warming-related 'adjustments' to Earth's orbit had shortened the winter days, so that now, in January, sunset was taking place at 4.23.Mike winked at Ashley and continued with the remaining greetings and hugs and handshakes. The time was 4:24. Six hours to go. The minutes seemed to just melt away.As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was putting in the horse.As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was putting in the horse."It seemed all wrong to have thought of such a thing. She thought, “I don't know him. Nor does he know me. Nor ever shall we.” She put her bare hand in the sun, where the wind would weather it. It was twenty-six minutes after four."Same day: 4.28pm- Right turn at the second bus stop after the gas station. I stopped the car at the first ward post office and inquired at the corner tobacconists. Mr. M's house was the one to the right of the post office, visible diagonally in front of me.October 21, 2007, 4:29 pm. The phone was red. And what William hated most about it, besides the fact that it was inconveniently mounted on a wall in a tight corner (and at a strange angle), was that when it rang it was so gratingly loud that you could actually see the cherry receiver quavering as you picked it up.“I won’t go in,” she says. “I’ll meet you on the steps at four-thirty. We can take the girls to Murray’s for a sundae or something.” He seems relieved. “Right,” he says. “Tell the children to enjoy themselves.”Jonas rolls painfully out of the hammock, his aching lower back stiff and swollen, in desperate need of a chiropractor. He checks his watch. Four thirty…but is it a.m. or p.m.?Sometimes I wonder what happened to the girl—the thought usually pops into my mind when I’m facing a steaming-hot plate of spaghetti. After she hung up, did she disappear forever, sucked into the four thirty p.m. shadows? Was I partly to blame? I want you to understand my position, though. At the time, I didn’t want to get involved with anyone. That’s why I kept on cooking spaghetti, all by myself. In that huge pot, big enough to hold a German shepherd.At four-thirty I dash out of the hotel, resolved to make a last-minute stab at it. Just as I turn the corner I brush against Walter Pach. Since he doesn’t recognize me, and since I have nothing to say to him, I make no attempt to arrest him. Later, when I am stretching my legs in the Tuileries his figure reverts to mind.𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 “𝘤𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘦”? If you wish. A server is woken at hour four-thirty by stimulin in the airflow, then yellow-up in our dormroom. After a minute in the hygiener and steamer, we put on fresh uniforms before filing into the restaurant.It was after four-thirty when they arrived at the old Red Bull Playhouse in upper St. John Street, and the performance had been under way for more than an hour. The theatre was hot and stuffy, almost humid, and it smelt strongly of sweat and unwashed bodies and powerful perfumes. This afternoon everything is matching up. When the swing shift comes on duty the clock says four-thirty, just like it should.“4:00, wallow in self-pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one; 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me—I can’t cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness.”I looked at the clock. It was half-past four. “Had no idea what hour it was,” Brett said. “I say, can a chap sit down? Don’t be cross, darling. Just left the count. He brought me here.”At four-thirty that afternoon in late January when I stepped into the parlour with Boo, my dog, Hutch was in his favourite armchair, scowling at the television, which he had muted.I leave the office at four thirty, head up to Xclusive where I work out on free weights for an hour, then taxi across the park to Gio's in the Pierre Room for a facial, a manicure and, if time permits, a pedicure.She hung up on me at first, then asked me whether I made a point of behaving like a 'small-time suburban punk' with women I had slept with. But after apologies, insults, laughter, and tears, Romeo and Juliet were to be seen together later that afternoon, mushily holding hands in the dark at a four-thirty screening of L ove and Death at the National Film Theatre. Happy endings – for now at least.From: Renee Greene – August 5, 2011 – 4:31 PM To: Shelley Manning Subject: Re: All Access What should I be worried about, then? JUST KIDDING. You're right. Well, I gotta run, my groupie friend. I actually have REAL work to do. I'll talk to you tonight."4.32pm. Now the eight Marines next to us leave their emplacement and file quickly past, the last saying, “Go! Go! Go!” They break into a run."At 4.33pm, a short bald man puffing on a cigar arrived at the library. He approached a huge cabinet storing thousands of alphabetically arranged cards and slid a drawer out. The tips of his fingers were bandaged.A bedroom stocked with all the ordinary, usual things. There was a wardrobe in the corner. A bedside table with a collection of water glasses of varying ages and an alarm clock with red digital numbers- 4.34 p.m.The Voice shut itself off with a click, and then reopened conversation by announcing the arrival at Platform 9 of the 4.35 from Birmingham and Wolverhampton.Rorschach’s journal: Slept all day. Awoken at 4:37. Landlady complaining about smell.She should have been home by now. 1637. Yes. It's as if I had the date of a year on my arm. Every day is a piece of world history.Harlem enjoys lazy Sabbath mornings, although the pace picks up again in the afternoon, after church. My watch read 4:39 p.m., and I realized that I hadn't eaten all day. I bought two slices of pizza from a sidewalk vendor on 122nd and Lenox Avenue and washed it down with a grape Snapple.Four forty P.M. Besta sang another hymn. Everyone knew something was wrong. How long did they wait? The mayor was going crazy inside, as was the mayor's wife, as was their daughter. Seiji could barely contain his rage. He was turning as red as his red tuxedo.In a dream Seymour walks beneath trees towards a cluster of white tents, but every time he takes step forward, the trail twists and the tents recede, and a terrible confusion presses down on him. He wakes with a start. The dashboard clock says 4:42 p.m. How long did he sleep?I'm always happy when I reach the finish line of a long-distance race, but this time it really struck me hard. I pumped my right fist into the air. The time was 4:42pm. Eleven hours and forty-two minutes since the start of the race.The only car in the gravel parking lot to the west is Marian the Librarian’s Subaru, humped with snow. 4:43 p.m.“When did you say you were returning to Amsterdam?” “You know exactly when, because I told you: tomorrow morning.” “Can you get back earlier?” “I could. There’s a KLM flight at four forty-five p.m. today that would get me into Amsterdam just before six.”At four-forty-five Miss Haddon went to tea with the Principal, who explained why she desired all the pupils to learn the same duet. It was part of her new co-ordinative system.The next day Bill took only ten minutes of the twenty-minute break allotted for the afternoon and left at fifteen minutes before five. He parked the car in the lot just as Arlene hopped down from the bus.At 4:46 an obese, middle-aged man shuffled in. Wearing a starched guayabera and dark green pants, Ureña asked for a book on confectionery, then took a seat at the end of the same reading room. Evelina and Leticia exchanged astonished glances. It definitely was one of those days.But maybe it was more than that, maybe Affenlight had erred badly somehow, because here it was 4:49 by his watch, 4:47 by the wall clock, and Owen had not yet come.Thinking about the card warms me to the idea of walking under the arched doorway of the Newtons' home, but when I arrive at their house, the plan seems ridiculous. What am I doing? It's 4:48 a.m., and I'm parked outside their darkened house.4:49 p.m., a bald-headed man wearing khakis and ankle-high deck shoes came out through the front door of the purple house on 21st Avenue East. The detectives had nicknamed him the General."“The train standing at Platform 3,” the Voice told her, “is the 4.50 for Brackhampton, Milchester, Waverton, Carvil Junction, Roxeter and stations to Chadmouth. Passengers for Brackhampton and Milchester travel at the rear of the train. Passengers for Vanequay change at Roxeter.” The voice shut itself off with a click,"They had all frozen at the same time, on a snowy night, seven years before, and after that it was always ten minutes to five in the castle.When the clock said ten minutes to five, she began to listen, and a few moments later, punctually as always, she heard the tires on the gravel outside, and the car door slamming, the footsteps passing the window, the key turning in the lock. She laid aside her sewing, stood up, and went forward to kiss him as he came in.At 4:51, a figure in a cherry - red parka exits the library, pulls up her hood, and pushes a snow shovel up and down the front walk.Nine minutes to five. If this wasn't some new ordeal, intended to fray her nerves to shreds, if this important person really did exist, if he'd actually set up this appointment, and if, moreover, he arrived on time, then there were nine minutes left.The corrida was to begin at five o'clock. The five-footed beasts make a point of arriving at the latest at eight or seven minutes to: ritual again. At eight minutes to five, there they were. The urchins gave them a tap on the shoulder: another bit of ritual.It was so quiet in the post office that Trinidad could hear the soft tick of the clock's second hand every time it moved. It was now seven minutes before five.At six minutes before five o'clock, Daisy Robinson, about to reach her own apartment door, paused to look and to listen. Something was out of order. Tess Rogan's door was standing wide open and, from within, Daisy could hear something being broken.It was 1654 local time when the Red October broke the surface of the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, forty-seven miles southeast of Norfolk. There was no other ship in sight.“Even the hands of his watch and the hands of all the thirteen clocks were frozen. They had all frozen at the same time, on a snowy night, seven years before, and after that it was always ten minutes to five in the castle. Travelers and mariners would look up at the gloomy castle on the lonely hill and say, “Time lies frozen there. It’s always Then. It’s never Now.”About five minutes to five, just as they were all putting their things away for the night, Nimrod suddenly appeared in the house. He had come hoping to find some of them ready dressed to go home before the proper time.Prager was in his bedroom practicing “Steamy Night on a Steamboat” when his dad knocked on the door. Prager had lost track of time; it was 4:56. “She’s here,” Eli said, smiling. “Come out and say hi.”And when that final Friday came, when my packing was mostly done, she sat with my dad and me on the living-room couch at 4:56 P.M. and patiently awaited the arrival of the Good-bye to Miles Cavalry.It was nearly five in the evening when the cook came aboard. He did not have the cabbages.Then at three minutes to five — Pendel had somehow never doubted that Osnard would be punctual — along comes a brown Ford hatchback with an Avis sticker on the back window and pulls into the space reserved for customers."I was told that in his vest pocket he kept a chronometer instead of a watch. If someone asked him what time it was, he would say, “A minute and twenty-one seconds to five.”"The rain stopped around 5 p.m. and a few of those people who were out and about expressed mild surprise when the rainbow failed to fade.“I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o’clock.”It’s nearly five o’clock and the sun has dried the ground so hard that the edges of the lawns are cracked and hard, as threadbare and brown as worn carpet.1 little monkey Was goin’ 2 the store When he saw a banana 3 He never climbed be 4 By 5 o’clock that evenin’ He was 6 with a stomach ache Cuz 7 green bananas Was what that monkey 8“Shall I see you again before my departure?” Asked Albert. “That will be according to the circumstances; when do you set off?” “Tomorrow evening, at 5 o’clock.”“And what of Irene Adler?” I asked. “Oh, she has turned all the men’s heads down in that part. She is the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for dinner.”Mark was reluctant to go to work, but I said not to worry, I’d be fine. I’d have to be fine eventually and I might as well start now. He said he’d skip out directly after school, get someone else to cover Homework Club; he’d by home by five. It was my day off, which struck me as a bit of a waste, but at least I didn’t have to call Sinead and explain why I wasn’t coming in.Hallorann arrived shortly after five in the afternoon, behind the wheel of his now ancient (but perfectly maintained and blindingly polished) red Cadillac. Wendy had been standing at the window, waiting and watching as she had once waited and watched for her husband, hoping Jack would come in in a good mood. And sober.That evening found him sitting at the mouth of a large storm drain on the slope beneath the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. He had a room, but there was the small matter of stacked-up back rent, which he had absolutely promised to pay as of 5 p.m. yesterday. Nor was that all. If he returned to his room, he might be invited to visit a certain fortresslike municipal building on Bess Street, to answer certain questions about a certain bar altercation. On the whole, it seemed safer to stay away.My shadow would walk with my on the sand, at least twenty feet long. Hopeful gulls, smelling the croissants in their waxed paper, would circle overhead. And when I walked back, usually around five (although sometimes I stayed later—there was nothing waiting for me in Heaven’s Bay, a town that mostly went sleepybye when summer was over), my shadow walked with me on the water.Work started as usual on her twentieth birthday, November 17. It had been raining on and off that afternoon, and pouring since early evening. At five o’clock the manager gathered the employees together to explain the day’s specials. Servers were required to memorize them word for word and not use crib sheets: veal Milanese, pasta topped with sardines and cabbage, chestnut mousse. “But how did it end?” I interrupt. “That’s just it . . . it didn’t end. I promised to see her Tuesday around five o’clock. That’s bad, you know! There were lines in her face which will look much worse in daylight. I suppose she wants me to f*** her Tuesday.”With Tania back on the scene, a steady job, the drunken talk about Russia, the walks home at night, and Paris in full summer, life seems to lift its head a little higher. That’s why perhaps, a letter such as Boris sent me seems absolutely cockeyed. Most every day I meet with Tania around five o’clock, to have a Porto with her, as she calls it. I let her take me to places I’ve never seen before, the swell bars around the Champs-Élysées where the sound of jazz and baby voices crooning seems to soak right through the mahogany woodwork.Sixsmith, Sitting at my escritoire in my dressing gown. The church bell chimes five. Another thirsty dawn. My candle is burnt away. A tiring night turned inside out. On earth, the clock commanded our lives. I was always aware of the time, and the day of the week, and the month and year. I had made so many plans, mostly with James. ‘See you at my house at five’, I would write him, or ‘Meet me in the garden tomorrow after school’.Next day at five o’clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver, and started off on a three months’ trip to the South Seas.The house was in darkness. I didn’t know what to expect when I pushed open the front door. Ben would be missing me; he had said he would be home by five. I pictured him pacing up and down the living room“As part of our effort to discourage drinking and driving, our policy is to courtesy-call people who leave their cars in our lot after closing,” Betsy Neal said. “Your Ford Expedition, Connecticut license plate 775 NSD, will be available for pickup until five PM this evening.”On this one, the dark background looked like the intersection of Market and Powell at 5:00 P.M., a virtual traffic jam of compressed, energetic spheres. Speedy messengers, all carrying oxygen to parts of someone else’s body.On the principle that the best hiding place is in plain sight, the core group of conspirators met at five o’clock that afternoon in Kordt’s office in the Prussian State building: Gisevius and von Schulenburg from the Interior Ministry, Dohnányi from Justice, Colonel Oster of the Abwehr, and Kordt and Hartmann from the Foreign Service.After an hour, they caught one gold-and-brown-striped fish that was kind of small, and they put him back. Prager swore it was a baby walleye; Eva seemed fairly sure it wasn’t. After another hour of drowning worms and losing them in little nibbles, it was almost 5:00 p.m., and supposedly the best time to catch walleye was in the evening; clearly, they were just too eager and had started too early.“4:00, wallow in self-pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one; 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me—I can’t cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness.”“At five o’clock the two ladies retired to dress, and at half-past six Elizabeth was summoned to dinner.”“I am going to have a bobbing party,” it said, “on Thursday, December the seventeenth, at five o’clock, and I would like it very much if you could come.”“At five o’clock he felt the need of hearing his own voice, so he retreated to his house to see if any one else had arrived. Having climbed the rickety stairs he scrutinized his room resignedly, concluding that it was hopeless to attempt any more inspired decoration than class banners and tiger pictures. There was a tap at the door.”