an unfinished childrens story - should i finish the book?

8/7/2019 an unfinished childrens story - should i finish the book?

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Amanda Thomas



The Crazy Uncle

It was autumn. Wind was setting in and all the leaves started to

turn their lustrous colours, from pale yellow to burnt sun, falling

graciously to the ground.

Walking along the winding path following the ice cold river, Sarah

was gripping at her coat, as though believing at any minute the

wind would come and sweep her off her feet, probably hoping thatif it did, she would get home quicker.

The thought of sitting in front of the blazing log fire was the only

thing keeping her feet marching one in front of the other. “not long

now” thinking to herself, teeth chattering echoing a loud drillingnoise inside her head “n-oo-t lo-n-g no-w”.

The winding path opened up to a disused park, abandoned. leaves

of all colours dancing, swirling around an old rusty slide. Funny

green and tanned colour, rusted away, missing more than half its

steps. It had lost its look of gleaming silver that once it must have

looked.



It was getting dusky out, street lamps were already lit along the

roads up ahead. “n-ot l-o-ng no-w” she shuddered again to herself.

Sarah's little legs still scurrying along, arms still clenched around

her waist, so tightly, afraid the wind would split her in two.

Sarah's family home stood on the outskirts of a small village, TheVillage of Destine.

Catching a glimpse of light through some tall trees, she knew that

somebody was home. She made her way down the short drive,

smelling warmth in the air. Taking a deep breath in, she managed a

small smile raising her rosy cheeks, slightly, as though afraid to

break the skin.

As she walked a bit further her eyes wandered left and she slowed,almost to a halt. The smile sank from her face. There was a small

blue car parked at the side of the drive, then she realised, father's

crazy brother Patrick has come to visit.She peered back to the house as though preparing herself. It was

large, cottage looking, displaying six round windows beaming

with light. In front of her, a porch, not visible for the overgrowth

of fern. It had a thatched roof and one big chimney bellowing outsmoke. She took in another deep breath, took out her keys, and

with a shaky hand let herself in.

Sarah ran straight to the open fire rubbing at her hands, blowing

on them every now and then.

The open fire took up all the space in the centre of the house, heat

could be felt from every corner. there were no separate rooms,everything surrounded the fire, lit up in a summers sun.

Sarah had warmed up enough to attempt to speak without broken

words. “dad! Dad? I'm home!” no-one replied, she peered down

at Jester, her pet black cat interweaving through her ankles,

obviously pleased to see her. She patted the top of his head

jingling the oversized bell attached to his collar.

Looking around the room there seemed no sense of life.

Everything was still, embroidery sitting pretty over the old,

forever comfortable, sofa. Undisturbed. Untidy piles of father’s



reading books leading its way towards the kitchen. Sarah made her

way over to the gas stove, holding a hand out toward the brass

kettle, it was still warm. Before she could open her mouth again to

call out, she heard distant voices, tense voices.

Through the arch shaped french-doors she saw two faces in thenow blackened evening outside. The faces distraught,

argumentative. The wind still blowing wildly, Sarah wonders what

madness would posses them to talk outside! Then she heard “I

DONT CARE WHAT YOU'VE FOUND” shouted her father.

“cum on Stewart! Its amazing!” replied uncle Patrick

“NO, now I don’t want to talk any more, Sarah will be home

soon! Sort yourself out Patrick!”Sarah backed away from the french-doors and made her way to

settle in the forever comfortable settee.

Sarah's father and uncle Patrick burst into the kitchen, her father,

tall and thin, dressed in his usual dressing gown and slippers,

uncle Patrick, small and plump, attired cords, a shabby shirt,

braces and to top it all off a bow tie! Before another word could bespoken Sarah shouted “DAD! IM HOME! DAD!”

They stopped in their tracks startled, then an ear to ear smile

appeared on both their faces. “SARAH!” “Sarah!”

“alright dad, uncle Patrick?”

“yes, we're alright Sarah, did you manage to get the flowers you

wanted?” asked Stewart.“no” replied Sarah

“I managed to find those wild daisy's, but poppy's were really her

favourite”

“and the grave?” asked Stewart

“is it all... ship! Shape!?”

“yes” replied Sarah

“I guess that letter you sent to the council worked this time dad!”

“good! GOOD!, about time somebody paid attention....anyway

uncle Patrick is going to be staying a few days”



“I thought we agreed a month?” whispered uncle Patrick,looking a

little tense, at that point Sarah rose to her feet “t-thats great news”

trying not to sound disappointed “I’ll go and make up the spare

room.



The Golden Charm

Sarah proceeded up a small spiralling staircase, Jester not too far behind. She gathered some bedding from the very small cupboard

above the stairs and made her way into a box room.

It had a sloping ceiling and one tiny circular window. The single

bed took up all of the space.

It was a struggle making the bed, losing pillow cases, jester getting caught in a corner of the duvet cover. After a few minutes

of puffing and panting the bed looked acceptable to Sarah and she

starred at it, lightly smiling, her hair dishevelled.

She sat onto the edge, stroking jester who curled up and led besideher. “I wonder what they were arguing about jester” she

whispered, Jester just looked up, affectionately. She was staring atthe floor obviously bemused by all the commotion “and why

would uncle Patrick want to stay a whole month?” whispering

again. Then, a small gleam of light coming from the wooden floor

boards caught Sarah’s attention. She moved slowly, trying to

position herself on the bed in such a way her face was only

millimetres away from the floor.

“there’s something down there jester, I wonder what it could be?”jester not paying much attention now. Sarah rose to her feet



looking confused, and then, almost as if an idea had sprung to

mind she left the room only to come back a second later “this’ll

work jester!” holding up a large rusted screwdriver, Jester now

asleep on the newly made bed.

She squeezed between the bed and the wall, only able to fit one

shoulder through and looked down, the small gleam of light hadgone, she had no idea under which floor board it lay.

Taking the screwdriver, Puffing and panting again, she loosened

each of the three boards that were in arms reach. Hair full of dust,

she squeezed her hand through a gap between two of them. She

felt something. Something smooth and slim between her

fingertips. With her face screwed up and tongue poking out she

made a grasp for the mysterious object and pulled her arm back through.

The object was dusty, long and thin, but no longer than the palmof Sarah’s hand. She rubbed it against her jeans, the object

appeared to look like a charm, “too big for a bracelet” she

muttered. Glowing gold and cylinder in shape, a small round loop

at one end and some markings along its body, not in words, butpictures, too small to make out. She curled her hand around it and

pushed it into her back pocket.

