653-word version:
A small antique clock tinted in faded dark brown watches me with a soft gaze as my grandfather used to do when I was little—the calm, ticking sound of its hand ready to tell me its story...

714-word version (adapted for U of Chicago):
A gargoyle contending with the seven replicas of Les Penseur watches me with an intensely inquiring gaze—its left hand sustaining the profundity of its contemplation and the right hand bracing the perusals of knowledge that generated the contemplation...