“About three-fourths of the whole business was for effect and therefore harmless, ended at the door of the cafe, soon enough for the five-o’clock train back to Yale or Princeton; about one-fourth continued on into the dimmer hours and gathered strange dust from strange places. Their party was scheduled to be one of the harmless kind. "“At five o’clock I was in the Hotel Crillon waiting for Brett. She was not there, so I sat down and wrote some letters. "5.00 p.m. Read a bookAbout five, the Abbot, a young Manchester terrier, began chirruping. He stood on the body of his owner, Flora, with his forepaws on the sill of the balcony, stared through the green rattan blinds, and trembled. He could see the farmer in the field, and Edward asleep on the next balcony.At five o'clock that afternoon, while Barbara waited in a taxi, Harold went into the convent in Auteuil and explained to the nun who sat in the concierge's glass cage that Mme. Straus-Muguet was expecting them. He assumed that men were not permitted any further, and that they would all three go out for tea.At five o’clock adieux were waved, and the ponderous liner edged away from the long pier, slowly turned its nose seaward, discarded its tug, and headed for the widening water spaces that led to old world wonders. By night the outer harbour was cleared, and late passengers watched the stars twinkling above an unpolluted ocean.But I took the mixture at five o'clock in the afternoon. I run my tongue over my dry mouth. I feel dizzy. I know this dizziness: it's because I haven't had a cigarette for hours.ERE THE HALF-HOUR ended, five o'clock struck; school was dismissed, and all were gone into the refectory to tea. I now ventured to descend; it was deep dusk; I retired into a corner and sat down on the floor.From five o'clock to eight is on certain occasions a little eternity; but on such an occasion as this the interval could be only an eternity of pleasure.He found it harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.She had not seen her yet, as Osmond had given her to understand that it was too soon to begin. She drove at five o'clock to a high floor in a narrow street in the quarter of the Piazza Navona, and was admitted by the portress of the convent, a genial and obsequious person. Isabel had been at this institution before; she had come with Pansy to see the sisters.Until five o'clock there was no sign of life from the room. Then he rang for his servant and ordered a cold bath.We motored, I remember, leaving London in the morning in a heavy shower of rain, coming to Manderley about five o'clock, in time for tea. I can see myself now, unsuitably dressed as usual, although a bride of seven weeks, in a tan-coloured stockinette frock, a small fur known as a stone marten round my neck, and over all a shapeless mackintosh, far too big for me and dragging to my ankles.One minute after five. The seated guests were told that the ceremony would begin shortly. A little more patience was required.She stood up, shook her hair into place, smoothed her skirt and turned on the light. It was two minutes past five. She would have thought it midnight or five in the morning."“Good evening, Mrs. Scheindlin,” the man said before departing. “Good evening, Chris. Say hello to the wife for me.” “I sure will. Thanks. Bye,” he said, waving to Elliot, who returned the goodbye. It was 5:03 when Elliot rested the handset in its cradle."Frank Wamsley spotted his cousin Barbara and her husband and waved to them. Just ahead, he saw Marvin and his two friends. Suddenly the whole bridge convulsed. The time was 5:04 P.M. Steel screamed.At approximately 5:05 p.m. Joe became aware of a man standing close to the table, about two metres away, talking in Mandarin into a mobile phone. He was a middle-aged Han wearing cheap leather slip-on shoes, high-waisted black trousers and a white short-sleeved shirt.The rain stopped around 5 p.m. and a few of those people who were out and about expressed mild surprise when the rainbow failed to fade.The earpiece crackled and he scrawled down the numbers. Cut the switchboard off and dialed Holly’s pager. Just got a long low tone telling him the pager was switched off. Then he tried the cell phone number. He got an electronic bleep and a recorded message of a woman telling him the phone he was dialing was unreachable. He hung up and looked around the room. It was ten after five, Monday afternoon.Five ten P.M. A ground-to-ground cruise missile, launched from a tractor installed in the backyard of Leonard Sudavico's former home by Rashan and a crew of technicians from Afghanistan, exploded onto the Paul Clay estate in the exact spot where the life-size mermaid had once swum in the waterfall.Hours later, at ten minutes past five, Saturday afternoon, Nora and Travis and Jim Keene crowded in front of the mattress on which Einstein lay. The dog had just taken a few more ounces of water. He looked at them with interest, too. Travis tried to decide if those large brown eyes still had the strange depth, uncanny alertness, and undoglike awareness that he had seen in them so many times before."“Well, here we are,” said Colonel Julyan, “and it's exactly twelve minutes past five. We shall catch them in the middle of their tea. Better wait for a bit” Maxim lit a cigarette, and then stretched out his hand to me. He did not speak.""“Do you know what time it is, Atticus?” she said. “Exactly fourteen minutes past five. The alarm clock's set for five-thirty. I want you to know that.”"5:15 P.M. Yep, Jack Cermak’s Corner Tap was the eighth circle of hell. In a gentrifying neighborhood like Logan Square, setting up a sanitized, overpriced bar to look like a cheap small-town dive was just plain sick.When August Bach emerged from the gloomy chill of the air-conditioned Divisional Fighter Control bunker it was 17:15 hrs CET. The day had ripened into one of those mellow summer afternoons when the air is warm and sweet like soft toffeeLupin rose, without breaking his contemptuous silence, and took the sheet of paper. I remembered soon after that, at this moment, I happened to look at the clock. It was eighteen minutes past five.The call came at 5.19 p.m. The line was surprisingly clear. A man introduced himself as Major Liepa from the Riga police. Wallander made notes as he listened, occasionally answering a question.If she can keep her speed to seventy until she leaves the turnpike at midtown, and if she catches most of the traffic lights, she estimates she can be at her building by five-twenty.The Meeting was listed as starting at 1730, and it was only around 1720, and Hal thought the voices might signify some sort of pre-Meeting orientation for people who've come for the first time, sort of tentatively, just to scout the whole enterprise out, so he doesn't knock.The Meeting was listed as starting at 1730, and it was only around 1720, and Hal thought the voices might signify some sort of pre-Meeting orientation for people who've come for the first time, sort of tentatively, just to scout the whole enterprise out, so he doesn't knock."“I was wondering if we could meet for a drink.” “What for?” “Just for a chat. Do you know the Royal batsman, near Central Station? We could meet tomorrow at five?” “Five twenty-three,” I said, to exert some control over the situation."It was five-twenty-five when I pulled up in front of the library. Still early for our date, so I got out of the car and took a stroll down the misty streets. In a coffee shop, watched a golf match on television, then I went to an entertainment center and played a video game. The object of the game was to wipe out tanks invading from across the river. I was winning at first, but as the game went on, the enemy tanks bred like lemmings, crushing me by sheer number and destroying my base. An on-screen nuclear blast took care of everything, followed by the message game over insert coin."Now said Handsley, when Angela had poured out the last cup, “it's twenty-five minutes past five, At half-past the Murder game is on”"He picks her up, places her on the bed, lies down beside her. He kisses her again, tentatively, lingeringly. Then he asks what time it is. He himself has no watch. Lesje tells him it’s five-thirty. He sits up. Lesje is beginning to feel slightly unattractive. Are her teeth too large, is that it?It was half-past five before Holmes returned. He was bright, eager, and in excellent spirits, a mood which in his case alternated with fits of the blackest depression.How could anyone say no to Erin Cook? Well, God said no. God burned Tom Kennedy’s lot, and He burned hers in the process. When I picked up the phone at five-thirty on a gorgeous October afternoon in Westchester, that girl had become a woman whose voice, blurry with the tears, sounded old and tired to death.Finally, around 5:30, Eva’s red-and-white bobber plunked below the water, and her thin green rod bowed with an invigorating weight. It was another one of the gold-and-brown guys, beautiful and gasping, held aloft by his lips, urgently splattering the air.“4:00, wallow in self-pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one; 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me—I can’t cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness.”He went up to his coachman, who was dozing on the box in the shadow, already lengthening, of a thick lime-tree; he admired the shifting clouds of midges circling over the hot horses, and, waking the coachman, he jumped into the carriage, and told him to drive to Bryansky’s. It was only after driving nearly five miles that he had sufficiently recovered himself to look at his watch, and realise that it was half-past five, and he was late.It was half-past five before Holmes returned. He was bright, eager, and in excellent spirits, a mood which in his case alternated with fits of the blackest depression."October 6.— So as not to have too far to walk, I go out about four intending to stop in at the “Nouvelle France,” where Nadja is supposed to meet me at 5:30. This gives me time to stroll around the boulevards not far from the Opéra, I have to pick up my pen from the shop where it is being repaired."At 5:33 p.m. there is a blast of two deep, resonant notes a major third apart. On another day there is the same blast at 12:54 p.m. On another, exactly 8:00 a.m."Look, Lucille, said Joe when Lucille strolled into the office at 5:37. “I don't know what you said to this gal, but it seems to have had exactly the opposite of the desired effect. She's got some bee in her bonnet about Harvard Law School.”"And then I see something I recognise. Some little green digits, glowing in the blackness. It’s Ben’s alarm clock. Somehow I’m back here, in the apartment. I blink the numbers. 17:38. But that can’t be right. That’s the afternoon.It was 5.38 p.m. when the Prime Minister’s plane finally broke through the clouds and appeared above Heston Aerodrome. As the ground flickered into view, Legat could see the traffic along the Great West Road. Cars were halted for more than a mile in either direction. It had been raining heavily.It’s 05:39 so we can have dinner, it’s quick noodles. While they’re in the hot water, Ma finds hard words to test me from the milk carton like nutritional that means food, and pasteurized that means laser guns zapped away the germs.Hey, young man, what time is it? 'What?' I said, is it 5:30 yet? 'Er, 5:40.' Heavens, they'll be starving. But then that's a good thing. Let them.'It's five-forty now. The party's at six. By about ten past, the eleventh floor should be clearing. Arnold is a very popular partner; no one's going to miss his farewell speech if they can help it. Plus, at Carter Spink parties, the speeches always happen early on, so people can get back to work if they need to. And while everyone's listening I'll slip down to Arnold's office. It should work. It has to work. As I stare at my own bizarre reflection, I feel a grim resolve hardening inside me. He's not going to get away with everyone thinking he's a cheery, harmless old teddy bear. He's not going to get away with it.Janice is not waiting for him in the lounge or beside the pool when at last around 5.45 they come home from playing the par-5 eighteenth. Instead one of the girls in their green and white uniforms comes over and tells him that his wife wants him to call home.It’s 5:43. Time is racing, racing.Janice is not waiting for him in the lounge or beside the pool when at last around 5.45 they come home from playing the par-5 eighteenth. Instead one of the girls in their green and white uniforms comes over and tells him that his wife wants him to call home.Through the curtained windows of the furnished apartment which Mrs. Horace Hignett had rented for her stay in New York rays of golden sunlight peeped in like the foremost spies of some advancing army. It was a fine summer morning. The hands of the Dutch clock in the hall pointed to thirteen minutes past nine; those of the ormolu clock in the sitting-room to eleven minutes past ten; those of the carriage clock on the bookshelf to fourteen minutes to six. In other words, it was exactly eight; and Mrs. Hignett acknowledged the fact by moving her head on the pillow, opening her eyes, and sitting up in bed. She always woke at eight precisely.Father came home at 5:48 p.m. I heard him come through the front door. Then he came into the living room. He was wearing a lime green and sky blue check shirt and there was a double knot on one of his shoes but not on the other."“What time is it Jack?” “Ten to six”“Ten more minutes then.” I shuffle the cards. “Time for a quick game of rummy?”""“That boy will be spoiled, as sure as I go on springs; he's made such a lot of. Have you been regulated?” “I should think I have!” exclaimed I, in indignant recollection of my education. “All right; keep your temper. What time are you?” “Seven minutes to six.”""It was 5:54 pm when Father came back into the living room. He said, 'What is this?” but he said it very quietly and I didn't realise that he was angry because he wasn't shouting."One, two, three, four, five, six… She wound each clock in turn, three turns each, putting just enough power in the springs to get them ticking in time for Mr Westcott’s inspection. Speaking of which…it was five minutes to six. Five minutes before Mr Westcott would arrive to inspect his clocks. Helena swallowed. She could hear footsteps thundering in the room below and the occasional exclamation from Stanley.The wind moaned and sang dismally, catching the ears and lifting the shabby coat-tails of Mr Mortimer Jenkyn, 'Photographic Artist', as he stood outside and put the shutters up with this own cold hands in despair of further trade. It was five minutes to six.When he arrived it was nearly six o'clock, and the sun was setting full and warm, and the red light streamed in through the window and gave more colour to the pale cheeks.It was nearly six o'clock in the evening, and the absurd bell in the six-foot tin steeple of the church went clank-clank, clank- clank! as old Mattu pulled the rope within.'When he arrived it was nearly six o'clock, and the sun was setting full and warm, and the red light streamed in through the window and gave more colour to the pale cheeks.“Would a minute have mattered? No, probably not, although his young son appeared to have a very accurate internal clock. Possibly even 2 minutes would be okay. Three minutes, even. You could go to five minutes, perhaps. But that was just it. If you could go for five minutes, then you’d go to ten, then half an hour, a couple of hours…and not see your son all evening. So that was that. Six o’clock, prompt. Every day. Read to young Sam. No excuses. He’d promised himself that. No excuses. No excuses at all. Once you had a good excuse, you opened the door to bad excuses.” “When did you say you were returning to Amsterdam?” “You know exactly when, because I told you: tomorrow morning.” “Can you get back earlier?” “I could. There’s a KLM flight at four forty-five p.m. today that would get me into Amsterdam just before six.”Rick pulled into his driveway, his old Explorer coated in a hazy film of white salt. The winter night had rolled in quickly, the town bathed in darkness by six p.m. He asked Bill to grab his papers and a bit of weed.As six o’clock approached, Cryer strolled to the open door of the CAD room. Tom Penny, chewing his lip, was gazing hypnotically at the wall clock.“It’s only six o’clock,” he observed with a yawn, and then, in a moment, he made an even more interesting discovery.‘When is his tea-time?’ I inquired. ‘Oh, at six o’clock. He keeps early hours in the country. You had better change your frock now: I will go with you and fasten it. Here is a candle.’“What about Nicholas?” Meryl asked as she handed the sheet back to me. I glanced down at the list; there was one space left, the last appointment of the day six p.m. “I’ll pop him down there. Could someone let him know?” “I will,” Meryl said. I pencilled his name in with a question mark.Dan lay awake until six. Then he dressed and once more made the trek to the Red Apple. This time he did not hesitate, only instead of extracting two bottles of Bird from the cooler, he took three. What was it they used to say? Good big or go home.Sometimes the manager would play the role of a customer and test them with questions. Then came the employees’ meal: waiters in this restaurant were not going to have growling stomachs as they took their customers’ order! The restaurant opened its doors at six o’clock, but guests were slow to arrive because of the downpour, and several reservations were simply canceled.But what was my original self? I couldn’t be sure anymore. I couldn’t help feeling that it was another me, another self that strongly resembled my original self. So now what was I to do? I had lost all sense of direction. I shoved my hand into my pocket and fed every piece of change I found there into a pay phone. Eight rings. Nine. And then she answered. “I was sleeping,” she said with a yawn. “At six o’clock in the evening?”Ursula invites me into the wardrobe. “You haven’t aged a day, Timbo, and neither has 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 snaky fellow!” Her furry fawn rubs up against my Narnian-sized lamppost and mothballs . . . but then, as ever, I awoke, my swollen appendage as welcome as a swollen appendix, and as useful. Six o’clock. The heating systems composed works in the style of John Cage. Chillblains burned my toe knuckles. I thought about Christmases gone, so many more gone than lay ahead.At 6:00 p.m. I race home from work and attempt to make myself attractive. Home these days is a tiny bit insanely expensive studio apartment on North Dearborn; I am constantly banging parts of myself on inconvenient walls, countertops and furniture. “Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank,” said Holmes. “I think that this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an appointment with me for six o’clock?”Those who went farther than Chicago would gather in the old dim Union Station at six o’clock of a December evening, with a few Chicago friends, already caught up into their own holiday gayeties, to bid them a hasty good-by.She sounded surprised, and possibly also disappointed. He said, “Listen, I can’t speak for long, so please concentrate on what I’m about to say. I want you to pack a week’s worth of clothes and get the garage to drive you and the children to your parents’ right away.” “But it’s six o’clock.” “They’ll still be open.” “Why do we have to go in such a rush? What’s happened?” “Nothing. Nothing yet, anyway. I just want to know you’re somewhere safe.” “It sounds rather panicky. I hate people who panic.”The next morning, Sister Veronica is still at prayer in the chapel. At six, when the other sisters file in for Vigils, she is there, prostrate before the cross, her arms outstretched, her forehead touching the cold stone tile. It is only when they lean forward to touch her arm gently that the women see that the blood has settled in her face. She has been dead for many hours.Lucinda Quant breaks the story of the big leak on the six o’clock news. She’s straightforward, she’s believable, and, best of all, she has extensive document trails and video footage. She tells the story about how she came by her treasure trove of dirt, though she doesn’t name names“Would a minute have mattered? No, probably not, although his young son appeared to have a very accurate internal clock. Possibly even 2 minutes would be okay. Three minutes, even. You could go to five minutes, perhaps. But that was just it. If you could go for five minutes, then you’d go to ten, then half an hour, a couple of hours…and not see your son all evening. So that was that. Six o’clock, prompt. Every day. Read to young Sam. No excuses. He’d promised himself that.Out along the dim six o’clock street, I saw leafless trees standing, striking the sidewalk there like wooden lightning, concrete split apart where they hit, all in a fenced-in ring. An iron line of pickets stuck out of the ground along the front of a tangleweed yard, and on back was a big frame house with a porch, leaning a rickety shoulder hard into the wind so’s not to be sent tumbling away a couple of blocks like an empty cardboard grocery box.At most times of the day—except during six o’clock Mass—Dervla could be found spying out of her bedroom window. Bolstering her hunched torso with large pillows, she stared with beady, rhubarb gray eyes out into the damp street below, determined not to miss a minute of provincial drama.