“right then jester” she said while trying to put the floorboards back

to their original state. “better get ready for bed!” and made her

way to the bathroom.

Sarah emerged from the bathroom and into her bedroom wearing

pyjamas that looked a little too small for her. The legs of the

trousers finished a clear four inches above her ankles and the arms

only reached a little below her elbows. She walked over to a

wooden heart shaped chest of draws that stood slanted, a couple of

old books propping up the left side. She reached out to one of the

pictures resting on top, the picture was of a young pretty woman,

long brown hair, an ear to ear smile and affectionate eyes. Sarah

just stared at it for a while.



Sarah’s bedroom was small but bright in colour. Hexagonal in

shape and all five walls were painted pale violet, pleasant to look

at with one large circular window with green ceiling to floor

draping curtains.

She didn’t have much furniture, no wardrobe, one chest of drawsand a small single bed. One corner of the room obviously

belonged to Stewart, books, old and dusty piled high, missing the

ceiling by a few inches.

Sarah began to talk to the picture indifferently “sorry mum, I

didn't manage to get the flowers you liked.” she paused “I wish

you could have seen what I found today, I know you would haveloved to look at it” Sarah stopped talking, looking confused. Then

she bent down to rummage through her jeans that were lying on

the floor beside her. “ah! I didn’t loose it!” she smiled.She held the gold charm out in her palm, studying it for a while,

rubbing it between her thumb and fingers, appreciating its shine

reflecting from the light above. “but what to do with it?” she

muttered. Then she bent down and pulled out from under the chestof draws, a small rose coloured wooden case that was decorated in

gold metal edging, a clasp and on the lid a red symbol surrounded

by a green circular border. She opened the clasp and lifted the lid,

inside was decorated with patterned champagne silk lining. Within

the case were little bits of jewellery, some gold and silver chains, a

couple of rings and some earrings that were missing the backs or

broken. She put her hand in, rummaged a little then pulled out afew gold chains. She picked the one up that wasn’t broken and

placed the golden charm onto it “I’m keeping you safe!” and

fastened it around her neck, the charm dangling out of sight

behind the jacket of her pyjamas.

“Sarah? Sarah?!” called out Stewart “do you fancy a hot

chocolate?”

Sarah quickly hopped into bed and called out “yes please dad!”



Thomas Bradford

The next morning Sarah woke, from what must have been a

restless night, looking around, rubbing her eyes, to find her

pillows on the floor next to her quilt. She shrugged, yawned and

rubbed the top of her head a little then stood up and walked

towards the window and opened the curtains. She jumped a little,

hands held in front of her eyes. She must not have expected thebright morning sun after the horrendous weather last night.

Then slowly lowering her hands from her eyes, still only

managing to peer out of one of them, she opened the window. The

window's hinges were positioned in such a way that one half of

the window went out side and the other half came in. she lentforward to smell the fresh morning air, putting both hands on the

rim of the window peering her head out a little, she opened her

eyes. There was smell of rain in the air, not a sense of human life

as she overlooked the hills, the willow trees glistening in the sun

displaying its flow of yellow and green leaves and doves washingthem selves off in the puddles below. Sarah gave a soft sweet

smile then turned towards Jester and said “right then! Better getready for breakfast!”



Sarah appeared at the top of the stairs, Jester resting within her

arms, she was wearing her usual pair of baggy jeans, a polo neck

jumper, a jacket and a rucksack dangling off her left shoulder.

While walking down the spiral staircase she heard a voice “where

is it? WHERE IS IT?!” it was crazy uncle Patrick, scrummagingthrough the piles of Stewart's books, “morning uncle Patrick!”

said Sarah. Uncle Patrick stumbled over an extremely large

version of Britannia’s encyclopedia only to land face down in a

pile of Stewart's dirty old socks. Sarah gave off a little giggle

“well at least you had a soft landing uncle Patrick!” Sarah still

giggling.

Uncle Patrick gave off a groan scrambling to his knees peelingaway one sock that had attached itself to the top of his balding

head. He rose to his feet obviously flustered, cheeks bright red, he

looked down to notice he was missing his left shoe. He peeredaround the room to find it hanging from the light over head,

looking up and scratching his head Sarah handed him a coal poker,

“try this uncle Patrick” Sarah still giggling to herself, uncle

Patrick reached out with the poker, jumping as high as hisoversized stomach would let him, and eventually he caught the

shoe.

“I’m glad you find this funny” he said still flustered

“I’m sorry uncle Patrick” Sarah said still smiling “why don’t you

sit down and ill make you cup of tea” Sarah walked over to the

stove dropping her rucksack beside her and began to fill the kettle.“were you on your way out somewhere?” asked uncle Patrick,

gaining back some of his composure.

“U-um yes I was actually, I was planning on visiting a friends, you

remember Tom don’t you?”

“Ah yes, I remember Tom, Thomas Bradford! His father used to

come over at Christmas, tell me, does his family still have that

little antique store in the village?”

“yes they do” replied Sarah delivering his freshly made cup of tea.

“yes” he muttered “Mr Bradford never did let me buy that clock!”



uncle Patrick stood up staring at a picture of an old castle hanging

on the wall, sipping at his tea he exclaimed “two thousand pounds

I offered him!”

Uncle Patrick spun around to face Sarah, his eyes, squinting,

fixated on hers, he sat slowly on the arm of the sofa placing hiscup on the table in front of him and whispered “do you know

Sarah? Do you know where it is?” and at that moment Stewart

burst into the kitchen yelling “IM LATE! IM LATE!” Sarah and

uncle Patrick jumped.

“What’s the matter dad?” asked Sarah, stepping away from uncle

Patrick.“I'm suppose to be taking summer school this week!” replied

Stewart looking franticly around the kitchen

“and I start in five minutes!”“oh really Stewart! Why do you even bother? There’s only a

couple of weeks left and those snotty nose kids don’t deserve you!

Why you ever became a teacher ill never know!” exclaimed uncle

Patrick.“some of us believe in the education system Patrick! Just look at

Sarah she’s doing well!”

“yes but then again Sarah has always been as bright as a button

Stewart, she probably doesn’t even need schooling!” giving Sarah

a little wink.

“what are you looking for dad?” interrupted Sarah“my tie!” he said now over turning the cushions on the sofa. Sarah

picked a red and blue striped tie off the coat hanger by the front

door “this one dad?”

“thanks Sarah!” throwing the tie around his neck “right! ill be off

then! have a nice day Sarah, and Patrick, don’t fill her head with

any of your nonsense” Stewart opened the door and uncle Patrick

shouted back “good luck Stewart but I don’t think a tie is going to

make any difference”. While uncle Patrick giggled to himself, his

over sized belly jiggling up and down, Sarah threw her rucksack



over her shoulder and slipped out the back door.

