Old Timers

 The lights were on and the door was open in my classroom when I arrived at school this morning. A large black tool bag sat on one of the tables, and as I entered, I could see a gray-haired man sitting behind it with the pieces of my disassembled clock laid out between him and the bag. "Yay!" I cheered. "You're here to fix the clock!"

He nodded. "You know what the funny thing was?" he asked without looking up. "I got here at 7:15 this morning, and your clock was right. I almost left, because I checked all the other rooms around you, and their clocks all said the same time. But when I got back, your clock still said 7:15, so I knew it was broken."

"Broken!" I said. "Wasn't it because of the time change?"

"Oh, no," he assured me. "The movement was totally frozen. I had a new one with me, though, so I'm replacing it right now."

"Do you think that clock is original to the building?" I asked.

"No," he said, "the original ones are like the ones that stick out of the walls in the hallways."

"Well it's pretty old," I told him, "It's been here at least since 1994."

"Yeah," he nodded. "This black plastic ring model was probably made in the early 80's."

"That makes sense;" I said thoughtfully, "that's around the time they added the walls to convert from an open-space school."

"This clock has been fixed a few times since then," he noted. "This movement I'm replacing was made in 2005. How long did you say you've been here?"

"This is year 28 in this room," I said.

"Well, I used to work for the company that makes these clocks," he continued, "and when I retired, the school system recruited me to work for them."

"How long has that been?" I asked.

"Over 15 years," he told me.

Before I could say another word, the bell rang, and kids started pouring in the room. He climbed the ladder to hang the clock back on the wall, and then packed his tools.

"Thank you," I said over the clamor of another new school day.

He nodded and left without another word.