“You are remarkable, aren’t you!” Amory was becoming trite from where he perched in the centre of the dining-room table one six o’clock."“Six o’clock,” said Amory, glancing at his wrist-watch. “I’ll buy you a grea’ big dinner on the strength of the Juvenalia of your collected editions.”`And ever since that,’ the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won’t do a thing I ask! It’s always six o’clock now.’6.00 p.m. Have teaAlthough it was only six o'clock, the night was already dark. The fog, made thicker by its proximity to the Seine, blurred every detail with its ragged veils, punctured at various distances by the reddish glow of lanterns and bars of light escaping from illuminated windows.Did you go down to the farm while I was away?' 'No,' I said 'but I saw Ted.' 'Did he have a message for me ?' she asked. 'He said today was no good as he was going to Norwich. But Friday at six o'clock, same as usual.' 'Are you sure he said six o'clock?' she asked, puzzled. 'Quite sure.'King Richard: What is o'clock? Catesby: It is six o'clock, full supper time. King Richard: I will not sup tonight. Give me some ink and paper.Leon waited all day for six o'clock to arrive; when he got to the inn, he found no one there but Monsieur Binet, already at the table.Oh oh oh. Six o'clock and the master not home yet.The newspaper snaked through the door and there was suddenly a six o'clock feeling in the houseThe winter evening settles down With smell of steaks in passageways. Six o'clock.When the bells of Calvary Church struck six, she saw Mr and Mrs Biggs hurrying down the front stoop, rushing off to the shops before they closed.Jarrod stared at the clock on his computer. It said 6:03. Outside his office window it was dark. It felt as if someone had sucked all the oxygen from the room and he took an extra bath before responding.Above it all rose the Houses of Parliament, with the hands of the clock stopped at three minutes past six. It was difficult to believe that all that meant nothing any more, that now it was just a pretentious confection that could decay in peace."“We will make record of it, my Rosannah; every year, as this dear hour chimes from the clock, we will celebrate it with thanksgivings, all the years of our life.” “We will, we will, Alonzo!” “Four minutes after six, in the evening, my Rosannah...”"At about five past six Piers came in carrying an evening paper and a few books."6:08 p.m. The code-word “Valkyrie” reached von Seydlitz Gabler's headquarters"'Let me see now. You had a drink at the Continental at six ten.' 'Yes.' 'And at six forty-five you were talking to another journalist at the door of the Majestic?' 'Yes, Wilkins. I told you all this, Vigot, before. That night.'At 06:12 Noreen brings another whole tray that’s dinner, we can have dinner at five something or six something or even seven something, Ma says.It’s 06:13, that’s getting nearly to be the evening. Ma says I really should be wrapped up in Rug already, Old Nick might possibly come in early because of me being sick.'Quarter past six,' said Tony. 'He's bound to have told her by now.'At a quarter past six he was through with them.I checked the time on the corner of my screen. 6.15 pm. I was never going to finish my essay in forty-five minutesBy the time Elliot's mother arrived at twenty past six, Mrs Sen always made sure all evidence of her chopping was disposed of.5.20pm - 6.21pm: Miss Pettigrew found herself wafted into the passage. She was past remonstrance now, past bewilderment, surprise, expostulation. Her eyes shone. Her face glowed. Her spirits soared. Everything was happening too quickly. She couldn't keep up with things, but, by golly, she could enjoy them.Clock overturned when he fell forward. That'll give us the time of the crime. Twenty-two minutes past six.At twenty-five past six I go into the bathroom and have a wash, then while the Old Lady's busy in the kitchen helping Chris with the washing up I get my coat and nip out down the stairs.I have this moment, while writing, had a wire from Jonathan saying that he leaves by the 6.25 tonight from Launceston and will be here at 10.18, so that I shall have no fear tonight.It is around half past six in the evening. Dusk is gathering in the living room, an early dusk due to the fog which has rolled in from the Sound and is like a white curtain drawn down outside the windows.Two whores on their way down from Portland to take us deep sea fishing in a boat! it made it tough to stay in bed until the dorm lights came on at six-thirty.SIX-THIRTY ON REACHER’S watch, the motion inside the truck changed. Six hours and four minutes they’d cruised steadily, maybe fifty-five or sixty miles an hour, while the heat peaked and fell away. He’d sat, hot and rocking and bouncing in the dark with the wheel well between him and Holly Johnson, ticking off the distance against a map inside his head.After he had sent her home, he ate dinner alone at a nearby restaurant: Kyoto-style broiled mackerel with tofu, vinegared vegetables, miso soup, and a bowl of white rice. As usual, he kept away from alcohol. This was 6:30 p.m.“Found at the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at 221B Baker Street.”I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting in the bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight.“4:00, wallow in self-pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one; 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me—I can’t cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness.”“At five o’clock the two ladies retired to dress, and at half-past six Elizabeth was summoned to dinner.”At six-thirty I left the bar and walked outside. It was getting dark and the big Avenida looked cool and graceful. On the other side were homes that once looked out on the beach. Now they looked out on hotels and most of them had retreated behind tall hedges and walls that cut them off from the street.6.30 p.m. Watch television or a videoAs I was turning away, grieved to be parting from him, a thought started up in me and I turned back. 'Shall I take one more message for you?' 'That's good of you' he said, 'but do you want to?' 'Yes, just this once.' It could do no harm, I thought; and I should be far away when the message takes effect, and I wanted to say something to show we were friends. 'Well,' he said, once more across the gap, 'say tomorrow's no good, I'm going to Norwich, but Friday at half-past six, same as usual.'At five o'clock the two ladies retired to dress, and at half past six Elizabeth was summoned to dinner.It is six thirty. Now the dark night and the deafening racket of the crickets again engulf the garden and the veranda, all around the houseTo a casual visitor it might have seemed that Mr Penicuik, who owned the house, had fallen upon evil days; but two of the three gentlemen assembled in the Saloon at half-past six on a wintry evening of late February were in no danger of falling into this error.I had been delayed at a case and it was a little after half past six when I found myself at Baker Street once moreIt is around half past six in the evening. Dusk is gathering in the living room, an early dusk due to the fog which has rolled in from the Sound and is like a white curtain drawn down outside the windows.Every evening, Michel took the train home, changed at Esbly and usually arrived in Crécy on the 6.33pm train where Annabelle would be waiting at the station.It is around half past six in the evening. Dusk is gathering in the living room, an early dusk due to the fog which has rolled in from the Sound and is like a white curtain drawn down outside the windows.I swipe for the time with wet thumbs: 6:35 p.m. I’m early. Very early. I’d consider this a good thing if any part of my plan could be called that. I swallow. None of my plan is certain.And then it was 6.35 pm and I heard Father come home in his van and I moved the bed up against the door so he couldn't get in and he came into the house and he and Mother shouted at each other.Kaldren pursues me like luminescent shadow. He has chalked up on the gateway '96,688,365,498,702'. Should confuse the mail man. Woke 9:05. To sleep 6:36.Amy: What's that? I thought I saw someone pass the window. What time is it? Charles: Nearly twenty to seven.Having to change 'buses, I allowed plenty of time — in fact, too much; for we arrived at twenty minutes to seven, and Franching, so the servant said, had only just gone up to dress.He made it to Grand Central well in advance. Stillman's train was not due to arrive until six forty-one, but Quinn wanted time to study the geography of the place, to make sure that Stillman would not be able to slip away from him.The black boy’s dwarf head swivels and comes nose to knuckle with that hand. He frowns at it, then takes a quick check where’s the other two black boys just in case, and tells McMurphy they don’t open the cabinet till six-forty-five. “It’s a policy,” he says.'Let me see now. You had a drink at the Continental at six ten.' 'Yes.' 'And at six forty-five you were talking to another journalist at the door of the Majestic?' 'Yes, Wilkins. I told you all this, Vigot, before. That night.'"“Six forty-five,” called Louie. “Did you hear, Ming,” he asked, “did you hear?” “Yes, Taddy, I heard.” “What is it?' asked Tommy. “The new baby, listen, the new baby.”"It was a quarter to seven when I let myself into the office and clicked the light on and picked a piece of paper off the floor. It was a notice from the Green Feather Messenger Service ...The clock said 6:47pm. With growing fear, I walked stiffly around the apartment, turning on all the lights - even the overhead lights in the living room, which we generally didn’t use because they were so stark and bright.6:49 p.m. Lieutenant-General Tanz escorted by a motorized unit, drove to Corps headquartersAt ten minutes to seven Dulcie was ready. She looked at herself in the wrinkly mirror. The reflection was satisfactory. The dark blue dress, fitting without a wrinkle, the hat with its jaunty black feather, the but-slightly-soiled gloves--all representing self- denial, even of food itself--were vastly becoming. Dulcie forgot everything else for a moment except that she was beautiful, and that life was about to lift a corner of its mysterious veil for her to observe its wonders. No gentleman had ever asked her out before. Now she was going for a brief moment into the glitter and exalted show.It was time to go see the Lady. When we arrived at her house at ten minutes before seven o'clock, Damaronde answered the door.It was time to go see the Lady. When we arrived at her house at ten minutes before seven o'clock, Damaronde answered the door.The square of light in the kitchen doorway had faded to thin purple; his watch said 6:51.It was near on seven o'clock when I got to Mr. and Mrs. Fleming's house on 6th Street, where I was renting a room. It was late September, and though there was some sun left, I didn't want to visit a dead man's place with night coming on."... You had no reason to think the times important. Indeed how suspicious it would be if you had been completely accurate. ''Haven't I been?'' Not quite. It was five to seven that you talked to Wilkins. ''Another ten minutes.”"The play was set to begin at seven o'clock and finish before sunset. It was 6:55. Beyond the flats we could hear the hockey field filling up. the low rumble got steadily louder - voices, footsteps, the creaking of bleachers, the slamming of car doors in the parking lot.Then it was 6.56. A black Rover - a Rover 90, registration PYX 520 - turned into the street that ran down the left-hand side of The Bunker. It parked. The door on the driver's side opened. A man got out."“I feel a little awkward,” Kay Randall said on the phone, “asking a man to do these errands ... but that's my problem, not yours. Just bring the supplies and try to be at the church meeting room a few minutes before seven.”"Folded in this triple melody, the audience sat gazing; and beheld gently and approvingly without interrogation, for it seemed inevitable, a box tree in a green tub take the place of the ladies’ dressing-room; while on what seemed to be a wall, was hung a great clock face; the hands pointing to three minutes to the hour; which was seven.'"“Walk fast,” says Perry, “it's two minutes to seven, and I got to be home by—' “Oh, shut up,” says I. “I had an appointment as chief performer at an inquest at seven, and I'm not kicking about not keeping it.”"At 6:59 p.m. Central Standard Time, I stand in my Sunday best in Clare’s vestibule with my finger on her buzzer, fragrant yellow freesia and an Australian Cabernet in my other arm, and my heart in my mouth.About seven o’clock in the evening she had died, and her frantic husband had made a frightful scene in his efforts to kill West, whom he wildly blamed for not saving her life. Friends had held him when he drew a stiletto, but West departed amidst his inhuman shrieks, curses, and oaths of vengeance.“It was about seven o’clock and so still I felt that, if someone had spoken a mile away, I could have answered him.”By seven o’clock the candles were lit.At seven o’clock Holly is still in her office, going over invoices that don’t really need her attention.Anne made her way across the dooryard, trailing a steadying hand along the side of Bobbi’s truck. When she had passed the truck, she reached at once for the porch railing. She looked up, and in the slanting light of seven o’clock, Gardener thought the woman looked both aged and ageless.On se réunit le matin au breakfast, et puis on se sépare. Everyone does as he pleases till dinnertime. Dinner at seven o’clock. By seven o’clock, all the guests had arrived, led into the house by Fred and George, who had waited for them at the end of the lane.Be at the third pillar from the left outside the Lyceum Theatre to-night at seven o’clock. If you are distrustful bring two friends. You are a wronged woman and shall have justice. Do not bring the police. If you do, all will be in vain. -Your unknown friend.The clocks were chiming seven o’clock. ‘Ah Mr Lipwig,’ said Lord Vetinari, looking up. ‘Thank you so much for dropping in. It has been such a busy day, has it not? Drumknott, do help Mr Lipwig to a chair. Prophecy can be very exhausting, I believe.’Billy closes his eyes and goes to sleep. At seven that evening, he’s eating a room service dinner and watching The Asphalt Jungle on his laptop. It’s a jinxed one last job picture, for sure. The phone rings. It’s Ken Hoff. He tells Billy where they’ll meet tomorrow afternoon. Billy doesn’t have to write it down. Writing things down can be dangerous, and he’s got a good memory.“And what of Irene Adler?” I asked. “Oh, she has turned all the men’s heads down in that part. She is the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for dinner.”In his hotel room at the Bon Voyage, Dr. Rufus Sixsmith reads a sheaf of letters written to him nearly half a century ago by his friend Robert Frobisher. Sixsmith knows them by heart, but their texture, rustle, and his friend’s faded handwriting calm his nerves. These letters are what he would save from a burning building. At seven o’clock precisely, he washes, changes his shirt, and sandwiches the nine read letters in the Gideon’s Bible—this he replaces in the bedside cabinet. Sixsmith slips the unread letters into his jacket pocket for the restaurant.“Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop.”By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums.“Yes, seven o’clock. I will bring dessert.” Smiling in her sad-happy way, she hobbled back into her unit while I continued to mine.“What? No. I mean, yeah, that’s when we have to be in the lot, but there’s a bunch of stuff before, you know, costumes, makeup, all that. I usually get there at seven. I can’t believe nobody told you any of this.”After that first night, Kendra quickly fell into a rhythm: She’d drive in with Sarah, arrive by seven P.M., punch in immediately, sift through the costumes, splatter herself with blood, go through makeup if needed, and walk with Christy and Sarah down to the lot.“4:00, wallow in self-pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one; 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me—I can’t cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness.”“It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don’t want everybody knowing you’ve got a broomstick or they’ll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o’clock for your first training session. "At seven o’clock precisely, a tiny Italian man entered James’s office. He was wearing a very ancient tuxedo and a white bow tie, which was almost exactly the same size and shape as the mustache on his upper lip.… in a word, seen always at the same evening hour, isolated from all its possible surroundings, detached and solitary against its shadowy background, the bare minimum of scenery necessary .. to the drama of my undressing, as though all Combray had consisted of but two floors joined by a slender staircase, and as though there had been no time there but seven o'clock at night.The town clock struck seven. The echoes of the great chime wandered in the unlit halls of the library. An autumn leaf, very crisp, fell somewhere in the dark. But it was only the page of a book, turning.7.00 p.m. Do maths practiceBy seven o'clock the orchestra has arrived--no thin five-piece affair but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low and high drums.Edward had been allowed to see me only from seven till nine-thirty pm, always inside the confines of my home and under the supervision of my dad's unfailingly crabby glare.It was seven o'clock and by this time she was not very far from Raveloe, but she was not familiar enough with those monotonous lanes to know how near she was to her journey's end. She needed comfort, and she knew but one comforter - the familiar demon in her bosom; but she hesitated a moment, after drawing out the black remnant, before she raised it to her lips.It was seven o'clock when we got into the coupé with him and started for Long Island. [...] So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight.He waited until nearly eight, because around seven there were always more people coming in and out of the house than at other times.Twas about seven o'clock at night, And the wind it blew with all its might, And the rain came pouring down, And the dark clouds seem'd to frown,Sunday evening at almost the same hour (to be precise, at about 7:04 p.m.) she rings the front door bell at the home of Walter Moeding, Crime Commissioner, who is at that moment engaged, for professional rather than private reasons, in disguising himself as a sheikh.It was eight minutes past seven and still no girl. I waited impatiently. I watched another crowd surge through the barriers and move quickly down the steps. My eyes were alert for the faintest recognition.A warm breeze came through the window, smelling of freshly cut grass. The landlord was now mowing the patch of green lawn with a push mower. I glanced at my wristwatch. It was 7:10 p.m.He had already got to the point where, by rocking more strongly, he maintained his equilibrium with difficulty, and very soon he would finally have to make a final decision, for in five minutes it would be a quarter past seven. Then there was a ring at the door of the apartment. “That’s someone from the office,” he told himself, and he almost froze, while his small limbs only danced around all the faster. For one moment everything remained still. “They aren’t opening,” Gregor said to himself, caught up in some absurd hope.The party was to begin at seven. The invitations gave the hour as six-thirty because the family knew everyone would come a little late, so as not to be the first to arrive. At seven-ten not a soul had come; somewhat acrimoniously, the family discussed the advantages and disadvantages of tardinessGood, you said. Run, or you won't get a seat. See you soon. Your voice was reassuring. 