Jeff Chapman comments on Brian J. Hatcher’s “The Clockworks of Hell” and asks Brian a few questions about the story.

In “The Clockworks of Hell” (The Midnight Diner, Volume 3), the gift of a well-meaning parishioner proves a pastor’s undoing. Gary Waid is the new pastor at a small Baptist church. He is also a workaholic, prone to obsessiveness and perfectionism. As Waid’s father complains, “Now you’re a Christian and want to be a martyr. When will you realize your best is good enough?” (p. 33). While visiting Sister McCaughy, an ailing parishioner about to undergo a very dangerous surgery, Waid receives a gift from McCaughy, a gold pocket watch. McCaughy explains that her father made the watch in response to a sermon about “the number of lost souls who die every day” (p. 35).

“Papa called it his ‘Brimstone Timepiece’. Every tick represents a soul dying and going to Hell. Papa kept it with him until he died” (p. 36).

Waid initially refuses the gift but at McCaughy’s persistence agrees to keep the watch until she recovers from surgery.

The ticking awakens Waid at night and he has trouble sleeping. Afraid of losing it, he carries it with him and feels the vibrations in his pocket. The ticking is a constant reminder to Pastor Waid of the vast number of souls falling into Hell. Sleep becomes more and more difficult for him. He begins to feel responsible for each loss. Each tick adds to his burden of guilt for not doing enough to save those souls from eternal damnation. Like the protagonist from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Waid becomes ever more fixated on the relentless ticking. He loses all sense of perspective. He gets into a fight at a hospital when a son refuses to let Waid talk to his dying mother. He neglects his duties at the church, choosing instead to begin a street ministry.

I hate to give away the ending, but it’s essential to understand the story. Waid has a nervous breakdown in front of his congregation and is hospitalized. McCaughey recovers from her surgery and comes to the church one day to thank Pastor Waid for his prayers. Brother Roger, who has taken over Waid’s duties, tells her that Waid will be in hospital for some time and that he will likely give up the ministry. Roger returns the Brimstone Timepiece to McCaughey who insists that Waid should keep it for the comfort that it will provide. Roger is confused at her choice of the word “comfort” and cringes when she starts the watch ticking. McCaughey explains:

“Every tick says, God is still on His throne and evil is punished. What a comfort that is to know, don’t you agree? I listen, and with every tick I say, amen” (p. 46).

What is the proper response to the damnation of fellow sinners? Love or smug callousness? And if the answer is love, what is an individual like Waid to do, for certainly his mortal psyche is not big enough to absorb the world’s sorrow.

I asked Brian a few questions about “The Clockworks of Hell.”

JC: I hear echoes of Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Tell-Tale Heart” in your story. Did Poe’s story inspire or influence “The Clockworks of Hell”?

BH: I think it would be nearly impossible, given his contributions to the creation of the weird tale, to completely escape Poe’s influence. And I’m not sure that I would want to. “The Tell-Tale Heart” might not have influenced me on a conscious level, but it undoubtedly influenced me on a subconscious one. The Hell Watch in my story is a metaphor for the heart of Pastor Waid’s problems, dredged up from the dark corners of his mind where he tried to hide them. Both he and the narrator in “A Tell-Tale Heart” are trying to paint a version of reality they’re more comfortable with, but reality comes crashing down on them. The parallels are certainly there.

JC: The son of the dying woman in the hospital is Mr. Beausoleil, French for beautiful sun. Did you intend the pun on sun and son?

BH: Anyone who knows me will tell you, “With Brian, all puns are intended.” I like putting little items like that in my stories for the reader to discover. Mr. Beausoleil’s name also subtly associates him with the Son of God. Whether he is a parallel for Jesus or a metaphor for the Antichrist, or perhaps both, that’s up to the reader to decide.

JC: The characters who express an opinion on religion tend to be Christians or confirmed atheists. Why no agnostics?

BH: I would say, in a sense, it is the reader who takes on the role of the agnostic. I tried to explore the extremes on both sides of the equation. It was not my intention to promote either Christianity or atheism. I wanted to demonstrate both the good and the bad in both views. I was very mindful of the representations of Christianity in “The Clockworks of Hell”. It would have been so easy to paint Christianity as the villain in this story, and I didn’t want to go that route. Both sides of the argument have their heroes and their villains. That’s part of what I wanted to explore in this story.

JC: The story hinges on the different interpretation that Sister McCaughey and Preacher Waid attach to the clock’s ticking. Please comment on their interpretations and the ramifications?

BH: The watch that brought terror and madness to Pastor Waid brought comfort and peace to Sister McCaughey. They believed the same truth, but both interpreted that truth in different ways. As much as we like to believe that truth, morality, and faith are black and white issues, they rarely fall that way. It is difficult, if not impossible, to see God or nature or the universe in a purely objective way. We all must approach our faith, or the lack thereof, through the filter of our own experience.

JC: What questions do you hope readers will take from “The Clockworks of Hell”?

BH: I think it’s enough if they are asking questions . There will always be questions, or at least there should be. As we grow and change through the course of our lives, our truths and beliefs must grow and change with us. What I believed at 20 has little value for me now at 40. I’m a different person. My needs are different. What’s important to me is different. It’s the same with everyone. A faith which cannot grow with us, we will invariably outgrow.

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Jeff Chapman writes fairy tales, fantasy, and ghost stories and hearing the expression “just a fairy tale” rankles him. His works have appeared in Golden Visions Magazine, The Midnight Diner, Mindflights, and Residential Aliens. He lives with his wife and children in a house with more books than bookshelf space. To learn more, stop by his blog at http://jeffchapmanwriter.blogspot.com/.