Paulet House writer Kgomotso Tsotetsi’s new short story, The clockmaker’s paradox, has been published by LitNet.
This short story was completed during Kgomotso’s residency at Paulet House in KwaNojoli in the Eastern Cape this year. The workshop was presented by the Jakes Gerwel Foundation in cooperation with LitNet and Huisgenoot.
Here’s an extract from the new short story:
In a small, forgotten town at the edge of nowhere stood a shop that no one remembered opening, yet everyone knew existed. The townspeople couldn’t say when it first appeared, nor recall ever seeing anyone enter or leave. It had no sign, no windows, no marks of trade, just a narrow door wedged between two crumbling buildings, as if the town itself were trying to crush it into nothing.
The door was always ajar, leaking a faint glow that flickered like an oil lamp on the verge of dying. If you stood close enough, the air carried the scent of oil and old wood, something preserved beyond its time. No one spoke of the shop openly, but it lingered in whispers, in bars, at church steps, in hushed warnings. Mothers told their children to avoid that street. Drunks swore they heard a faint ticking in the dark. Once, a boy touched the doorframe and claimed his hand stung for days, as if it had been burned.
Read the full story here: https://www.litnet.co.za/the-clockmakers-paradox/