19:11:00, the clock said. I put the phone back on its hook and I ran. The seat I got, almost the last one in the carriage, was opposite a girl who started coughing as soon as there weren't any other free seats I could move to. She looked pale and the cough rattled deep in her chest as she punched numbers into her mobile. Hi, she said (cough). I'm on the train. No, I've got a cold. A cold (cough). Yeah, really bad. Yeah, awful actually. Hello? (cough) Hello?"He taught me that if I had to meet someone for an appointment, I must refuse to follow the 'stupid human habit' of arbitrarily choosing a time based on fifteen-minute intervals. “Never meet people at 7:45 or 6:30, Jasper, but pick times like 7:12 and 8:03!”"If he'd lived in New York and worked in an office, he might have thrived as the typical, over-martini'd, cheating husband, leaving every night on the 7:14 to White Plains, a smudge of lipstick high on his neck, and a tide of lies to see him through to the next day.The raft drifted steadily north. “There must be a current.” The current was carrying them north, toward the hotel. He looked at his watch and was astonished to see it was fifteen minutes past seven. Only fifteen minutes had passed since he had last looked at his watch. It seemed like two hours.It was on the busy, dirty Anerley Road in South London that the man hit me. It was the nineteenth of September, it was around quarter past seven in the evening, and I was walking downhill from the train station to our flat after a shift at the bookshop. The weather had been fine in the morning when I set out for work, but now it was raining and I wasn’t dressed for it.At 7:15 p.m. and nine seconds, Prager called Eva’s cell, and once again it went straight to VM. He tried her apartment, and no one answered; a machine didn’t even pick up.Cell count down to 400,000. Woke 8:10. To sleep 7:15. (Appear to have lost my watch without realising it, had to drive into town to buy another.)Nick had a large wild plan of his own for the night, but for now he let Leo take charge: they were going to go back to Notting Hill and catch the seven fifteen screening of Scarface at the Gate.The party was to begin at seven. The invitations gave the hour as six-thirty because the famly knew everyone would come a little late, so as not to be the first to arrive. .. By seven-fifteen not another soul could squeeze into the house.“Sixteen past seven PM? That's when he came into the store or when he left after the fact?”Colonel Putnis knocked on his door at 7.17 p.m. The car was waiting in front of the hotel, and they drove through the dark streets to police headquarters. It had grown much colder during the evening, and the city was almost deserted.And it was me who spent about three hours this afternoon arguing one single contract. The term was best endeavors. The other side wanted to use reasonable efforts. In the end we won the point- but I can't feel my usual triumph. All I know is, it's seven-nineteen, and in eleven minutes I'm supposed to be halfway across town, sitting down to dinner at Maxim's with my mother and brother Daniel. I'll have to cancel. My own birthday dinner.Winston lit the burner and set a pan of water to boil. He had brought an envelope full of Victory Coffee and some saccharine tablets. The clock’s hands said seven-twenty: it was nineteen-twenty really.Winston lit the burner and set a pan of water to boil. He had brought an envelope full of Victory Coffee and some saccharine tablets. The clock’s hands said seven-twenty: it was nineteen-twenty really.The clock read seven-twenty, but I felt no hunger. You'd think I might have wanted to eat something after the day I'd had, but I cringed at the very thought of food. I was short of sleep, my gut was slashed, and my apartment was gutted. There was no room for appetite.The pause, we finally concluded, was to allow the other important people to catch up, those who had arrived at 7:10 waiting for those who had arrived at 7:20.Gripping her gym bag in her right hand, Aomame, like Buzzcut, was waiting for something to happen. The clock display changed to 7:21, then 7:22, then 7:23.Gripping her gym bag in her right hand, Aomame, like Buzzcut, was waiting for something to happen. The clock display changed to 7:21, then 7:22, then 7:23.Gripping her gym bag in her right hand, Aomame, like Buzzcut, was waiting for something to happen. The clock display changed to 7:21, then 7:22, then 7:23.He picked up his hat and coat and Clarice said hello to him and he said hello and looked at the clock and it was almost twenty-five after seven.He tried one more time at 7:25, and nothing had changed. It ran and ran, eleven, twelve, thirteen times. He threw his guitar in his dad’s car and drove south toward Prescott. The Built to Spill tape was still in the tape deck, and he just let it keep going; it might as well be the damn soundtrack to everything.He picked up his hat and coat and Clarice said hello to him and he said hello and looked at the clock and it was almost twenty-five after seven.McMurphy is whispering and nudging the Acutes sitting around him, and in a minute they all nod, and he lays three dollars on the table and leans back. Everybody turns in his chair and watches that butter sneak on down the wall, starting, hanging still, shooting ahead and leaving a shiny trail behind it on the pain. Nobody says a word. They look at the butter, then at the clock, then back at the butter. The clock’s moving now. The butter makes it down to the floor about a half minute before seven-thirty, and McMurphy gets back all the money he lost.When the news was over, Anderson told Gardener she was going to bed. “At seven-thirty?” “I’m still bushed.” And she looked it. At seven-thirty, Chetta Reynolds blew into the examining room where the Stones and their ceaselessly screaming baby daughter had been stashed. The poet rumored to be on the short list for Presidential Medal of Freedom was dressed in straight-leg jeans and a BU sweatshirt with a hole in one elbow.I could see her eyeing the sweaty bottle of rosé. “Come out with me tonight, pretty please? My friend Jackie from Pilates is having a birthday party at a gay bar in the Village. I wasn’t going to go, but if you come with me it could be fun. It’s only seven thirty. And it’s Friday night. Let’s drink this and go out. The night is young!” “I’m tired, Reva,” I said, peeling the wrapper off the cap of a bottle of NyQuil."Seven-thirty back to the day room. The Big Nurse looks out through her special glass, always polished till you can’t tell it’s there, and nods at what she sees, reaches up and tears a sheet off her calendar one day closer to the goal.McMurphy is whispering and nudging the Acutes sitting around him, and in a minute they all nod, and he lays three dollars on the table and leans back. Everybody turns in his chair and watches that butter sneak on down the wall, starting, hanging still, shooting ahead and leaving a shiny trail behind it on the pain. Nobody says a word. They look at the butter, then at the clock, then back at the butter. The clock’s moving now. The butter makes it down to the floor about a half minute before seven-thirty, and McMurphy gets back all the money he lost.But now he was close - here was the house, here were the gates. Somewhere a clock beat a single chime. 'What, is it really half-past seven? That's impossible, it must be fast!’On July 25th, 8:30 a.m. the bitch Novaya dies whelping. At 10 o'clock she is lowered into her cool grave, at 7:30 that same evening we see our first floes and greet them wishing they were the last.The clock showed half-past seven. This was the twilight time. He would be there now. I pictured him in his old navy-blue sweater and peaked cap, walking soft-footed up the track towards the wood. He told me he wore the sweater because navy-blue barely showed up in the dark, black was even better, he said. The peaked cap was important too, he explained, because the peak casts a shadow over one's face.The telephone call came at 7.30 on the evening of March 18th, a Saturday, the eve of the noisy, colourful festival that the town held in honour of Saint Joseph the carpenter -It’s 7:32 p.m., and Marge sits beside Clay on one side of the interrogation room table. Luke and I sit opposite them. We’ve run through the preambles. The interview is being recorded.7.35-40. Yseut arrives at 'M. and S.', puts through phone call.7:39 P.M. Eva and Braque made $180 at Jack Cermak’s before complains from the nosy wait staff and whiny-ass sore losers forced them out. Then they made a quick five bucks at the famous Every 1’s A Wiener hot dog stand in Andersonville just for taking a bite from a Fire Dog. Eva actually took two bites, because that’s just who she was.She arrives at 7.40, ten minutes late, but the children, Jimmy and Bitsy, are still eating supper and their parents are not ready to go yet. From other rooms come the sound of a baby screaming, water running, a television musical (no words: probably a dance number - patterns of gliding figures come to mind).“So he really had no choice but to pay an occasional visit to the living room instead, where the hands on the grandfather clock now indicated, rather unambiguously, that it was 7:42” “I had been in the tech ninja sleeve only a few hours—seven, and forty-two minutes according to the time display chipped into my upper-left field of vision—but there were none of the usual download side effects.”I glance at my watch as we speed along the Strand. Seven forty-two. I'm starting to feel quite excited. The street outside is still bright and warm and tourists are walking along in T-shirts and shorts, pointing at the High Court. It must have been a gorgeous summer's day. Inside the air-conditioned Carter Spink building you have no idea what the weather in the real world is doing.“At quarter to eight in the evening, Emmett was sitting in a run-down saloon at the edge of Manhattan with a glass of beer and a photograph of Harrison Hewett on the bar in front of him.”“There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight o’clock,” it said, “a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask.”Seven-forty-five the black boys move down the line of Chronics taping catheters on the ones that will hold still for it. Catheters are second-hand condoms the ends clipped off and rubber-banded to tubes that run down pantlegs to a plastic sack marked DISPOSABLE NOT TO BE RE-USED, which it is my job to wash out at the end of each day.“Contrary to his habit of being late, Pierre on that day arrived at the Bergs’ house, not at ten but at fifteen minutes to eight.”"He taught me that if I had to meet someone for an appointment, I must refuse to follow the 'stupid human habit' of arbitrarily choosing a time based on fifteen-minute intervals. “Never meet people at 7:45 or 6:30, Jasper, but pick times like 7:12 and 8:03!”""He tells his old friend the train times and they settle on the 19.45 arriving at 23.27. 'I'll book us into the ultra-luxurious Francis Drake Lodge. Running water in several rooms. Have you got a mobile?”""There's a big, old-fashioned clock in the surgery. Just as Dr. Wellesley went out I heard the Moot Hall clock chime half-past seven, and then the chimes of St. Hathelswide's Church. I noticed that our clock was a couple of minutes slow, and I put it right.” When did you next see Dr. Wellesley?” “At just eleven minutes to eight.” “Where?” “In the surgery.” “He came back there?” “Yes.” “How do you fix that precise time--eleven minutes to eight?” “Because he'd arranged to see a patient in Meadow Gate at ten minutes to eight. I glanced at the clock as he came in, saw what time it was, and reminded him of the appointment.”"“The hands of the clock in the middle of the wall were pointing to Ten minutes to Eight. The cafe closed at Eight.”At ten to eight, he strolled downstairs, to make sure that Signora Buffi was not pottering around in the hall and that her door was not open, and to make sure there really was no one in Freddie's carHe waited until nearly eight, because around seven there were always more people coming in and out of the house than at other times. At ten to eight, he strolled downstairs, to make sure that Signora Buffi was not pottering around in the hall and that her door was not open, and to make sure there really was no one in Freddie's car, though he had gone down in the middle of the afternoon to look at the car and see if it was Freddie's."Wednesday, 11 th December 1963. 7.53 p.m. “Help me. You've got to help me.” The woman's voice quavered on the edge of tears. The duty constable who had picked up the phone heard a hiccuping gulp, as if the caller was struggling to speak."The body was found at six minutes to eight. Doctor Young arrived some thirty minutes later. Just let me get that clear - I've a filthy memory.At five minutes to eight , the Prime Minister emerged from Wilson’s office, followed by Halifax and Cadogan. Wilson was the last to appear. He looked irritated. Legat guessed he must have had a further argument with Cadogan.Flora drew her coat round her, and looked up into the darkening vault of the sky. Then she glanced at her watch. It was five to eight.I remember the cigarette in his hard face, against the now limitless storm cloud. Bernardo cried to him unexpectedly: 'What time is it, Ireno?' Without consulting the sky, without stopping, he replied: 'It's four minutes to eight, young Bernardo Juan Franciso.' His voice was shrill, mocking."At three minutes till eight, Laszlo and His Yankee Hussars set up onstage. While the band played their Sousa medley, Carter thoroughly checked his kit, stuffing his pockets with scarves, examining the seals on decks of cards. He glanced toward his levitation device. “Good luck, Carter.” The voice was quiet."Robert Langdon stole an anxious glance at his wristwatch: 7.58pm. The smiling face of Mickey Mouse did little to cheer him up."Kuniang made her appearance in my study just before eight o' clock, arrayed in what had once ben a “party frock”."Quickly, quickly. A minute to eight. My hot water bottle was ready, and I filled a glass with water from the tap. Time was of the essence.The ten directors now sitting in the conference room were irritable and impatient. It was 8:00 P.M. They had been talking among themselves for the last ten minutes, but slowly had fallen silent.On the wall above the cupboard, invisible save at night, by lamplight and even then evincing an enigmatic profundity because it had but one hand, a cabinet clock ticked, then with a preliminary sound as if it had cleared its throat, struck five times. ‘Eight o’clock,’ Dilsey said.“My fiddle would be the better for new strings,” he remarked. “Put your pistol in your pocket. When the fellow comes, speak to him in an ordinary way. Leave the rest to me. Don’t frighten him by looking at him too hard.” “It is eight o’clock now,” I said, glancing at my watch.The mother nodded. She didn’t seem able to get out a word. The daughter burst into tears. I felt more than ever that these people knew something of the matter. “At what o’clock did Mr. Drebber leave your house for the train?” I asked. “At eight o’clock,” she said, gulping in her throat to keep down her agitation.I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon; so everything that happened has a dim, hazy cast over it, although until after eight o’clock the apartment was full of cheerful sun.Again at eight o’clock, when the dark lanes of the Forties were lined five deep with throbbing taxicabs, bound for the theatre district, I felt a sinking in my heart. Forms leaned together in the taxis as they waited, and voices sang, and there was laughter from unheard jokes, and lighted cigarettes outlined unintelligible 70 gestures inside.Eight o’clock, no later, you light the lamps, the big one by the large window, the small one on your desk, they are not to see by— It is still twilight out over the sand, the scrub oaks and cranberries, even the small birds have not settled. For sleep yet, out of the reach of prowling foxes. No, you light the lamps because you are alone in your small house and the wicks sputtering gold are like two visitors with good stories.She stared back, surprised and confused. Then defiant. Abruptly she closed the laptop, stuffed it in her bag. She withdrew a pen and scribbled an address on a napkin. “If you change your mind,” she said stiffly, standing, “I will be at this location between eight o’clock and nine o’clock tonight.”It was nearly 8:00 p.m., and Sully was glad to see the lights still on. With no Internet service of his own, and the computers at the Gazette being out of the question (he didn’t want anyone to know what he was doing, least of all reporters), this was his best and only option for doing research; a place where he once wrote grade-school book reports.Eight o’clock the walls whirr and hum into full swing. The speaker in the ceiling says, “Medications,” using the Big Nurse’s voice.“I’ll give you a ride, of course!” Sarah said, slapping Kendra’s shoulder. “It’s really no problem.” Kendra grabbed where she’d been slapped. “We start at eight?” she said, kneading her shoulder.“Then the grandfather’s clock in the hall outside struck eight, and the memory of the night before came to him.”“Mr. Owen - unfortunately delayed - unable to get here till tomorrow. Instructions - everything they wanted - if they would like to go to their rooms?… dinner would be at 8 o’clock…”Philip Lombard had the habit of waking at daybreak. He did so on this particular morning. He raised himself on an elbow and listened. The wind had somewhat abated but was still blowing. He could hear no sound of rain… At eight o’clock the wind was blowing more strongly, but Lombard did not hear it. He was asleep again.'TIS eight o'clock,--a clear March night, The moon is up,--the sky is blue, The owlet, in the moonlight air, Shouts from nobody knows where; He lengthens out his lonely shout, Halloo! halloo! a long halloo!"