She made her way down the back garden peeling off one of the

bobbles on her wrist and tied her hair back into a scruffy pony tail

she hurried to a fence that opened up to a footpath in-between two

farmers fields. The sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky. Itwas obviously still chilly Sarah now pulling the other strap of her

bag onto her other shoulder pulling her jacket around her chest.

Sarah came to the end of the path, it adjoined a main road, she

followed it keeping to the roads edge. The road ended at a small

village road. A quaint road with only one pub a grocery store and a

newsagents, Sarah walked passed all three and passed down an

cobbled alley way, there was a sign up ahead that read “Tea Stop”and beneath that a café. Through the café window there were only

three tables with small stools surrounding them, Sarah walked

through the café door setting off the bell above her head a loudhurried voice came from the back of the shop “come in, come in,

ill be but just one minute! One minute!” and a short very rounded

lady dressed in pink, Mrs Lofty, her wild frizzy hair and one large

peacock feather sticking out of it, appeared behind the café’s desk and then disappeared.

Sarah looked around the room, the were lots of glass jars on

shelves around the room, all filled with different kinds of tea and

coffee, even one labelled “toffee coffee!” she glanced to the table

nearest the desk, a boy sat on one of the stools hands clasped

around his over sized cup of hot chocolate with pink and white

spiral marshmallows floating on top. The boy was of averagebuild but slim, blonde hair that fell in front of his eyes, dressed in

different shades of blue, jeans a hooded jumper and a jacket even

his satchel that lent against his feet, denim in texture.

“is it blue today then Tom?” asked Sarah, the boy looked up, a

large smile brightened up his face and as he shook the hair from in

front of his eyes he said “hey Sarah!” Sarah made her self

comfortable on one of the stools next to Tom. “you really are

going to have to stop winding up your mum Tom! She's beginning



to think you've gone a bit funny! And she's probably blaming

herself for it!”

“well she was the one to colour co-ordinate the house! The kitchen

is green! And everything in it! Even the sink is green! And who

wants every shade of purple in their living room? Even dads gone

a little loopy. He’s started keeping the toothpaste in the porchbecause its white and the only room in the house that’s white is”

“the porch!” interrupted Sarah, both letting off a giggle “so what

colour is the bathroom?” asked Sarah

“red” answered Tom.

“oh” said Sarah.

Then strange Mrs Lofty appeared from behind the counter again,

“so what will it be dear?” gestured towards Sarah, she replied “illhave what he’s having please” the smile sank from the strange

lady's face, she snatched the menu from their table and walked

away while muttering “I have all the tea and coffee in the worldand what do they order? Hottutty bottutty chocolate!”

“you know one of these days she going to throw us out for

ordering hot chocolate!” suggested Tom.“naa” replied Sarah “we’re her only customers, although I might

order tea every now and then, just so that she doesn’t have some

sort of break down”

“I think she’s already had one Sarah! I mean, did you see that

peacocks feather?” they both giggled, sharing parts of the cup

trying to warm their hands up. Sarah sat there starring at the

floating half melted marshmallows on top of toms hot chocolatenot noticing the strange lady delivering hers.

“are you alright Sarah?” asked tom, Sarah looked down rubbing

her gold charm through her jumper looking confused

“SAA-RRAH? Hee-lloo anybody home?” said tom knocking one

hand on the table. Sarah smiled lightly still looking down “yes,

I’m fine tom”

“there’s obviously something bothering you, if its the fact that

you'll be turning a ripe old age of fourteen tomorrow, I wouldn’t

let it bother you, been there done that, id be grateful you weren’t



turning sixteen and taking your G.C.S.E's! and look!” tom pulling

at both sides of his hair “no grey hairs in sight!”

Sarah giggled a little, “I’m sure you'll do fine tom!”

“we don’t all have the brains of a mad scientist Sarah!”

“my fathers a maths teacher tom not a scientist!” exclaimed Sarah

“I wasn’t talking about your father Sarah” tom stopped talkinglooking thoughtfully at Sarah, and said softly “if its not your

birthday that’s bothering you then what is it Sarah, come on you

can tell me”

Sarah looked up to toms pleasing face and whispered “my uncle

Patrick has come to stay”

“oh” said tom “ crazy uncle Patrick eh?, what’s he doing this

time? Searching for some lost long treasure?, we should but him astuffed parrot and call him eye eye captain!” suggested tom

closing one eye and gesturing a salute towards Sarah. Sarah didn’t

smile. She took a sip of her hot chocolate and said “he frightenedme”

“FREIGHTENED YOU? How did he frighten you?!” demanding

tom looking a little angry.

“he was acting strange looking for something around the house,frantic he was! Then he calmed down going on about a clock that

your father wouldn’t sell him, and became scary asking me “do

you know Sarah? Do you know where it is?””

“where what is?” asked tom looking confused

“I don’t know!” replied Sarah “but I sneaked out the back door

when he wasn’t looking”

“well maybe he's finally cracked!” said tom swirling one of hismarshmallows around the rim of his cup, “maybe you could stay

with us, how long is he staying for?”

then Sarah remembered “uncle Patrick said something about stay

for a month! And last night they were arguing with each other out

in that rain we had, dad and uncle Patrick. All I remember them

saying is “I DONT CARE WHAT YOU'VE FOUND” and “cum on

Stewart! Its amazing!” but that’s it”

tom looked bewildered, eyes wide, starring at Sarah. “yes! He's

cracked!” exclaimed tom, “but he wants to stay a whole month?



Not sure either of our parents would agree to that!”

“its alright tom” smiled Sarah, “ill wade it out!”

both Sarah and tom guzzled down their hot chocolate while it was

still warm, tom fashioning a light brown moustache, Sarah

giggled.

“what?” tom asked“nothing” giggled Sarah

“WHAT?!” insisted tom

“well tom” Sarah still giggling “are you saving that for later?”

Sarah pointing towards toms face, tom trying to see his reflection

in one of the jars of coffee over head, “ha ha very funny” he said

while wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

“well you did look funny tom!” smiled Sarah “so” changing thesubject “are we going t look at this machine you've been raving

about for weeks?”

“yes!, come on, wait till you see it! Its great!”Sarah and tom emptied out some coins on the table to pay for their

drinks and made their way through the door.



