The Thief of Time - a short story

The Thief of Time (Fiction 101 Series)

Thad was looking around the bookstore near the Science Fiction section adjacent to the corner shelf of the calendars. It was only June, but his life revolved around the new calendars. And they didn’t arrive until August. Two months later he returned to his favorite corner – no calendars. September, then January – no calendars. He couldn’t figure it out. The store manager was no help.

As he sat brooding on a stool next to the Science Fiction section he spotted a new book called, “The Thief of Time.” Crying, he frantically ran to his mom at the other end of the bookstore.

~

The phrase “Procrastination is the thief of time” was coined by the English poet Edward Young in his 1742-45 work Night Thoughts (or The Complaint), though Charles Dickens later popularized a similar sentiment in David Copperfield: “Never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.”