“I trace the words, I'll arrive to collect you for drinks at eight on Saturday.”"8.00 p.m. Have a bathArthur thought he could even bear to listen to the album of bagpipe music he had won. It was eight o'clock and he decided he would make himself, force himself, to listen to the whole record before he phoned her.At eight o'clock that evening, a Saturday, Pamela Chamcha stood with Jumpy Joshi - who had refused to let her go unaccompanied - next to the Photo-Me machine in a corner of the main concourse of Euston station, feeling ridiculously conspiratorial.Freud had me knock on Jung's door, to no avail. They waited until eight, then set off for Brill's without him.I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon; so everything that happened has a dim, hazy cast over it. although until after eight o'clock the apartment was full of cheerful sun.It's the twenty-third of June nineteen seventy-five, and it is eight o'clock in the evening, seated at his jigsaw puzzle, Bartlebooth has just died.She looked at her watch- it was eight o'clockThat day he forgot to go to dinner; he noticed the fact at eight in the evening, and as it was too late to go to the Rue St Jaques, he ate a lump of bread.The clock struck eight. Had it been ten, Elinor would have been convinced that at that moment she heard a carriage driving up to the house; and so strong was the persuasion that she did, in spite of the almost impossibility of their being already come, that she moved into the adjoining dressing-closet and opened a window-shutter, to be satisfied of the truth. She instantly saw that her ears had not deceived her.It was only a little after eight o'clock, so all the shows were about silliness or murder."“Yes, I must go to the railway station, and if he's not there, then go there and catch him.” Anna looked at the railway timetable in the newspapers. An evening train went at two minutes past eight. “Yes, I shall be in time.”"He taught me that if I had to meet someone for an appointment, I must refuse to follow the 'stupid human habit' of arbitrarily choosing a time based on fifteen-minute intervals. 'Never meet people at 7:45 or 6:30, Jasper, but pick times like 7:12 and 8:03!'On Saturday. November 12. 1955, the Hill Valley Courthouses clock tower was struck by lightning, which poured 1.21 gigawatts of energy into the structure. Time stood still at 10:04 on the clocks face from that day on,The earth seems to cast its darkness upward into the air. The farm country is somber at night. He is grateful when the lights of Lankaster merge with his dim beams. He stops at a diner who's clock says 8.04.December 23rd At 8.05 pm Prof. Preobrazhensky commenced the first operation of its kind to be performed in Europe: removal under anaesthesia of a dog's testicles and their replacement by implanted human testes, with appendages and seminal ducts, taken from a 28-year-old human maleRansom took out his watch, which he had adapted, on purpose, several hours before, to Boston time, and saw that the minutes had sped with increasing velocity during this interview, and that it now marked five minutes past eight.I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon; so everything that happened has a dim, hazy cast over it, although until after eight o’clock the apartment was full of cheerful sun.And I could hear that there were fewer people in the little station when the train wasn't there, so I opened my eyes and I looked at my watch and it said 8:07 pm and I had been sitting on the bench for approximately 5 hours but it hadn't seemed like approximately 5 hours, except that my bottom hurt and I was hungry and thirsty.Bennie pulled the transcripts for that night. The first call had come in at 8:07, with a positive ID.It is ten minutes past eight. I must tell you how much I love you at ten minutes past eight on a Sunday evening, January 27th 1918.8:10 P.M. Even on a regular night, The Truth was intolerable. The floor was coated in sawdust, music that could only be described as cock-metal blasted on the sound system, Christmas lights flashed out of sync at a headache-inducing pace, and the walls were covered with faux-homey wooden signs that said shit like: YOU ARE NEVER 2 OLD 2 DRINK 2 MANY 6 PACKSAt 2010h. on 1 April Y.D.A.U., the medical attache is still watching the unlabelled entertainment cartridge.When a call came through to Dilworth’s home number at fourteen minutes past eight o’clock, Olbier and Jones reacted with far more excitement than the situation warranted because they were desperate for action.8:15 p.m. Cannot locate operating instructions (for video)8.15 p.m. Get changed into pyjamas"Natsha: I was looking to see if there wasn't a fire. It's Shrovetide, and the servant is simply beside herself; I must look out that something doesn't happen. When I came through the dining-room yesterday midnight, there was a candle burning. I couldn't get her to tell me who had lighted it. [Puts down her candle] What's the time? Andrey: [Looks at his watch] A quarter past eight. Natasha: And Olga and Irina aren't in yet. The poor things are still at work. Olga at the teachers' council, Irina at the telegraph office...[sighs] I said to your sister this morning, “Irina, darling, you must take care of yourself.” But she pays no attention. Did you say it was a quarter past eight?"He kissed her hand and after a while went to get two more drinks. When he got back, it was sixteen minutes past eight, and Lois was humming softly along with the jukebox20.17 A red warning light failed to go on in the Drive Room, beginning a chain of events which would lead, in a further twenty-three minutes, to the total annihilation of the entire crew of Red Dwarf.2018 hrs Katya has arrived at the Odessa Hotel. Barley and Katya are talking in the canteen. Wicklow and one irregular observing. More.Eight-twenty the cards and puzzles go out. . . .8.20 p.m. Play computer gamesAt 20.20 all ships had completed oiling. Hove to, they had had the utmost difficulty in keeping position in that great wind; but they were infinitely safer than in the open seaKnowing that the dinner was only for us six, we never dreamed it would be a full dress affair. I had no appetite. It was quite twenty minutes past eight before we sat down to dinner."At 8.21, after a knock at the door, a constable said a military police vehicle had just driven into the courtyard, the driver asking for “Mr.” Murray."20.23. In a few minutes she would go down.She could have borrowed some mascara from her daughter Sally, but it was too late. She could have rung her mother in Northam, but it was too late. Seven minutes of solitude she had, and then she would descend.Peach checked his watch. 8.24. If he wasn't in a taxi in twenty minutes he'd be done for.He already felt drunk enough at the thought of being with Sunny. He glanced at his watch. Eight-twenty-five. He loosened his tie, dark yellow with a muted pattern and unbuttoned the top button of his blue shirt.Eight-twenty-five some Acute mentions he used to watch his sister taking her bath; the three guys at the table with him fall over each other to see who gets to write it in the log book. . . .She sat down in her usual seat and smiled at her husband as he sank into his own chair opposite her. She was saved. It was only five and twenty past eight.At seven-and-twenty minutes past eight Mrs Lofthouse was seated at Aurora's piano, in the first agonies of a prelude in six flats; a prelude which demanded such extraordinary uses of the left hand across the right, and the right over the left, and such exercise of the thumbs in all positions"“Twenty-nine and a half minutes past eight, sir.” And then, from habit, he glanced at the clock in the tower, and made further oration. “By George! that clock's half an hour fast! First time in ten years I've known it to be off. This watch of mine never varies a--” But the citizen was talking to vacancy. He turned and saw his hearer, a fast receding black shadow, flying in the direction of a house with three lighted upper windows."In the evening, I roll over alone to an empty bottle of malbec by the bed. A sleek table clock says it’s half past eight. I throw on a tee and cotton shorts and follow the smell of dinner down a winding staircase.By eight-thirty, with dusk growing too thick to be much different from night, the five searchers had grown to a dozen. At half past eight Millicent Hammitt barged in, without a preliminary knock, to say goodbye.Outside, the wind continued to rise. Every now and then it gave a blood-curdling scream around the eaves that made him look up from his book. Around eight thirty, the snow began. It was heavy and wet, quickly coating his window and blocking his view of the mountains. In a way, that was worse. The snow had blocked the windows in the Overlook, too.At eight thirty, I called and said, “I’ve been thinking I might get a boob job, just take them clean off. What do you think? Could I pull off the flat-chested look?”Eight-thirty the ward door opens and two technicians trot in, smelling like grape wine; technicians always move at a fast walk or a trot because they’re always leaning so far forward they have to move fast to keep standing.“What nonsense!” thought Vronsky, and glanced at his watch. It was half-past eight already."Alix took up a piece of needlework and began to stitch. Gerald read a few pages of his book. Then he glanced up at the clock and tossed the book away. “Half-past eight. Time to go down to the cellar and start work.”"The bicycles go by in twos and threes - there's a dance on in Billy Brennan's barn tonight, and there's the half-talk code of mysteries and the wink-and-elbow language of delight. Half-past eight and there is not a spot upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown that might turn out a man or woman,"At the station he captured Miss Lantry out of the gadding mob at eight thirty-two. “We mustn't keep mamma and the others waiting,” said she. “To Wallack's Theatre as fast as you can drive!”"20.33 Navigation officer Henri DuBois knocked his black cona coffee with four sugars over his computer console keyboard. As he mopped up the coffee, he noticed three red warning blips on his monitor screen, which he wrongly assumed were the result of his spillage.8:35pm. Found operating instructions under Hello.Left Munich at 8.35 p.m. on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early the next morningShe paused reflectively. He was keenly interested now, not a doubt of it. The murderer is bound to have an interest in murder. She had gambled on that, and succeeded. She stole a glance at the clock. It was five and twenty to nine.20.36 Rimmer stood in the main wash-room on the stasis deck and combed his hair.8:37 P.M. Braque sat in a Pepto-Bismol pink toilet stall in the otherwise empty women’s bathroom and opened the jar of green sweet pepper jelly. Even with the sound of AC/DC playing and the smell of cheap bleach rising to her face, the scent of the jelly overwhelmed her senses.‘Are you on your own, miss?’ It was a stupid question and it annoyed her. There were a lot of cross answers she could have snapped out, but she swallowed them and just said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Waiting for the 8.40, are you?’ ‘Is there any other?’ ‘Well, no. Not this time of night.’It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine.The letter had been brought in at twenty minutes to nine.It’s 08:41 and I’m in Bed practicing. Ma’s filled a plastic bag with really hot water and tied it tight so none spills out, she puts it in another bag and ties that too.The hand at this moment pointed to 8.42. The players took up their cards, but their eyes were constantly on the clock. One may safely say that, however secure they might feel, never had minutes seemed so long to them.'8.43,' said Thomas Flanagan, as he cut the cards placed before him by Gauthier Ralph. There was a moment's pause, during which the spacious room was perfectly silent."The clock's pendulum beat every second with mathematical regularity, and each player could count every sixtieth of a minute as it struck his ear.“8.44!” said John Sullivan, in a voice that betrayed his emotion.Only one minute more and the wager would be won."When it got to be a quarter to nine and still no one had shown up, Gardener began to wonder if maybe they were quitting. He toyed with the idea as he sat in Bobbi’s rocker on the porch, fingering the big, puffy bruise on the side of his face where Bozeman had clouted him.At eight forty-five, I called and said, “I need some financial advice. Actually, I’m serious. I’m in a bind.”'It's not impossible,' Phileas said quietly.'I bet you 20,000 pounds I could do it. If I leave this evening on the 8.45 train to Dover, I can be back here at the Reform Club by 8.45 on Saturday 21 December. I'll get my passport stamped at every place i stop to prove I've been around the world.'Beaver arrived at quarter to nine in a state of high self-approval; he had refused two invitations for dinner while dressing that evening; he had cashed a cheque for ten pounds at his club; he had booked a Divan table at Espinosa's.At the tone, the time will be eight forty six, exactly. One cubic mile of seawater contains about 50 pounds of gold.8.49. I took the phone, cleared my throat, and dialled the keep, the packs stronghold on the outskirts of Atlanta. Just keep it professional. Less pathetic that way.“He rang up his servant, dressed in haste, and went out onto the steps, completely forgetting the dream and only worried at being late. As he drove up to the Karenins’ entrance he looked at his watch and saw it was ten minutes to nine.”"8.50pm. Ah Diagram “Buttons for IMC functions”. But what are IMC functions?"all the clocks in London were striking ten minutes before nine.He glanced at the bracket-clock on the mantelpiece, but as this had stopped, drew out his watch. 'It is already too late,' he said. 'It wants only ten minutes to nine.' 'Good God!' she exclaimed, turning quite pale. 'What am I to do?'He was, yes, always home from work by 2050 on Thursdays.What did it mean by beginning to tick so loudly all of a sudden? Its face indicated ten minutes to nine. Mrs Verloc cared nothing for time, and the ticking went on.Only eight fifty-three. The partners' decision meeting starts in seven minutes. I'm not sure I can bear this.“Linus began to walk down the hallway slowly. Rain lashed against the windows to his left. The lights in the sconces to his right flicked slightly. His loafers squeaked on the floor. He pulled at his tie. By the time he reached the opposite end of the hallway, four minutes had passed. According to his watch, it was five till nine.”And the past. The clock on the dash said 8:55pm. And the last pink shard of the sun was reaching up into the night sky, desperately trying to hold on for just one more minute."“No. 7 berth—a second-class. The gentleman has not yet come, and it is four minutes to nine.”"She points up at Watch that says 08:57, that’s only three minutes before nine. So I run into Wardrobe and lie down on my pillow and wrap up in Blanket that’s all grey and fleecy with the red piping."“Wait,” he said solemnly, “till the clock strikes. I have wealth and power and knowledge above most men, but when the clock strikes I am afraid. Stay by me until then. This woman shall be yours. You have the word of the hereditary Prince of Valleluna. On the day of your marriage I will give you $100,000 and a palace on the Hudson. But there must be no clocks in that palace--they measure our follies and limit our pleasures. Do you agree to that?” “Of course,” said the young man, cheerfully, “they're a nuisance, anyway--always ticking and striking and getting you late for dinner.” He glanced again at the clock in the tower. The hands stood at three minutes to nine.""“What time is it?” she asked, quiet, definite, hopeless. “Two minutes to nine,” he replied, telling the truth with a struggle."For the rest of the evening, nobody talked. They just drank, ate, sat in different parts of the shack. Sarah bit her nails, pretended to be busy at the food table. Kendra sat on the couch, her knees pulled up, her head in her arms. Christy stood by the window, examining the rain, her arms crossed, her face pinched. At 10:59 P.M., Kendra’s walkie-talkie beeped.“Well, what an amazing culinary experience,” Eva said at 8:59 p.m., when Prager’s car parked in front of her apartment.The storm held off until nine o’clock, and by then Anderson was pretty sure they were going to have a good one - what Havenites called “a real Jeezer.”The clock struck nine when I did send the Nurse. In half an hour she promised to return.It was almost 9:00 P.M. The full moon was blurred by drifting mist, and their blunted shadows led them across an open field, toward dark woods beyond.By nine o’clock Saturday night Lakeside Avenue, the main street, was thronged with some four thousand beer-drinking tourists, about half riding motorcycles.It was nine o’clock in the evening, in Blackbury High Street. In the window of the electrical shop, nine TVs showed the same picture. Nine televisions projected their flickering screens at the empty air.He turned away from the window, his arms rashed out in gooseflesh. He’d gotten a sandwich from the Red Apple store and had planned to eat it while he started the John Sandford paperback he’d also picked up at the Red Apple, but after a few bites he rewrapped the sandwich and put it on the windowsill, where it would stay cold. He might eat the rest later, although he didn’t think he’d be staying up much past nine tonight; if he got a hundred pages into the book, he’d be doing well.Anyhow, this all took place on a windy night in the beginning of October. It was actually kind of steamy for the time of year. A swarm of mosquitos buzzed around in the evening, and I remember burning a couple of mosquito-repellent coils to keep them away. The wind was noisy. The gate to the swimming pool was broken and the wind made the gate slap open and shut. I thought of fixing it, but it was too dark out, so it kept banging all night. My nine p.m. round went by fine, all twenty items on my list nearly checked off. He keeps smiling all the time, smiling like a rosy little bedbug that has had its fill. “It was nine o’clock,” he says once again, “when I called you up, wasn’t it?” I nod my head wearily. Yes, it was nine o’clock. He is certain now that it was nine o’clock because he remembers having taken out his watch.At nine o’clock, I called again. He answered. “What do you want?” he asked. “I was hoping to hear you say you miss me.” “I miss you,” he said. “Is that it?” I hung up.Someone left a collection of books out on the curb one day on East Seventy-seventh Street, and I brought them home and read them all cover to cover. A history of drunk driving in America. An Indian cookbook. 𝘞𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦. 𝘔𝘢𝘰 𝘐𝘐. 