Infinite

Mr Bradford's Antique Shop stood alone on the corner of a grassy

slope, the shop window looking back towards the village. It was a

tall building with three floors, it stood slanted with a resemblance

to the the leaning tower of Pisa. The shop window's surround waswood, painted black, along one of the the black wooden panels in-

scripted in gold paint were the words “Antiques, since 1814”.

Sarah and tom clambered up the seven high steps to the shop's

front door, it had a sign that read “back in ten”.

“dad must be out to lunch” suspected tom.

Inside, the shop was cluttered with all different ornaments,

furniture, books and clocks. There was one small pathway createdbetween all the mess leading to a large desk that encased a glass

cabinet full of old watches and jewellery.“this way!” tom gesturing to Sarah, pointing to a door the other

side of the desk. They entered the back room, this room was rather

much like the room they just left, walls barely visible. They

followed another path in between stacks of miscellaneous objects

leading to a door to the left of the room, through this door wasanother room, but this room was empty, walls bare with nothing



on them but empty dusty shelves, nothing on the floor except a

large office like table with something on top, covered in a large

white sheet.

“now Sarah! are you ready to see?” smiled tom, rather like a

Cheshire cat.

“yes, yes, come on then” shrugged Sarah picking bits of a cobweboff her shoulder.

“TA-DA!” tom shouted and with one great swoop tom hurled the

white sheet off the mysterious object and onto the floor.

The mysterious object was surrounded by a glass case that

measured three feet tall and six feet wide. Within the case stood amesmerising machine, obviously kinetic. There were twists and

turns, spirals and straight lines made from cylinders of brass and

steel, shining, appearing smooth in texture. Along the twists andturns, spirals and straights were tiny silver metal balls floating

from one branch to another, swirling around and around, travelling

up and down, never faltering or stopping. There seemed to be an

act of gravity and magnetism that kept the balls running withoutpower of battery, electricity or gas.

“wow tom, its..its..AMAZING!” said Sarah, flabbergasted.

“do you really like it? I’m calling it “Infinite!””

“it really is amazing tom! Did you make this?” Sarah asked while

smoothing one hand along an edge of the glass case that

surrounded the machine.“yes I did!” answered tom, now looking smug. “you know I have

always been fascinated with all of dads clocks..”

“CLOCKS?” interrupted Sarah “but how did you think of a clock

and come up with..with.”

“IFINITE?” suggested tom, still looking smug.

“yes, infinite, how did you..?” but Sarah cut her self off rubbing at

her head.

“look, let me show you something!”

tom grabbed Sarah’s arm and began to pull her, “come on” he



said. Sarah began to follow. They went back through the door

through the other cluttered room and back into the main shop.

Tom picked up an old mantle clock that was sitting in one of the

piles nearest the desk, tom turned it around and opened its

backing. “you see” said tom showing Sarah the mechanism inside.

“see what tom? What am I looking at?”“Sarah this clock is working! yes? The second hand is moving?”

“yes”

“but how Sarah? What’s missing?”

“a battery?” shrugged Sarah

“yes! Now do you see?”

Sarah took the clock out of tom's hands and studied it for a while,

the inside of the clock consisted of three long bars that appeared tobe chimes and different size metal cogs all turning in tune with the

second hand. “yea! I never thought about it before!, its kind of

beautiful, really” smiled Sarah.“I wouldn’t go that far, but yes, very clever!, just take that clock

for instance, now that! is amazing!”

tom pointed to a clock on one of the shelves to the right of theroom, it was surrounded by other clocks but this one was different

from the rest.

Tom obviously had his idea for Infinite from this clock as it was

too encased in glass.

Sarah starred at the clock in ore, it was bright and shiny, gold in

colour.

She trampled over the piles of old furniture to get a closer look.Peering through the glass case she could see that its round clock

face was concealed within crystal clear glass and a golden trim.

The hands, also in gold, looked so slim and fragile with delicate

spiralling detail.

Inscribed in gold on the clocks face, which was of pearl material,

just beneath the three hands, was the word “Elements”. There was

no wooden case, apart from its stand, surrounding the clock's

mechanism, all the gold cogs, bars and chimes were on show, but

they were not moving. There were four gold pillars towards the



front almost like the-pillars that stood in front of St Paul’s

cathedral, but these pillars were different, they were decorated.

One pillar had tiny waves of water swishing its way up, another

had vines spiralling up with ivory shaped leaves, the third had

snowflakes falling and the fourth looked like flames that travelled

up towards the top of the pillar. “its gorgeous!” whispered Sarah.“but its not working, the second hand isn’t moving, or any of its

cogs!”

“I know” said tom looking disappointed “dad could never

understand it, it really is unique! Here, let me show you” tom

clambered over the piles of furniture and made his way towards

Sarah, he carefully lifted the clock up and carried it back to the

shop's desk, lightly blowing some of its dust off the glass casing.“you see this here” he pointed toward the join between the glass

and its rose coloured wooden stand, it appeared to be sealed.

“yes” replied Sarah“well, its never been opened! And look”, he turned the clock

around, “there’s a tiny hole here, almost looks like a key hole, but

none of the wind up keys that dad owns would ever fit it, and he

didn’t have the heart to break its case, just to try!”“well that is a shame, it really is a beautiful clock. Do you think its

real gold?”

“ha ha” laughed tom “who knows!”

then Sarah remembered “HEY! Do you think this is the clock that

uncle Patrick wanted to buy off your father?”

“yea! your probably right Sarah! but then again if it was real gold,

would you sell it?”“no I guess not” replied Sarah.

Then, as Sarah was studying the back of the clock she noticed one

ugly black piece of circular metal, right behind the clocks face.

“tom? What’s this? This black piece in here?”

“I know, strange isn’t it?” replied tom “I guess the inventor ran out

of gold”. tom laughed.

“there’s something on it but its too dark! Do you mind if I take it

to the window?” asked Sarah, looking intruded.



“if you like” shrugged tom “ill help you carry it”.

tom and Sarah took an end each and carried it slowly to the front

of the shop placing it carefully on the window's sill. Sarah sat

beside it studying the black metal piece but it was still too dark. “I

still can't make it out” said Sarah tutting to her self. Then, the sun

must have appeared from a dark cloud, and both Sarah and tomwere blinded by the sudden light that shone through the shop

window. The golden clock was lit up, gleaming, almost too bright

to look at. Sarah bent down shading the top of her eyes with her

left hand. She looked bemused. The black metal object was

changing colour. “TOM! TOM! LOOK, LOOK!” Sarah franticly

pointing towards the black object, then tom bent down trying to

see what Sarah was so excited about. His look of confusiondisappeared and was replaced with a look of pure disbelief.

