You are listening to the fifth podcast for Clark's World magazine. Issue 237 for June 2026. I hope this podcast

finds you extraordinarily well. Thank you for your ongoing support. Just by being here listening,

telling a friend about the podcast, checking a few bucks our way via donation, or going to patreon.com

forward slash Clark's World. These all add up to making clark's world what it is today so thank you so much

for letting me do something i love to do each and every month our story is titled a life measured in

seconds and is by anne wilkins anne wilkins is a sleep deprived new zealand teacher who writes in her spare

time her short fiction has appeared in Clark's World,

Apex Magazine, beneath ceaseless skies, the dark, and more. She has won the Fear 2025 Writers Battle,

the June, 2024, elegant literature prize, the 2023 Autumn Writers Battle, and the 2023 Cambridge

Autumn Festival short story competition. Anne was a finalist for the

2025 Kurt Vonnegut speculative literary prize, the 2025 Bristol Short Story Prize, the 24 London

Independent Story Prize, and placed third in the Hammond House 2024 International Literary

Prize. Anne's love of writing is fueled by copious amounts of coffee, reading, and hope.

She is supported in her writing journey by her ever-patient husband, two wonderful daughters,

and two feline writing assistants. And if you like what you hear, please go back to The Cold

Burns. So, my dear listener, sit back, relax, and let me tell you a story.

Ash one.

To be born in the year 2615 on the 21st of March was fortuitous, but to be born at 14 hours, 59 minutes, 30 seconds, on that same day made you a god.

I was born at 14,31 one second from god status my mother likes to joke

that she should have pushed harder that day strained a bit more and then her son would have been a god she says

this with a smile on her face like i have lost a game of chess or I came second in a running race with my sister.

Something unimportant, insignificant.

...