𝘐𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘋𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘦𝘴. A book of Mad Libs that I filled in myself using the simplest words I could think of. I passed the days like this for four or five weeks. I did not buy a cell phone. I got rid of the old mattress. Every night at nine I lay down on the smooth hardwood floor with a stretch and a yawn, and I had no trouble sleeping.About nine o’clock the light among the trees was extinguished, and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House.She stared back, surprised and confused. Then defiant. Abruptly she closed the laptop, stuffed it in her bag. She withdrew a pen and scribbled an address on a napkin. “If you change your mind,” she said stiffly, standing, “I will be at this location between eight o’clock and nine o’clock tonight.”“4:00, wallow in self-pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one; 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me—I can’t cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness.”“However, at nine o’clock the prince, in his velvet coat with a sable collar and cap, went out for his usual walk. "At nine o’clock, Emily Brent rose to her feet. She said: “I’m going to bed.” 9.00 p.m. Watch television or a videoAt 2100 at night it's cold out.It was nine o'clock at night upon the second of August—the most terrible August in the history of the world. One might have thought already that God's curse hung heavy over a degenerate world, for there was an awesome hush and a feeling of vague expectancy in the sultry and stagnant airOn the evening before K.'s thirty-first birthday - it was about nine o'clock, when there is a lull in the streets - two gentlemen came to his apartment.On the stroke of nine o’clock Mr. and Mrs. De Voted took their places on either side of the drawing-room fire, in attitudes of gracefully combined hospitality and unconcern, Vivian De Voted wearing a black beard and black velvet jacket buttoned over his Bohemian bosom, his lady in a flowing purple gown embroidered in divers appropriate places with pomegranates and their leaves.Shortly after nine o'clock that evening, Weyrother drove with his plans to Kutuzov's quarters where the council of war was to be held. All the commanders of columns were summoned to the commander in chief's and with the exception of Prince Bagration, who declined to come, were all there at the appointed time.Standing in the chrome-and-tile desolation of the Polar-Shtern Kafeteria at nine o'clock on a Friday night, in a snowstorm, he's the loneliest Jew in the Sitka District.That night at nine the President addressed the nation.Then he put on a grey jacket and left the flat to make his way to Praca da Alegria. It was already nine o'clock, Pereira maintains.This time, the putting on of her best hat at nine o'clock at night with the idea of sallying forth from the castle, down the long drive and then northwards along the acacia avenue, had been enough to send her to her own doorway as though she suspected someone might be there, someone who was listening to her thoughts.He figured he’d start her out with an exceptionally American meal: cheeseburgers, fries, potato salad, Coke. He’d get a pie for dessert: apple. He’d top it off with ice cream and watch as she squirmed and squealed. When she finished, he’d lift her from her chair, carry her to the bedroom, kiss every inch. They’d have sex all night, and this time, he wouldn’t pay. He looked at his watch—9:01 P.M.On the evening before K.'s thirty-first birthday - it was about nine o'clock, when there is a lull in the streets - two gentlemen came to his apartment.The good Brants did not allow the boys to play out after nine in summer evenings; they were sent to bed at that hour; Eddie honorably remained, but Georgie usually slipped out of the window toward ten, and enjoyed himself until midnight.Billy Weaver had travelled down from London on the slow afternoon train, with a change at Swindon on the way, and by the time he got to Bath it was about nine o’clock in the evening and the moon was coming up out of a clear starry sky over the houses opposite the station entrance. But the air was deadly cold and the wind was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks.At 9.04pm trilobites swim onto the scene, followed more or less immediately by the shapely creatures of the Burgess Shale."Nine-five. A voice spoke from the study ceiling: “Mrs. McClellan, which poem would you like this evening?”. The house was silent. The voice said at last, “Since you express no preference, I shall select a poem at random.”"9.09. Too late to turn around and go back. Too late, too dangerous.Every few seconds the house changed character, at one time menacing and sinister, and again the innocent abode of law-abiding citizens about to be attacked by my private army. The luminous watch said 9.11.There was a big full moon that night, the sky clear as glass, and at 9:12 p.m. an old Russian rocket reentered the earth’s atmosphere and exploded into flaring comets with long, burning tails that streaked across the sky.The crime was reported to us (with almost indecent alacrity, Rog) at 21.12, by Susan Trott - of Black Grouse Cottage - who had been, I quote: 'out looking for hedgehogs when I was horrified to notice the postbox door had fallen off and was just lying there, on the ground'.Not too late to go back down to the Red Apple. Grab a bottle of something. Put all these unpleasant thoughts to bed. No. He was going to read his book. Lucas Davenport was on the case, and he was going to read his book. He closed it at quarter past nine and got into another rooming-house bed. I won’t sleep, he thought. Not with the wind screaming like that. But he did.It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker Street.9.15. Did Roberts pay you yet?What are we going to do? Should we try to walk to Clapham High Street? But it's bloody miles away. I glance at my watch and am shocked to see that it's nine-fifteen. We've spent over an hour faffing about and we haven't even had a drink. And it's all my fault. I can't even organize one simple evening without its going catastrophically wrong.Leonard checked his watch—9:16 P.M. He went to his computer, logged onto his AOL account. Though he’d been instructed not to email, he wrote a message to John. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦? He logged out.21:17, Sunday Evening, Angbyplan. A man is observed outside the hair salon. He presses his face and hands against the glass, and appears extremely intoxicated.The same thing would hold true if there were someone in her apartment. In that case he would just say that he had been passing by, recognized her charming house, and thought to drop in. It was eighteen minutes after nine when Mr. Martin turned into Twelfth Street.Grant knew animals often performed such mating rituals for hours at a time. They went without food, they paid attention to nothing else. . . . He glanced at his watch. Nine-twenty.“The whole party had dined well. They were satisfied with themselves and with life. The hands of the clock pointed to twenty minutes past nine. There was a silence - a comfortable replete silence.”9.20 p.m. Have juice and a snackFifteen minutes later (21.22 hrs), Miss Squire arrives in Skipton where she is booked into a local B&B. This B&B is located directly across the road from Mhairi Callaghan's Feathercuts.My father met me at the station, the dog jumped up to meet me, missed, and nearly fell in front of the 9.23pm Birmingham express.When do you call time of death on a marriage? A hard question for others perhaps, but lucky me, mine’s been timestamped. 9:24 p.m.9:25 p.m. Aargh. Suddenly main menu is on TV saying Press 6. Realize was using telly remote control by mistake. Now News has come onFrom that moment on--9:28 in the evening, June 18, 1941--everything was different.We have three years of the past to discuss. Let that suffice until half-past nine, when we start upon the notable adventure of the empty house.Grant opened his eyes. Brilliant blue light was streaming into the building through the bars of the gate. Quartz light: the power was back on! Groggily, he looked at his watch. It was just nine-thirty. He’d been asleep only a couple of minutes.The men come at nine thirty in the evening. Roxy was supposed to have gone over to her cousins that night; it had been arranged for weeks, but she’d given her mum lip about not getting her the right tights from Primark, so her Mum said, ‘You’re not going, you’re staying in’.Then just before nine-thirty he started letting them win, lets them win it all back so fast they don’t hardly remember losing. He pays out the last couple of cigarettes and lays down the deck and leans back with a sigh and shoves the cap out of his eyes, and the game is done.At nine-thirty he was sitting on the edge of his bed looking at his watch. He put it to his ear. Then his lips drew back from his teeth in that curious wolf-like smile characteristic of the man. He said very softly: “I think the time has come to do something about this.”9.30 p.m. Go to bedForty-eight years old, profoundly asleep at nine thirty on a Friday night - this is modern professional life.It's 9:30 p.m. already. I've gotta head uptown for my appointment with Pavel. Pavel is my shrink. He sees patients at night. He's a Czech Jew, a survivor of Terezin and Auswitz. I see him once a week.The light in Mr. Green's kitchen snapped off at nine-thirty, followed by the light in his bedroom at his usual ten o'clock. His house was the first on the street to go dark."I took some juice out of the refrigerator and sat down at the kitchen table with it. On the table was a note from my girlfriend: “Gone out to eat. Back by 9:30.” The digital clock on the table read 9:30. I watched it flip over to 9:31, then to 9:32.""I took some juice out of the refrigerator and sat down at the kitchen table with it. On the table was a note from my girlfriend: “Gone out to eat. Back by 9:30.” The digital clock on the table read 9:30. I watched it flip over to 9:31, then to 9:32."Thanks; expect me 9.34 p.m. 26th'; which produced, three hours later, a reply: 'Delighted; please bring a No. 3 Rippingille stove' - a perplexing and ominous direction, which somehow chilled me in spite of its subject matter.Tess looked at her watch and was astounded to see it was only twenty-five to ten. It seemed that she had fed Fritzy double rations and left the house four years ago. Maybe five, She thought she heard an approaching engine, then decided she didn’t.The Sergeant jotted it down on a piece of paper. 'That checks up with his own story: 9.35 p.m. Budd leaves; the North dame arrives.'My backpack was already packed, and I'd already gotten the other supplies together, like the altimeter and the granola bars and the Swiss army knife I'd dug up in Central Park, so there was nothing else to do. Mom tucked me in at 9:36.At nine thirty-eight the waiter came back and offered us a second helping of cheese,salami and sardines, and Mr Yoshogi who had been converting sterling into yen looked extremely puzzled and said he had no idea that British Honduras had so large an export tradeLangdon looked at his Mickey Mouse watch. 9:42 P.M.But for some unfathomable reason-birth, death, the end of the universe and all things available to man-Cody Menhoff's was closed at 9:45 PM on a Thursday...For Hunter, who was trained to note times exactly, the final emergency started at thirteen minutes to ten.Leaning in your corner like a candidate for wax Sidewalk social scientist don’t get no satisfaction from your cigarette It’s ten to ten and time is running out Lock up all your memories, get outa here, you know that we can run Today can last another million years Today could be the end of me It’s 11:59, and I want to stay aliveShe reaches Radiance at ten to ten, early for once, and lets herself in with her key, and puts on the mauve-and-aqua smock that Shanita designed for them so the customers will know they aren’t customers themselves.Nine o’clock young residents wearing leather elbows talk to Acutes for fifty minutes about what they did when they were little boys. The Big Nurse is suspicious of the crew-cut looks of these residents, and that fifty minutes they are on the ward is a tough time for her.Nine-fifty the residents leave and the machinery hums up smooth again. The nurse watches the day room from her glass case; the scene before her takes on that blue-steel clarity again, that clean orderly movement of a cartoon comedy.Philip Lombard said: “What’s the time now?” “Ten minutes to ten, sir.” Lombard’s eyebrows rose. He nodded slowly to himself.I passed out on to the road and saw by the lighted dial of a clock that it was ten minutes to ten. In front of me was a large building which displayed the magical name.People did not speak to her in such a manner. Her father was a lawyer. It was seven minutes to ten.Second to last, the inset clock blinks from 21:57 to 21:58. Napier's eyes sink, newborn sunshine slants through ancient oaks and on a lost river. Look, Joe, herons"The waiting man pulled out a handsome watch, the lids of it set with small diamonds. “Three minutes to ten,” he announced."Second to last, the inset clock blinks from 21:57 to 21:58. Napier's eyes sink, newborn sunshine slants through ancient oaks and on a lost river. Look, Joe, heronsThe first night, as soon as the corporal had conducted my uncle Toby upstairs, which was about 10 - Mrs. Wadman threw herself into her arm chair“Shanghai’s clocks were set an hour ahead so the city could ‘save daylight’, but the Bai family said: “We go by the old clock.” Ten o’clock to them was eleven to everyone else. Their singing was behind the beat; they couldn’t keep up with the huqin Chinese string instrument producing bleak and desolate sounds] of life.”“It was at ten o’clock to-day that the first of all Time Machines began its career. I gave it a last tap, tried all the screws again, put one more drop of oil on the quartz rod, and sat myself in the saddle. I suppose a suicide who holds a pistol to his skull feels much the same wonder at what will come next as I felt then.”This was a travelling fair, and we can imagine what a faint impression the public address system might have made against the caterwauling of shrieking teens, the clattering of the roller coaster, the thundering of the waltzer, the hollering of hawkers and hucksters, and the pounding basslines of fairground music. By ten o’clock when the noise had subsided, and when most of the revellers had dispersed into the night, no one had come forward to claim the little girl.At night, a quiet so vast it seemed it seemed almost to reverberate. Few cars passed on Route 114, and after ten o’clock or so there were none at all. After ten, the part of the world where I had come to rest belonged only to the loons and the wind in the fir trees.“The short hand is pointing to 10,” says Poppy, “and the big hand is pointing to 12. So it must be 10 o’clock.” “That’s right,” says Mrs. Boot. “Well done, Poppy.”At ten o’clock, he went to Shinjuku and bought a Fujitsu word processor with his credit card. It was the latest model, far lighter than earlier versions.With the exception of the two or three streets, of which we shall presently speak, all was wall and solitude there. Not a shop, not a vehicle, hardly a candle lighted here and there in the windows; all lights extinguished by ten o’clock.It was ten o’clock. And now he is dead, and the police will be called in, and I shall be suspected of having had a hand in it. Oh, yes, I am sure I shall. But you don’t think so, gentlemen? Surely you don’t think that it was I? Is it likely that I would have brought you here if it were I? Oh dear! oh dear! I know that I shall go mad!On Saturday nights I still sat in the same chair in the dorm lobby. I knew a phone call wouldn’t come, but I had no idea what else to do. I turned on the TV set and pretended to watch baseball. And gazed at the indeterminate space between me and the set. I divided that space into two, and again into two. I did this over and over, until I’d made a space so small it could fit in the palm of my hand. At ten I turned off the TV, went back to my room, and went to sleep.Anyway, when he looked at his watch again it was ten o’clock. At ten o’clock she was lying on the divan with her boobies in her hands. That’s the way he gives it to me—in driblets.And now sometimes, in the very midst of things, sometimes when I feel that I am absolutely free of it all, suddenly, in rounding a corner perhaps, there will bob up a little square, a few trees and a bench, a deserted spot where we stood and had it out, where we drove each other crazy with bitter, jealous scenes. Always some deserted spot, like the Place de l’Estrapade, for example, or those dingy, mournful streets off the Mosque or along that open tomb of an Avenue de Breteuil which at ten o’clock in the evening is so silent, so dead, that it makes one think of murder or suicide, anything that might create a vestige of human drama.It was ten at night and everyone had gone home. I trudged up the dark stairway to clean out my desk. There was no sadness or nostalgia, only disgust that I’d wasted so much time on unnecessary labor when I could have been sleeping and feeling nothing. I’d been stupid to believe that employment would add value to my life.D-Day. I reported to Ernie’s room thirty minutes after the Undead were put to bed at ten o’clock. “Last chance to back out if you don’t think you can hack it,” the artful Scot told me. “I’ve never backed out of anything in my life,” I replied, lying through my decaying teeth.“A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help to-night.” “At what time?” “Ten will be early enough.” “I shall be at Baker Street at ten.”“A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help to-night.” “At what time?” “Ten will be early enough.” “I shall be at Baker Street at ten.”Her body asserted itself with a restless movement of her knee, and she stood up. “Ten o’clock,” she remarked, apparently finding the time on the ceiling. “Time for this good girl to go to bed.”While everyone ate, and I nibbled, Danièle said, “So this is the plan, Will. We will arrive at the entrance to the catacombs around ten o’clock. We will continue for four hours, then rest for one. Then it is another two hours or so to the spot where the camera was found.”At ten o’clock she went into her double cell, where the woman she shared with was already asleep, and there was the reassuring clang of the door and click of the lock. It felt safe to be caged in, now that she knew she had this other person inside her who was capable of escapades and contortions she’d never known about before.Alone at the too-small child’s desk in her room, Eva finished the last line of the most pointless assignment ever, and though she wanted to start on the evening’s true mission immediately, she kept the box of churro bites closed under her bed. Her parents went to sleep at ten o’clock on weeknights. Only three and a half more hours to wait out.“Ten o’clock found them penniless. They had suppered greatly on their last eleven cents and, singing, strolled up through the casinos and lighted arches on the boardwalk, stopping to listen approvingly to all band concerts.”Meanwhile, the blood of the city’s saints had taken on a whole range of properties hitherto unknown to science. One lady’s was liquefying at precisely ten o’clock every Tuesday, while San Giovanni’s bubbled away obligingly whenever it heard Holy Scripture.He glanced at the clock. 