The black circular metal object was no longer black, it was bright

white with a green circular rim and a bright red symbol in thecentre. Tom and Sarah just starred at it for a while, probably lost

for words.

The bright sunlight that shone through the window, dimmed,

slowly. Tom and Sarah still staring, they both watched as thebright circular object changed from bright white to yellow to

cream to grey and eventually to its original ugly black.

Tom broke the silence “well..that was...spooky!”

“I agree” said Sarah, straightening up her body, she sat down on

the window sill next to the clock, Tom did the same, letting out a

little sigh, and rested his head on his hand. Sarah was frowning,

she looked deep in thought. She decided to turn and look at theclock again, this time looking at it from above. Tilting her head a

little to the side and moving her face closer in suddenly she said

“Tom! Look at this! I’m sure this wasn't here before Tom...TOM?”

Sarah was now lent over the top pointing towards the top of each

golden pillar. A hexagonal shaped hole now appeared in each of

them, they all had a different colour border, red, yellow, green and

blue all the primary colours.

“I am right aren’t I tom? These went here before?” tom just look

bewildered “tom?” asked Sarah.



“um” said tom now scratching at his head “no, I don’t think they

were!?, this is getting a bit weird Sarah!”

“I know its weird tom, but why, what happened? Oh come on tom

aren’t you interested?”

“of coarse I’m interested!”

“well what happened then?, you cant build that, that thing outthere and not tell me what just happened!?” asked Sarah looking

flustered

“first! Its not a thing its Infinite and second I don’t know what

happened!”

“you don’t know?!”

“well it must have been the light, the light acted like some sort of

mechanism, maybe it was some sort of chemical reaction or something!”

Sarah sat down with her arms crossed looking vexed “yea,

something like that” she muttered.“I’d better put this back before anything else happens to freak us

out!”

tom picked the clock up, slowly stepping over the piles of

furniture, he placed the clock back onto the shelf.The bell above the shop door rang and tom and Sarah turned

around to find Mr Bradford standing behind them holding the

“back in five” sign in his hand. “alright kids? You alright Sarah? I

noticed your father had another late start this morning! He could

have been an Olympic medallist the way he was running through

the village” Mr Bradford laughed and walked towards the shop's

desk, he appeared very tall and smartly dressed. He would never falter in his appearance. Always wore a different type of suit for

each day of the week. Today was Monday, he always wore his pin

striped suit on a Monday, he attired a matching waistcoat, cream

shirt and a pocket watch which he checked regularly.

“yes, dad never did learn the art of punctuality” answered Sarah

lightly smiling, turning her head now and then towards the golden

clock.

“yes yes” said Mr Bradford while looking at his pocket watch

“so..tom! have you finally shown Sarah that contraption of



yours?”

“actually dad, its name is “infinite” and yes, I showed you just

now didn’t I” tom gestured toward Sarah, but she was still looking

at the golden clock. Tom gave Sarah a little nudge and she jumped

and rubbed her arm.

“Sarah? You liked it didn’t you?” asked tom again. Sarah justlooked confused “infinite” whispered tom into Sarah’s ear.

“oh yes! Its amazing, truly a talent!”

Mr Bradford laughed. “yes defiantly talented. I can see you

becoming a fine engineer tom!” Mr Bradford patted tom on the

back and went on “ Its strange, isn’t it, for a family that has dealt

in antiques for century's and my only son becomes fascinated in

them only to create something purely modern!” Mr Bradfordchecked his pocket watch again and said “time's getting on kids!

Better go and get some lunch before you both waste away!”

“yes, we better had. Come on Tom, lets go to Jades Inn!”“OK” answered Tom.



The Carnell Family

Sarah quickly made her way from the Antiques shop and towards

the village road. Tom was hurrying behind her, trying to keep up.

“Why are we going to the “Jade Inn?”” Asked Tom “you know I

don’t like the place, its creepy!”

“It was the first place that sprung to mind, plus if we want to talk about what just happened, its got to be a place where there’s not

many people!” explained Sarah

“okay, but why are we walking so fast? What’s all the rush?”“I dunno” Sarah slowed “excited I suppose!” Sarah smiled and

stopped, allowing tom to take a breather.

Across the cobbled village street sat a man on a wooden stool

outside a boarded up building. His pet Doberman lay by his side.

He was a scary looking man, anyone would think he was

homeless, his jacket and shirt looked moth eaten and his trouserswere torn in both legs. It seemed the only possessions he ownedwere a walking stick, which he held in front of him with two

hands, a cigarette poking out of the side of his mouth and a golden

chain that was barely visible around his neck. His eyes were

squinted, constantly starring at everything around him.

Then, Sarah realised “hey tom?” she whispered.

“just a minute! I think I got a stitch!”“no tom!, I’m not on about that! Look tom, that weird old man is



starring at us!”

“he stares at everyone!” exclaimed tom, standing straight peering

around to take a look at the man.

“not like that! he doesn’t!”

“yea, he looks a bit angry if you ask me!” replied Tom.

“come on, lets go!”Sarah and Tom continued up the cobbled village road passing the

church hall, they could hear Stewart shouting from inside “now,

everybody! That includes you Sean! Sit down!, lets get this

finished, eh? Nobody wants to repeat next year now do they?”

“I DON’T GIVE A TOSS!” shouted a boy.

“SEAN! JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN!” Stewart shouted back.

“I think your fathers having a hard time today Sarah” giggled

Tom.

“I know, I think uncle Patrick was right to say he’s wasting histime!” replied Sarah sympathetically.

Sarah and Tom carried on, walking passed the local grocers, boxes

and boxes of fruit and veg lay colourfully displayed outside it.They came to a building that was black in colour. All of the funny,

coloured stained glass windows looked as though they haven’t

been cleaned for years. Sarah and Tom looked up to see the pubs

sign half hanging off its hinges “The Jade Inn” and underneath a

small monkey that appeared to have the tail of a snake, ears of a

rabbit and wings of a dragon.

“freaky!” said Tom, giving off a little shiver.“oh come on, we're here now!” said Sarah pulling at Tom's

satchel. They both walked through the pub's entrance to find a

dark and dingy room filled with black tables and stools with their

cushions half missing, probably rotten with age. They looked

around, there appeared to be only one man sitting at the bar and a

Witch type lady stood behind him starring at them while beating

her long fingernails up and down her wine glass.

Tom gulped quite loudly “what do we do now?”

“we order lunch!” replied Sarah standing up straight and walking



towards the bar, almost as thou she was one of the regulars. Tom

just followed behind, taking in the scenery around him.

