The Clock He Carries Inside
In his story, Alek once burned himself repairing a boat's electrical system, and it left a mark that doesn't hurt but that he looks at when he's thinking, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. He uses it as a clock: it reminds him that things break without warning, that what looks like it's working can be brushing against a bare wire inside, where nobody's looking. That's why he checks twice what anyone else would take as done. The portrait doesn't show any of that: just his front-on face, the orange beak, the dark eyes. What's underneath, I'll tell you in his story.







