A timely DECISION

The clock was ticking and Grace had a life-changing decision to make

- Sue McVerry

Strolling among the crowds visiting the Royal Observatory at Greenwich on New Year’s Eve, Grace is thinking of the momentous decision she must make. She can’t put it off any longer. She’s promised Hal he will have her decision by midnight tonight. A new start for the new year. Or not... depending on what she decides.

She’s just finished tidying her office in the building behind her, filing away all her notes and astronomical charts. She likes to leave everything in good order. Just like Hal, she thinks.

Twelve months ago, he had been invited to spend a year at Greenwich as visiting scientist from his university in South Africa, and it soon became obvious that she and Hal were kindred spirits.

They'd worked closely together on an international research endeavour, sharing their mutual fascination for how humankind had developed the concept of time over the centuries and, in particular, the different ways it had been measured down the ages.

She remembers standing here at the Prime Meridian Line with him last New Year's Eve.

‘Isn’t it amazing?’ Hal had observed. ‘Before Greenwich Mean Time, every country, every town even, had its own local time. There was no uniformity as to when the day began or ended, nothing was precise.’

Grace nodded thoughtfully. It was a subject she found endlessly absorbing.

‘And, centuries ago,’ she said, ‘people relied on sundials, measuring time in shadows. Now we have the Greenwich Time Signal pips on BBC Radio. I always find it reassuring to hear them.’

And time, she thinks now, is what I don’t have much of, however it might be measured. She thinks of Hal, miles away in Cape Town. He'll probably be sitting on his terrace watching the stars with a glass of wine in his hand, nervously awaiting her call. They'd agreed she would give him her decision by midnight his time - one hour before the clock would strike midnight in the UK.