“hello” Sarah gestured to the man and woman standing across

from her, but they didn’t respond. “HELLO? ANYBODY

SERVING?, I'D LIKE TO ORDER PLEASE! HEE -LL -OO?”

she loudened, now directing her voice towards the back of the bar as though she was expecting someone to appear from the

blackness in front of them.

The Witch woman moved slowly, not looking very pleased, to the

other side of the bar. She was very thin dressed all in black and

walked with a stoop, her hair was long reaching her waist, very

damaged and dry looking. Her nose long and pointed, her eyes big

but black and she was missing most of her front teeth.“Wa – hat do y – you waa-nt?” the witch woman spoke to Sarah

and Tom, sounding very old and crackly.

“I..um..WE would like two cola's and a food menu please!” askedSarah, a little shaky. The Witch woman gave a load cackle.

“we-e don’t d-do foood!” cackling again “but we-ee hav-ve pop!

And so-ome crrrrisspss, proo-bablyy paast their sell by da-te!”

“that’s okay” said Sarah “we'll just take the pop please”“v-verry well th-een” replied the Witch lady.

“how much is that please?” asked Sarah lightly smiling.

“oh” she cackled again “its on th-e houssse!”.

As the witch lady handed over two dirty glasses filled with flat

lifeless cola, a long necklace that hung round her neck was

banging into the bar, it was a strange necklace, it looked

handmade as the stones were all held together with pieces of string. The stones were all different shades of green and took the

shapes of animals, a rabbit, a snake, a dog, a dragon, a pig, a rat, a

cat, a ram, a cockerel, a monkey, a fox and a lion.

“Thank you!” said Sarah and they both turned to find a table.

Then Tom whispered to Sarah, “I’m gonna pop to the grocery

store and get us some food”.

“okay, I’ll sit here!” Sarah headed towards the table that had a tiny

bit of natural light shining on it from one of the dirty windows.



It wasn’t long before Tom came back and emptied some crisps,

that weren’t past their sell by date, and a couple of cheese and

onion sandwiches, from his satchel, onto the seat between them.

“That’s one funny lady” said Sarah while sneaking a crisp or two.

“Yeah! And this is one Funny, Ugly, Place! ..I’m going to call it

Fugly!” Tom giggled a little. Sarah smiled, trying not to laugh.

“what do you think her name is?, I cant keep calling her Witch

lady in my head every time I look at her!”

Well you could try the licensing sign above the door, but I prefer

Witch Lady, kinda suits her!”Tom giggled again.Sarah looked to the top of the door, there was a sign,

“This pub is licensed to Mrs Liz Jade..”

“It says; Mrs Liz Jade! Tom” Tom spat out some of his cola andsaid “she's married?!” Tom looked disbelieving. “If she is married,

she's killed him! Probably when he told her he was leaving her!”

Tom giggled quite loudly gaining the attention of the man

propping up the bar, he looked for a few seconds then turned back around.

“Gosh Tom” Sarah nudged tom quite hard in his side “Will you

behave, they could have heard you!”

“Okay, okay. So she named the pub after herself then!” said Tom

apologetically.

“Never mind. So are we going to talk about what happened with

that clock this morning?” suggested Sarah.“well,.. I don’t know what to say Sarah,.. it was weird, yeah!, but

I mean, we cant do anything with it, its in a sealed case! Plus, dad

has always said he could never find any history on it”. Tom now

being sympathetic to Sarah’s keen interest.

“Okay tom, but I still think we’re missing something?!” at that

point Sarah looked around the room to notice two small beady

eyes staring in their direction. “Tom?” Sarah whispered, Tom was

now stuffing half a sandwich into his mouth “what?” he said,

muffled.



“There’s someone over there! Looking this way!” she whispered

again.

Tom moved his head in, squinting trying to get a better look.

There was a boy sat at the table across from them in the dark, he

had thick black hair and dressed in a black hoody and black

trousers.“oh” said tom “I know who that it, that’s Vincent Carnell!”

“who?” asked Sarah.

“don’t you know Vincent Carnell? You know, the Carnell family

that live up that mountain behind my dads shop?”

“no, I’ve never heard of them, he looks about the same age as us, I

haven’t seen him in school!”

“You really don’t get out enough Sarah. Vincent goes to aboarding school, that’s why we don’t see him. Bunch of freaks

anyway, look at him, all in black, I bet this place is like home from

home to him. Even his mother and father prance around wearingnothing but black. Its like going to a funeral!... Everyday!”

Laughed Tom.

“Yeah, I think I’ve seen them before, his parents anyway. They’re

always travelling around in that big black car!” said Sarah.“Yeah!, its a Bentley, I think. They must be rich! I mean, have you

seen their house? Its huge!”

“Well, if they’re so rich, what do they do?” asked Sarah.

“I dunno, maybe its inherited money?!” replied Tom. “My Nanna

Nancy often goes on about them, telling me tall stories about “The

Carnell Family”. I think she's going around the twist! Dad's

always telling her to shush when she even mentions them”.“What does she say about them?” asked Sarah, looking very

interested.

“Oh I don’t know, Sarah, just stuff, scary bedtime stories”.

Replied Tom, now holding the crisp bag to his mouth, hoping to

catch the last bits of crisps.

“Scary? Like what?” pressed Sarah, now tugging at his sleeve.

“Oh, okay. But its just a story..... Nanna used to say that, when

she was a little girl living in the village, The Carnell Family used



to own most of the businesses here and they would rule the roost.

Not a very nice family apparently. Anyway Nanna used to say that

there would be a constant black cloud in the sky above their

house, sometimes even lightening. She used to say that animals

wouldn’t go near the grounds, like they sensed something was

wrong. And she'd say that it never changed until the David Familycame to the village, she became best friends with their daughter

Mary David, her family bought some of the buildings from the

Carnell family. Then, “the sun began to shine on the village”, she

would say, but that’s normally the point dad would butt in and tell

Nanna to shush. I didn’t mind though, some of her stories weren’t

really suitable for bedtime”. Tom explained.

Sarah looked deep in thought, taking in every word Tom spoke.

“Yeah, not suitable at all!” she said, agreeing with Tom.

Sarah and Tom's attention was drawn towards the boy say at the

table across from them. He had began to stand placing his wallet

into his trouser pocket.

“do you think he overheard us?” Sarah asked Tom.“Nah!” replied Tom. The young boy moved over towards them

both, as though about to introduce himself, but as he walked in

line with the pub's front door, the light shone through onto his face

and theirs. He must have noticed the look of both repulsion and

fear on Sarah’s face, he lost his little smile and quickly changed

course leaving through the front door.

