The Timekeeper

Liam Tibbitts is an aging clockmaker n a small city in up- state New York who has lost his sight. Zachary Tibbitts, his son, a professor of English at the University of Virginia will be visiting. Zach discovers during his visit that his father is beginning to show signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Zach is torn between teaching and leaving his position at UVa to take care of his father. This, coupled with a newly discovered love in his life, Marie Claire, places a great deal of stress upon him. When Liam is lucid he speaks eloquently and with no Irish brogue. However when he is not, in remembering, he speaks with a slight brogue. Zach opens a new/used and rare bookstore in his father’s old clock shop and continues to care for his father until it becomes too much for him to handle: failing bookstore due to unexpected competition from big box book store, the pressure of caring for his father, a postponed wedding and a failing relationship. He begins to drink and smoke. At first he hides his problems by sipping on the sly and lacing his coffee with Irish whiskey, but openness becomes the norm. Two years later, Liam passes.