2200 hours. Getting on toward midnight. He hurried to dress.By ten, Quoyle was drunk. The crowd was enormous, crushed together so densely that Nutbeem could not force his way down the hall or to the door and urinated on the remaining potato chips in the blue barrel, setting a popular example.Her body asserted itself with a restless movement of the knee, and she stood up. 'Ten o'clock,' she remarked, apparently finding the time on the ceiling. 'Time for this good girl to go to bed.'"I could not doubt that this was the BLACK SPOT; and taking it up, I found written on the other side, in a very good, clear hand, this short message: “You have till ten tonight.”"I went back into the library, limp and exhausted. In a few minutes the telephone began ringing again. I did not do anything. I let it ring. I went and sat down at Maxim's feet. It went on ringing. I did not move. Presently it stopped, as though cut suddenly in exasperation. The clock on the mantelpiece struck ten o'clock. Maxim put his arms round me and lifted me against him. We began to kiss one another, feverishly, desperately, like guilty lovers who have not kissed before."No one wanted to go to bed when at ten o'clock Mrs. March put by the last finished job, and said, “Come girls.” Beth went to the piano and played the father's favorite hymn."The grandfather clock in the State Room strikes ten times.The light in Mr. Green's kitchen snapped off at nine-thirty, followed by the light in his bedroom at his usual ten o'clock. His house was the first on the street to go dark.They were alone then, and theoretically free to do whatever they wanted, but they went on eating the dinner they had no appetite for. Florence set down her knife and reached for Edward's hand and squeezed. From downstairs they heard the wireless, the chimes of Big Ben at the start of the ten o'clock news.We let our upstairs room to a certain Mr. Goudsmit, a divorced man in his thirties, who appeared to have nothing to do on this particular evening; we simply could not get rid of him without being rude; he hung about until ten o'clock.It was now 10.02pm. He has less than two hours.At 10.03pm the ushers pull open the doors and I watch the now-familiar footage of the audience surging into the night, noticeably excited.The A-B elevator was our elevator, the elevator on which the paramedics came up at 9:20 p.m., the elevator on which they took John (and me) downstairs to the ambulance at 10:05 p.m.Of course, they had good reason to be fussy on such a night. And then it was long after ten o'clock and yet there was no sign of Gabriel and his wife. Besides they were dreadfully afraid that Freddy Malins might turn up screwed."“My watch is always a little fast,” I said. “What time do you make it now?” “Ten eight.” “Ten eighteen by mine. You see.”"That was the past, and now I had just died on the narrow couch of a Paris lodging house, and my wife was crouching on the floor, crying bitterly. The white light before my left eye was growing dim, but I remembered the room perfectly. On the left there was a chest of drawers, on the right a mantelpiece surmounted by a damaged clock without a pendulum, the hands of which marked ten minutes past ten. The window overlooked the Rue Dauphine, a long, dark street. All Paris seemed to pass below, and the noise was so great that the window shook.10.10pm. When you turn your recorder on you must adjust clock and the calendar.......Press red and nothing happens. Press numbers and nothing happens. Wish stupid video had never been invented.Therefore a sergeant called Trifonov had been on post all day or all week and then he had left at eleven minutes past ten in the evening.The Chinese women scuttled at an amazing rate, given their size and the bags' size. It was c. 2212:30-40h., smack in the middle of the former Interval of Issues Resolution.The shopping bags looked heavy and impressive, their weight making the Chinese women lean in slightly towards each other. Call it 2214:10h.Domino two had me standing sentinel in Mr. Meek’s room watching through the crack in the door. Due to his advanced state of decay, our loyal boiler room mascot wasn’t in on the great escape, but his room was opposite mine, and he understood “Shush!” At a quarter past ten Ernie went to Reception to announce my death to Nurse Noakes.10:15 p.m. Aargh Newsnight on in 15 minutesIt was already seventeen minutes past ten when Phil closed the door and turned out the light on the landing, but I knew I couldn’t leave straight away.10:17 p. m. Casette will not go in"“My watch is always a little fast,” I said. “What time do you make it now?” “Ten eight.” “Ten eighteen by mine. You see.”"10:18pm. Ah. Thelma and Louise is in thereWhen I closed my eyes, the scent of the wind wafted up toward me. A May wind, swelling up like a piece of fruit, with a rough outer skin, slimy flesh, dozens of seeds. The flesh split open in midair, spraying seeds like gentle buckshot into the bare skin of my arms, leaving behind a faint trace of pain. “What time is it?” my cousin asked me. About eight inches shorter than me, he had to look up when he talked. I glanced at my watch. “Ten twenty.”"At 10:20 she returned with a shopping bag from the supermarket. In the bag were three scrub brushes, one box of paperclips and a well-chilled six-pack of canned beer. So I had another beer. “It was about sheep,” I said. “Didn't I tell you?” she said."10:21pm. Frenziedly press all buttons. Cassette comes out and goes back in again10:21pm. Thelma and Louise will not come outOn a Saturday c. 2221h., Lenz found a miniature bird that had fallen out of some nest and was sitting bald and pencil-necked on the lawn of Unit #3 flapping ineffectually, and went in with Green and ducked Green and went back outside to # 3's lawn and put the thing in a pocket and went in and put it down the garbage disposal in the kitchen sink of the kitchen, but still felt largely impotent and unresolved.On a Saturday c. 2221h., Lenz found a miniature bird that had fallen out of some nest and was sitting bald and pencil-necked on the lawn of Unit #3 flapping ineffectually...Thanks to ten minutes or so of balmy weather, by 10:24 the Earth is covered in the great carboniferous forests whose residues give us all our coal, and the first winged insects are evident.“The last phone call came at ten twenty-five p.m. that night when I was listening to Erroll Garner’s Concert by the Sea and drinking Seagram’s VO. Handy, isn’t it, keeping a diary like this?”"10:25pm. Got new cassette in now. Right. Turn to “Recording.................. Aargh Newsnight is starting"As always, consciousness returned to me progressively from the edges of my field of vision. The first things to claim recognition were the bathroom door emerging from the far right and a lamp from the far left, from which my awareness gradually drifted inward like ice flowing together toward the middle of a lake. In the exact center of my visual field was the alarm clock, hands pointing to ten-twenty-six.“Should you be having caffeine at”—Olive glanced at the clock—“ten twenty-seven p.m.?” Come to think of it, he shouldn’t be having caffeine at all, given his baseline shiny personality. And yet the two of them got coffee together every Wednesday. Olive was nothing but an enabler.Mr Harcourt woke up with mysterious suddenness at twenty-seven minutes past 10, and, by a curious coincidence, it was at that very instant that the butler came in with two footmen laden with trays of whisky, brandy, syphons, glasses and biscuits.Even when I had to say something, the right words just wouldn’t come out. And every time I hesitated, every time I swallowed back something I was about to say, my cousin looked at me with a slightly confused look on his face. His left ear tilted ever so slightly toward me. “What time is it now?” he asked me. “Ten twenty nine,” I replied.“It was ten-thirty. And summer. And then it was a little later. Night had come at last, completely. There was no room that night, in that town, for love. ”Still, despite her endless consternation, for the third night in a row she slipped out at half past ten and made her way to the edge of the estate, where Aleandro would wait for her near an abandoned wine cellar, which had become their meeting place.They have their first fight at ten-thirty that night. It’s over who’s going to sleep in the bed and who’s going to sleep on the couch. Billy insists that she take the bed, says he’ll be fine on the couch. “That’s sexist.” “Sleeping on the couch is sexist? Are you kidding me?” “Being a manly man is sexist. You’re too long for it. Your feet will hang out on the floor.”“What are you getting?” He addressed this to the air in front of him, without turning toward her. “I’m sorry?” “I’ve been sent for ice,” he said. “What do you need?” “Oh, nothing. I’m off home.” “At ten thirty on New Year’s Eve? That is either the saddest or the wisest thing I’ve ever heard.”At ten thirty, Kendra found herself on the couch again, this time with Christy. She felt uncomfortable sitting next to her, especially after the barrage of hate her coworkers had thrown at the blonde, but Christy seemed unusually approachable right then, all smiles and laughs and easy-flowing gestures.She looked at the clock; it was ten thirty. If she could get there quickly on the subway, then she could be at his house in less than an hour, maybe a bit longer if the late trains did not come so often.The time was ten-thirty but it could have been three in the morning, because along its borders, West Berlin goes to bed with the dark10.31pm. Ok OK. Calm. Penny Husbands-Bosworth, so asbestos leukaemia item is not on yet.And, later on, at 10.31 pm, I went out onto the balcony to find out whether I could see any stars, but there weren't any because of all the clouds and what is called Light Pollution which is light from streetlights and car headlights and floodlights and lights in buildings reflecting off tiny particles in the atmosphere and getting in the way of light from the stars. So I went back inside.It was ten thirty-two when the bus finally rolled into view. The bus that came was a new type, not like the one I used to take to high school. 10:33 p.m. Yessss, yessss. RECORDING CURRENT PROGRAMME. Have done it. Aargh. All going mad. Cassette has started rewinding and now stopped and ejected. Why? Shit. Shit. Realize in excitement have sat on remote control.10:33pm. Yessss, yessss. RECORDING CURRENT PROGRAMME. Have done it. Aargh. All going mad. Cassette has started rewinding and now stopped and ejected. Why? Shit. Shit. Realize in excitement have sat on remote control.If he did not return in fourteen minutes he would have lingered. She looked at the clock. It was twenty-five minutes to eleven. He might enter the inn with Arabella, as they would reach it before closing time; she might get him to drink with her; and Heaven only knew what disasters would befall him then.10:35 p.m. Frantic now. Have rung Sahzzer, Rebecca, Simon, Magda. Nobody knows how to programme their videos. Only person I know who knows how to do it is Daniel.“My friend,” she said with a pleased tone to her voice that she knew he could not mistake. She didn’t care, she was pleased to hear from him, even if it was ten-forty at night. “Where are you calling from?” she asked, expecting him to say Glasgow or Berlin.When fifteen minutes have passed and the bogus DPW truck hasn’t returned, Billy decides they have either moved on to another part of the city, maybe to check out the house on Evergreen Street, or have gone back to the McMansion to await further orders from Nick. He closes the curtain, shutting out the view, and looks at his watch. It’s twenty to eleven. How time flies when you’re having fun, he thinks.The station clock told him the time: twenty to eleven. He went to the booking office and asked the clerk in a polite tone when was the next train to Paris. 'In twelve minutes.'"He climbed into the front seat and started the car. It started with a merry powerful hum, ready to go. “There, the bastards”, said Julian, and smashed the clock with the bottom of the bottle, to give them an approximate time. It was 10:41""Alec pricked up his ears. “When was that?” “Oh, yesterday evening.” “What time?” “About a quarter to eleven. I was playing bridge.”"10.45pm. Oh God Daniel fell about laughing when I said I could not programme video. Said he would do it for me. Still at least I have done best for Mum. It is exciting and historic when one's friends are on TV.So the Lackadaisical Broadcasting Co. bids you farewell with the message that if you aren't grateful to be living in a world where so many things to be grateful for are yours as a matter of course. Why it is now five seconds until fifteen minutes before eleven o'clock and you are just an old Trojan Horse.The 'night train' tallied to perfection, for high tide in the creek would be, as Davies estimated, between 10.30 and 11.00 p.m.on the night of the 25th; and the time-table showed that the only night train arriving at Norden was one from the south at 10.46 p.m.On my screen the remaining theatregoers slowly drift away and when the timestamp clicks over to 10.47pm there is no one left."“Oh! I don't know about that,” said Mr. Satterthwaite, warming to his subject. “I was down there for a bit last summer. I found it quite convenient for town. Of course the trains only go every hour. 48 minutes past the hour from Waterloo-up to 10.48.”"It's well after 2245h. The dog's leash slides hissing to the end of the Day-Glo line and stops the dog a couple of paces from the inside of the gate, where Lenz is standing, inclined in the slight forward way of somebody who's talking baby-talk to a dog.10.50 P. M. This diary-keeping of mine is, I fancy, the outcome of that scientific habit of mind about which I wrote this morning. I like to register impressions while they are fresh."Saturday night. And I said, 'It's a hundred this year, ain't anybody noticed?'“Jack said, 'What's a hundred?' I said, 'Pub is. Coach is. Look at the clock.' Jack said, ‘It's ten to eleven’."So think yourself lucky while you're awake and remember a happy crew. Think of Hamburg on the Magic Night. 22.50 and they went out neatly, just as they should - you couldn't fault Parks, he was always on his route."“It is eleven o'clock! Eleven o'clock, all but five minutes!” “But which eleven o'clock?” “The eleven o'clock that is to decide life or death!...He told me so just before he went....He is terrible....He is quite mad: he tore off his mask and his yellow eyes shot flames!...”"Then it grew dark; she would have had them to bed, but they begged sadly to be allowed to stay up; and, just about eleven o’clock, the door-latch was raised quietly, and in stepped the master.They parked the car outside Lowther's at precisely one minute to eleven. People were leaving, not all of them happy at having their evening curtailed. But the grumbling was muted, and even then it only started once they were safely on the street.“Shanghai’s clocks were set an hour ahead so the city could ‘save daylight’, but the Bai family said: “We go by the old clock.” Ten o’clock to them was eleven to everyone else. Their singing was behind the beat; they couldn’t keep up with the huqin Chinese string instrument producing bleak and desolate sounds] of life.”Tony and Zenia are having coffee, as they have done almost every third day now for the past month, ever since they met. Or not every third day, every third evening: right now it’s eleven o’clock, Tony’s usual bedtime, and here she is, still up. She isn’t even sleepy.It was nearly eleven o’clock when we reached this final stage of our night’s adventures. We had left the damp fog of the great city behind us, and the night was fairly fine. A warm wind blew from the west-ward, and heavy clouds moved slowly across the sky, with half a moon peeping occasionally through the rifts.There was no end to it. At first I made all the proper noises to show her I was following along, but soon gave up. I put on a record and when it was over, I lifted up the needle and put on another. After I finished all the records, I put the first one back on. Outside it was still pouring. Time passed slowly as her monologue went on without end. I didn’t worry about it, though, until a while later. Suddenly I realized it was eleven p.m. and she had been talking nonstop for four hours.At eleven o’clock it was all settled; they were going to run away, to Borneo. F*** the husband! She never loved him anyway. She would never have written the first letter if the husband wasn’t old and passionless.I liked to think I’d chosen Dr. Tuttle at random, that there was something fated about our relationship, divine in some way, but in truth, she’d been the only psychiatrist to answer the phone at eleven at night on a Tuesday.Around eleven o’clock the door was unlocked. I readied myself to reject apologies and go for the jugular. A once stately woman sailed in. Seventy years old, eighty, eighty-five, who knows when they’re that old? A rickety greyhound in a blazer followed his mistress.There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and peering through the floom I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and unkempt, staring out at me. “My God! It’s Watson,” said he. He was in a pitiable state of reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. “I say, Watson, what o’clock is it?” “Nearly eleven.”“She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At eleven o’clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door and looked back. " ‘Tell me, Helen," said she, ’have you ever heard anyone whistle in the dead of the night?’ " ‘Never,’ said I.Two hours passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us.Five months ago, Ashley had shown up at Hud’s Airstream at eleven o’clock at night and said, “I broke up with him. And I think you should know that I love you.” Around eleven she and Stan have another doughnut. Then they make a hopeful stop at a dumpster out behind a soup joint, but no luck, the stuff has already been picked over.It was Eli, Bryan’s friend, the taller of the two. Jaidee reached for his hand, shook it. “Hi,” he said. “Where you going?” Eli said. In a pink polo and khaki shorts, he looked bright against the wide panel of night. His eyes were happy, altered, no doubt, from liquor. “I’m heading back,” he said. Eli looked at his watch. “It’s only eleven.” “I’m just tired,” Jaidee said. “Long day.”“That priest of yours is really funny. Did you knwo that they’re allowed to drink, these priests? No women, but alcohol is fine!” Bahar walked in waving Father Mahoney’s order. Her usually skittish eyes were bright and—dared Marjan hope?—happy? “They drink beer like water here. Last Saturday I saw an entire family, with young kids, leaving the bar next door. At eleven at night!”“But time passed, two hours of it, and the less subtle beaux had better learned to focus their pseudo-passionate glances elsewhere, for eleven o’clock found Isabelle and Amory sitting on the couch in the little den off the reading-room up-stairs. She was conscious that they were a handsome pair, and seemed to belong distinctively in this seclusion, while lesser lights fluttered and chattered down-stairs.”“Your detention will take place at eleven o’clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.” 