“Well! That was unexpected!” sighed Tom.

“I’ll say” replied Sarah letting out a little sigh of relief “he looked

like he was going to join us!”

“yeah! Weird eh? He must have seen your reaction and made a run

for it Sarah!” joked tom.

“what do you mean my reaction?” asked Sarah.

“you didn’t really looked pleased to see him Sarah, you know, I

think the Carnell boy has a crush on you”. Laughed Tom, so

loudly the man at the bar turned to look, he didn’t look happy



about it.

“don’t be ridiculous” said Sarah “plus I think we should leave

now, before you annoy that man any more!”

“you mean before we get cursed or something!” joked tom.

Sarah pulled out a watch face that had no straps and looked at it

“tom we'd better leave, id better be going home”.“Alright, id better be off too!” replied Tom.

Sarah and tom both picked up their things and left The Jade Inn.

After a lonely walk, Sarah arrived home to find her father sat on

the forever comfortable settee starring ominously into the log fire

that blazed with the support of only one log. He sat with his tieback to front and hair messy. There was muffled singing coming

from upstairs.

“ hey dad!” said Sarah taking her coat off to hang it on the coathanger and sit next to Stewart.

“hey Sarah” sighed her father “another hopeless day with

hopeless cases”.

“don’t pay any attention to uncle Patrick dad, he’s only windingyou up” said Sarah reassuringly, Stewart sat up straight and

tightened one arm around Sarah’s shoulders “I’ve been waiting for

you to come home, its been so cold..” Stewart broke off.

“cold?” asked Sarah confused looking into the blazing hot fire.

“oh, um..ignore me. Have you had a good day?”.

“yea” replied Sarah, “I had a, a very interesting day, tom showed

me this great machine that he built and I found this really strangeclock..”.

“clock? What clock?” her father interrupted “have you been going

into the antique store? You know I don’t like you going there, its,

its, filthy in there, you could catch something!” Stewart began to

walk into the kitchen.

“dad, I ..”

“no! Now, lets say nothing more! Maybe tom could take you to

the library next time eh?. Now, what do you fancy for dinner?”

interrupted Stewart.



Sarah just sat still on the forever comfortable settee starring at her

father looking upset. Then Stewart spoke while peering out the

kitchen window, “oh look, its starting to rain” then he turned to

face Sarah’s unhappy expression. “I think uncle Patrick is going to

use up all the hot water! He's been in that bath for hours! And he’sdesecrating that song!” Sarah gave a little smile and looked down

at jester, her forever reliable black cat.

“oh jester could this day get any stranger?” she whispered, jester

jumped up and curled up by her side, Sarah sat back and closed

her eyes, taking in all the warmth in the room.



Birthday Girl

Sarah woke from a deep sleep, she was still on the forever

comfortable settee and had been covered over with a blanket.

Sarah peered down rubbing her eyes, Jester lay at her feet “oh,jester, I must have fallen asleep”. Sarah sat up, she never made it

to bed last night and had missed dinner. She looked around the

room while trying to tidy her hair and gasped. The house was fullof decorations, purple, orange, red and blue balloons in groups of

three sellotaped to the walls. Different colour ribbons dangling

from the ceiling and a banner hung above the burning fire “Happy

Birthday Sarah!”. Sarah smiled and picked jester up to show him,she turned and noticed that there were more balloons on the floor,

you could barely see the carpet underneath. She put jester onto the

sofa and noticed something pinned to one of the sleeves of her

jumper, she held it to see what it was. It was a large badge that

read “14 Today!”.

Sarah made her way into the kitchen to make a cup of tea and she

noticed even more decorations and a large white box on one of thework tops. She lifted the lid to find a large red heart shaped cake

and a message “happy birthday Sarah love dad xx”.

It was clearly handmade, there were red fingerprints dotted around

the inside of the box along with lines of icing on the cake board

where her father had obviously been practising his handwriting

skills. Sarah reached inside the box to bring back a dipping of red

icing from her finger and into her mouth.

“cake for breakfast?” said her dad, now stood on the spiralling

staircase. Sarah jumped and bit down on her finger in shock.



“ow!” she said muffled, still sucking on her finger as though to

sooth it from her recent biting.

“oops! Sorry Sarah didn’t mean to frighten you! Anyway” her

father continued down the spiral staircase to give her a hug and

said “happy birthday!”.

“thanks dad!”“I got you a little something, well found really, I thought you

would like to have it,” Stewart pulled out a gold ring, it had a red

hexagonal gem stone in the middle “it used to be your mothers, I

hope it fits, but then again you always have had your mothers

hands”.

“its beautiful, thank you dad!” Sarah gave her father a kiss on the

cheek and placed the ring on the index finger of her right hand.“I love it!”.

Sarah and her father turned to a groaning and burping noise, it

was uncle Patrick, he walked into the kitchen scratching at hishead, one eye open and held a mug in his hand. “Yawn”.

He made his way over to the kettle and made a pot of tea.

“morning uncle Patrick” said Sarah, looking unamused.

“oh, (yawn) Sarah, morn (yawn) ning” uncle Patrick seemedunable to wake himself up, he looked around, still only through

one eye and asked “um..is..is it someone's birthday today

Stewart?”

“oh come on Patrick! Its September the 3rd!”

“yes...yes of course!” said Patrick, he rubbed both his eyes and

unsteadily made his way to Sarah grabbing one of Sarah’s arms

“happy birthday Sarah!, I believe I packed a card for you in myluggage, ill just pop up and get it” Patrick turned and slowly made

his way back upstairs.

“oh, how long is he staying dad?” Sarah asked her father while

perching herself onto one of the kitchen worktops.

Stewart walked over to her “he wont be staying long, don’t you

worry, just enjoy your birthday”.

“good morning! Or shall I say good afternoon?” came a voice

from the living room. She turned and tom was standing in the

front doorway holding some kind of parcel in his hand. She went



over to greet him, “hey tom!”

“happy birthday Sarah!, you look as though you've just gotten up!

Don’t you know its almost 12?” laughed tom.

Sarah turned to the little mirror on the wall, her hair was messy

and she was still dressed in yesterdays clothes.

“I’d better go up and wash! I wont be long” and Sarah made her way to the staircase.

“okay! Don’t be long, I’ve got you a present!” shouted tom.

“OKAY!” shouted back Sarah.