'He will be here at eleven exactly, sir.' At the bar, naked couples had begun dancing.At eleven o'clock that night, having secured a bed at one of the hotels and telegraphed his address to his father immediately on his arrival, he walked out into the streets of Sandbourne.At eleven o'clock, I rang the bell for Betteredge, and told Mr. Blake that he might at last prepare himself for bed."He says, “They've killed Jan. Clear out.” “The suitcase?” I ask. “Take it away again. We want nothing to do with it now. Catch the eleven o'clock express.” “But it doesn't stop here....” “It will. Go to track six. Opposite the freight station. You have three minutes.” “But...” “Move, or I'll have to arrest you.”"The clock struck eleven. I looked at Adele, whose head leant against my shoulder; her eyes were waxing heavy, so I took her up in my arms and carried her off to bed. It was near one before the gentlemen and ladies sought their chambers.The clock struck eleven. I looked at Adele, whose head leant against my shoulder; her eyes were waxing heavy, so I took her up in my arms and carried her off to bed. It was near one before the gentlemen and ladies sought their chambers.The train arrived in New York at eleven that night.They didn't even sit down to eat until 2300h.When they reached the top of the Astronomy Tower at eleven o'clock, they found a perfect night for stargazing, cloudless and still.I ended the call. I looked in Recents to make sure I HAD called. His number was there, along with the time - 11:02 P.M. I turned off my phone and put it on the night table. I turned off my lamp and was asleep almost at once."“What makes you think it's for real?” “Just a hunch, really. He sounded for real. Sometimes you can just tell about people”-he smiled-“even if you're a dull old WASP.” “I think it's a setup.” “Why?” “I just do. Why would someone from the government want to help you?” “Good question. Guess I'll find out.” She went back into the kitchen.“What time are you meeting him?” she called out. “Eleven oh-three,” he said. “That made me think he's for real. Military and intelligence types set precise appointment times to eliminate confusion and ambiguity. Nothing ambiguous about eleven oh-three.”"It was 11.05, five minutes later than my habitual bedtime. I felt. I felt guilty at being still up, but the past kept pricking at me and I knew that all the events of those nineteen days in July were astir within me, like the loosening phlegm in an attack of bronchitisIt was five minutes past eleven when I made my last entry. I remember winding up my watch and noting the time. So I have wasted some five hours of the little span still left to us. Who would have believed it possible? But I feel very much fresher, and ready for my fate--or try to persuade myself that I am. And yet, the fitter a man is, and the higher his tide of life, the more must he shrink from death. How wise and how merciful is that provision of nature by which his earthly anchor is usually loosened by many little imperceptible tugs, until his consciousness has drifted out of its untenable earthly harbor into the great sea beyond!My watch says 11:05. But whether AM or PM I don't know."At 11.07 pm, Samuel “Gunner” Wilson was moving at 645 miles per hour over the Mojave Desert. Up ahead in the moonlinght, he saw the twin lead jets, their afterburners glowing angrily in the night sky."“This is my first pass,” Wilson said. “East to west, at 11:08. We’re looking from the left-wing camera which is running at ninety-six frames per second. As you can see, my altitude is falling rapidly. Straight ahead is the main street of the target …”She backed down the driveway, checked for traffic, and turned toward the turnpike. Ten past eleven. Plenty of time. That’s what she thought then.Another Christmas day is nearly over. It's ten past eleven. Richard declined with thanks my offer to make up a bed for him here in my study, and has driven off back to Cambridge, so I am able to make some notes on the day before going to bed myself.He had not the strength to help himself, and at ten minutes past eleven no one could have helped him, no one in the world"Life changes fast Life changes in an instant You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. The Question of self-pity. Those were the first words I wrote after it happened. The computer dating on the Microsoft Word file (“Notes on change.doc”) reads “May 20, 2004, 11:11 p.m.,” but that would have been a case of my opening the file and reflexively pressing save when I closed it. I had made no changes to that file since I wrote the words, in January 2004, a day or two after the fact. For a long time I wrote nothing else. Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant."Then they texted me at eleven twelve p.m. to say they’d found nothing and were going home for the night.There was a confirmatory identification done by undercover officer 6475 at 23:12 hours at the corner of 147th and Amsterdam.The chalet stand isolated at the end of a blind valley. Higher up, there’s only the reservoir, and behind it the treacherous glacier. At a quarter past eleven, she concludes that it’s impossible for Nick to be wandering out there, in this weather.We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran in this way: Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. Leave Paddington by the 11:15."11.15pm. Humph. Mum just rang “Sorry, darling. It isn't Newsnigtht, it's Breakfast News tomorrow. Could you set it for seven o'clock tomorrow morning, BBC1?”"On arriving home at a quarter-past eleven, we found a hansom cab, which had been waiting for me for two hours with a letter. Sarah said she did not know what to do, as we had not left the address where we had gone.But I couldn't get out of the house straight away because he would see me, so I would have to wait until he was asleep. The time was 11.16 pm. I tried doubling 2s again, but I couldn't get past 2(15) which was 32,768. So I groaned to make the time pass quicker and not think.It is 11.18. A row of bungalows in a round with a clump of larch tree in the middle.A whistle cut sharply across his words. Peter got onto his knees to look out the window, and Miss Fuller glared at him. Polly looked down at her watch: 11:19. The train. But the stationmaster had said it was always late.From Balboa Island, he drove south to Laguna Beach. At eleven-twenty, he parked his van across the street from the Hudston house."Harvey looked at the clock, which marked twenty past eleven. “Then I'll sleep here till three and catch the four o'clock freight. They let us men from the Fleet ride free as a rule.”"“It began to rain again, so she sat there with the blinds open, staring at the drops on the glass. The time was now twenty-two minutes past eleven. She knew only one thing with absolute certainty: she didn’t want to reach tomorrow. She stood up. She found a pen and a piece of paper. It was, she decided, a very good time to die.” At 11.22 he handed his ticket to a yawning guard and walked down a long flight of wooden steps to the car-park. A breeze lifted and dropped the leaves of a tree, and he thought of the girl with the blonde hair. His bicycle lay where he had left it."“OK, Estelle, I willl be at Nice Airport at 11.25 p.m. on Saturday, BA: Could you send the driver?”"To test the intensity of the light whose nature and cause he could not determine, he took out his watch to see if he could make out the figures on the dial. They were plainly visible, and the hands indicated the hour of eleven o'clock and twenty-five minutes. At that moment the mysterious illumination suddenly flared to an intense, an almost blinding splendor…Los Angeles. 11:26 p.m. In a dark red room- the color of the walls is close to that of raw liver- is a tall woman dressed cartoonishly in too-tight silk shorts, her breasts pulled up and pressed forward by the yellow blouse tied beneath them."He tells his old friend the train times and they settle on the 19.45 arriving at 23.27. “I'll book us into the ultra-luxurious Francis Drake Lodge. Running water in several rooms. Have you got a mobile?”"He came into their bedroom at just past eleven-thirty. He’d taken his muddy shoes off downstairs, and was trying to be quiet, but he heard the rustle of bedclothes in the dark and knew she was awake.And so it was that around half past eleven, I found myself riding down to the Village on the Fifth Avenue bus with the street address of Hobart and Blackwell in my pocket, written on a page from one of the monogrammed notepads Mrs Barbour kept by the telephone.“I will be a sonofa****h if he ain’t in here at eleven-thirty at night, fartin’ around in the dark with a pair of scissors and a paper sack.”He loaded the player and turned on the viewer, his knees popping again as he squatted to set the cue to 2330.He would catch the night bus for Casablanca, the one that left the beach at half past eleven.The Picton boat was due to leave at half-past eleven. It was a beautiful night, mild, starry, only when they got out of the cab and started to walk down the Old Wharf that jutted out into the harbour, a faint wind blowing off the water ruffled under Fenella's hat, and she put up her hand to keep it on.The ship's clock in the bar says half past eleven. Half past eleven is opening time. The hands of the clock have stayed still at half past eleven for fifty years.It is twenty-nine minutes to midnight. Dr Narlikar's Nursing Home is running on a skeleton staff; there are many absentees, many employees who have preferred to celebrate the imminent birth of the nation, and will not assist tonight at the births of children."“This is the evening. This is the night. It is New Year´s Eve. In about twenty-eight minutes it will be midnight. I still have twenty-eight minutes left. I have to recollect my thoughts. At twelve o´clock, I should be done thinking.” He looked at his father. “Help those that are depressed and consider themselves lost in this world,” he thought. “Old fart.”"And then it started to rain and I got wet and I started shivering because I was cold. And then it was 11.32 pm and I heard voices of people walking along the street. And a voice said, 'I don't care whether you thought it was funny or not,' and it was a lady's voice.We are on Colaba Causeway now, just for a moment, to reveal that at twenty-seven minutes to midnight, the police are hunting for a dangerous criminal. His name: Joseph D'Costa. The orderly is absent, has been absent for several days, from his work at the Nursing Home, from his room near the slaughterhouse, and from the life of a distraught virginal MaryEleven thirty-four. We stand on the sidewalk in front of Jean's apartment on the Upper East Side. Her doorman eyes us warily and fills me with a nameless dread, his gaze piercing me from the lobby. A curtain of stars, miles of them, are scattered, glowing, across the sky and their multitude humbles me, which I have a hard time tolerating. She shrugs and nods after I say something about forms of anxiety. It's as if her mind is having a hard time communicating with her mouth, as if she is searching for a rational analysis of who I am, which is, of course, an impossibility: there ... is ... no ... key.Reacher retrieved his G36 from under the saloon bar window at eleven thirty-four precisely and set out to walk back on the road, which he figured would make the return trip faster.Then at eleven thirty-five the door at the rear of the hall opened and a police sergeant and three constables entered, ushered by Bagot.Then Green knocks at the front door at 2336 - Gately has to Log the exact time and then it's his call whether to unlock the door."There's a whisper down the line at 11.39 When the Night Mail's ready to depart, Saying “Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble? We must find him or the train can't start.”"I went to the kitchen to select another bottle, deciding to reduce the next day’s alcohol intake to compensate. Then I saw the clock: 11:40pm. I picked up the phone and ordered a taxi. With any luck it would arrive before the after-midnight tariff commenced. Twenty minutes before midnight, before Oliver put an end to the festivities, she gave in to her impulse and texted her son, reminding him of their mutually agreed-upon curfew.We all have the maps and appliances of various kinds that can be had. Professor Van Helsing and I are to leave by the 11:40 train tonight for Veresti, where we are to get a carriage to drive to the Borgo Pass. We are bringing a good deal of ready money, as we are to buy a carriage and horses.In a little while his mind cleared, but his head ached, arms ached, body ached. The phosphorescent figures on his watch attracted his attention. He peered at them. The time was 11:41. I remember...what do I remember?The front door opens. Her heart pounds. She looks at the time on the bottom right of her screen. 11.42.At 11.42 then the signal's nearly due And the passengers are frantic to a man- Then Skimble will appear and he'll saunter to the rear:The clock told him it was eleven forty-three and in that moment, in a flash of illumination, Mungo understood what the numbers at the end of Moscow Centre's messages were'At eleven forty-four last night somebody stabbed this girl in the neck with a kitchen knife and immediately thereafter plunged the same knife through her skull, where it remained.’Billy’s plan lasts until quarter to midnight. He’s been watching some action movie in his underwear, and although the plot is simple—something about a guy seeking revenge on the men who killed his dog—Billy has lost the thread. He decides to call it a day.The church clocks chimed three quarters past eleven, as two figures emerged on London Bridge. One, which advanced with a swift and rapid step, was that of a woman who looked eagerly about her as though in quest of some expected object; the other figure was that of a man...We struck the tow-path at length, and that made us happy because prior to this we had not been sure whether we were walking towards the river or away from it, and when you are tired and want to go to bed, uncertainties like that worry you. We passed Shiplake as the clock was striking the quarter to twelve and then George said thoughtfully: 'You don't happen to remember which of the islands it was, do you?'In the Kismet Lounge, Mr. Early sees suddenly to his horror it's 11:46 p.m. He's been in this place far longer than he'd planned, and he's had more to drink than he'd planned. Shame! What if, back at the E-Z, his little girl is crying piteously for him?If he had glanced at his watch, he would have seen that it was thirteen minutes to midnight. And if he had been interested in what was going on, he would have heard the voices and bawling of terrified men.Littell arranged a private charter.He told the pilot to fly balls-to-the-wall.The little two-seater rattled and shook-Kemper couldn't believe it. It was 11.48pm. They were thirty-six hours short of GO.Tom shrugged. He pushed his pinkish ruffled sleeve back, and saw that it was eleven minutes to midnight. Tom finished his coffee.At 11.50pm, I got up extremely quietly, took my things from under the bed, and opened the door one millimeter at a time, so it wouldn't make any noise."“Due at Waterloo at eleven-fifty-one,” panted Smith.“That gives us thirty-nine minutes to get to the other side of the river and reach his hotel.”"And then the VCR broke. I heard the wheels spin, then whine, then screech, then stop. I hit “eject” and nothing happened. I poked at all the buttons. I unplugged and replugged the machine. I picked it up and shook it. I banged on it with the butt of my hand, then a shoe. Nothing was working. Outside, it was dark. My phone said it was January 6, 11:52 P.M.It was eight minutes to midnight. Just nice time, I said to myself. Indoors, everything was quiet and in darkness. Splendid. I went to the bar and fetched a tumbler, a siphon of soda and a bottle of Glen Grant, took a weak drink and a pill, and settled down in the public dining-room to wait the remaining two minutes.It was 7 minutes to midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs. Shears' house.His watch read 11.54pm Eastern Standard Time. Already it was nearly 6.00am in Rome. He had left a city frozen by a harsh January storm, after a bleak, wet Christmas season.It’s five to twelve Hermione, three turns should suffice. Good luck. Dumbledore stepped out and lifted his wand to magically seal the doorThe band began playing “Auld Lang Syne.” “Eleven fifty-five,” she said, glancing at the gold watch on her pendant. “I really like ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ How about you?” “I prefer ‘Home on the Range.’ All those deer and antelope.” She smiled. “You must really like animals.” “I do,” I said. And I thought of my friend who likes zoos, and of his funeral suit. “I enjoyed talking to you. Goodbye.” “Goodbye,” I said.“As Ness arrives at Union Station, the giant clock tells us it is five minutes to midnight. This is significant, because humans consider midnight a time when bad things happen. Midnight is the Ides of March of the hours in the day! ‘Five minutes to midnight’ is therefore excellent foreshadowing. After all, it is almost directly equivalent to ‘Five minutes to very bad things happening’.”Mr. Justice Wargrave said: “It is now five minutes to eleven. I think we should summon Miss Brent to join our conclave.”"“I am going to lock you in. It is-” he consulted his watch, “five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck.”""I looked at my watch. It wanted five minutes to twelve, when the premonitory symptoms of the working of the laudanum first showed themselves to me. At this time, no unpractised eyes would have detected any change in him. But, as the minutes of the new morning wore away, the swiftly-subtle progress of the influence began to show itself more plainly. The sublime intoxication of opium gleamed in his eyes; the dew of a stealthy perspiration began to glisten on his face. In five minutes more, the talk which he still kept up with me, failed in coherence."The human race is at the end of the line, the doomsday clock ticks on. It's stopped for a decade at four minutes to midnight, but there the hands still stand. Any minute now they'll begin to move again."Wells looked out at the street. “What time is it?” he said. Chigurh raised his wrist and looked at his watch. “Eleven fifty-seven” he said. Wells nodded. By the old woman's calendar I've got three more minutes."You got to let the world go to hell in its own way, Gard, two minutes to midnight or not.Humans emerge one minute and seventeen seconds before midnight. The whole of our recorded history, on this scale, would be no more than a few seconds, a single human lifetime barely an instant.Leaning in your corner like a candidate for wax Sidewalk social scientist don’t get no satisfaction from your cigarette It’s ten to ten and time is running out Lock up all your memories, get outa here, you know that we can run Today can last another million years Today could be the end of me It’s 11:59, and I want to stay aliveAt a minute to midnight, Roquenton was holding his wife's hand and giving her some last words of advice. On the stroke of midnight, she felt her companion's hand melt away inside her own.Chigurgh rose and picked up the empty casing off the rug and blew into it and put it in his pocket and looked at his watch. The new day was still a minute away.