Sarah quickly ran to the bathroom and washed then put on a clean

set of clothes and brushed her hair. She walked towards the

staircase and noticed heavy snoring coming from the little box

room, it was uncle Patrick, he had come to get Sarah’s card butnever returned, Sarah opened his bedroom door to find him asleep

face down on the little single bed. He was holding something in

his hand, it looked like a card. Sarah carefully pulled the card fromhim, put it in her hoody pocket and carried on downstairs.

Sarah's father and tom were sitting on the forever comfortable

settee drinking from a freshly made pot of tea, it must have beenthe one that uncle Patrick was preparing earlier.

“alright Sarah?” said tom “looking a bit better!”

“a bit better?!” asked Sarah not looking very amused. Tom

laughed “only kidding, here open this!” tom handed over a parcel

wrapped neatly in a purple bow, Sarah opened it.

“do you like it?” asked tom.

“yes I love it!” Sarah held in her hand a silver friendship locketthat read “friends forever ”.

“I hope you have a chain to put it on, I couldn’t find one. That’s

the thing about antique jewellery, some stuff are missing, in this

case, the actual chain” shrugged tom sipping at his tea.

“this is antique? You shouldn’t have!” replied Sarah putting the

locket into her hoody pocket.

“aren’t you going to put it on?” asked tom.

“yes, ill do it in a minute. Dad? Uncle Patrick feel asleep when he

went up earlier, he’s snoring now, id say he'd be out for count for a



while!”. Tom and Stewart both laughed, Sarah helped herself to a

cup of tea.

“so kids, got any plans today?” asked her father.

“don’t think so” said tom shaking his cup over his mouth trying to

catch the last dregs of tea.

Sarah walked over to the kitchen window, “i think I might go outfor a walk, maybe along the river, what do you say tom?”.

“what? In this weather? Isn’t it a bit cold?” answered tom while

shuddering.

“its not that cold, plus I think the suns going to shine soon, I can

feel the glow in the air”.

“that’s just this log fire!” laughed tom.

Then almost like serendipity the bright sun's light shone throughall the windows and into everyone's eyes, tom dropped his cup

onto the floor. “well that was weird!” he said “I guess you got

your birthday wish, come on then, lets go out for that walk!”.Sarah stood there smiling, her father smiled back at her, “ill see

you a bit later then dad” she walked to meet tom by the front door

“and we'll have some of that cake!”. Stewart rose to his feet

clearing the teapot and cups from the table, “okay kids, have fun,and Sarah! No antiques shops today please!” asked Stewart.

“no problem dad” Sarah and tom left the cottage and proceeded

up the drive.

“why did your dad ask you not to go to an antique shop?” asked

tom.

“oh...I mentioned your machine”

“INFINITE!” tom said proudly.“yes..Infinite, and that clock, and he got all angry asking me not to

go to your dad's shop” explained Sarah.

“but why?!” tom asked.

“i dunno, he said it was because it was too dirty, afraid I might

catch something!”.

“cheeky git” said tom looking a little upset.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean to be personal tom” reassured Sarah

giving tom a little pinch in the arm.

“ouch that hurt!”.



Sarah began to laugh and jogged to the end of the drive through

the gate “you'll never catch me!” she shouted, tom started to jog

and shouted back “this was suppose to be a walk Sarah!”.

“spoil sport!” she shouted back, stopping near a wooden bench

near the main road. Tom caught her up only to sit down huffing

and puffing.“your really not cut out for track and field are you tom?” Sarah

smiling.

“alright, alright, can we walk now?” pleaded tom.

“okay, but you should thank me you know, I bet your warmer now

for running!”

“yes, I am a bit warmer, but I’d prefer to be able to breath too!”.

They both carried along a footpath that took them over a smallbridge and into an abandoned park, the very same park Sarah

walked passed on the way home from visiting her mothers grave

only a couple of nights ago. The old rusty slide was still there andbehind it a rusted frame that held a few old rusted chains and

attached to the chains were strips of black rubber.

Three unused swings hung silently.

Sarah went to sit on one of the swings, tom pushed her slightly

then sat beside her. The sun was still shining down on them, a nice

bright and warm light, if your eyes were closed it would feel like

spring. They both swung a little glancing down at their shadows

getting further away then close again.

Something fell onto the floor beneath them. Tom stopped and left

his swing to pick up the object. it was an envelope, on the frontread “To Sarah”.

“I think you dropped this Sarah” said tom.

Sarah stopped swinging and took the envelope off tom “yea, I

took it out of uncle Patrick's hand while he was asleep, I think its

my birthday card”. Sarah opened the envelope and took out a

birthday card. On the front was a teddy bear holing presents and

above it “14 today”, she opened the card and something fell onto

the floor. “ill get it” tom said and he bent down to pick it up, Sarah

read the inside of the card “happy birthday Sarah love uncle



Patrick”. Tom handed over what had fallen on the floor, it was a

£20 note wrapped around something, Sarah took the note off to

discover a photograph.

“what is it?” asked tom.

“its a photograph” replied Sarah, studying the photo.

“of what?” asked tom bending around to see.“I......I think..its my mother, she’s standing beside someone,

and....” she broke off.

“and what Sarah? And what?” said tom impatiently.

“look tom” she pointed to the photo, “is that what I think it is?”.

“no way!” said tom “its that clock! The golden clock! Hang on a

minute” tom took the photo off Sarah “that’s my father I’m sure of

it! He’s really young, and so’s your mother Sarah!”. Sarah took thephoto back off tom, “what? Your father? Really?, has your dad

ever mentioned anything about that clock tom?”.

“well he did say he found it in a house clearance, but that must bea lie, dad must have been about your age on this photo”.

Sarah turned the photo over, there was something written on the

reverse,

“hi Sarah, I’m sorry to give you this on your birthday but your father hasmade it clear that I cant stay as long as I hoped. I found this photo in a

man's possession in Italy, it is of your mother, Annabel and tom's father Mr

Bradford, only there appears to be something wrong with this picture.

They stand beside a very old clock, one that I have only read about in

legends. I didn’t believe it until I found the very same clock sitting in Mr

Bradford’s shop. I have known only this little information for two years

now, not being able to figure out much, apart from an object that I know to

have been in your mother's possession. Its a key, a golden key and I believe that it must be at the cottage. I do believe that it is you, you and

Thomas to carry on where I left off.

Good luck.

Love uncle Patrick”.

“what is going on?” said Sarah, starring bewildered at the back of

the photograph,

“what does it say Sarah?” tom took the photograph off Sarah andbegan to read uncle Patrick’s message. Sarah gazing at the front of



the photo while it was in tom's hand.

“you know, your uncle Patrick is defiantly getting a bit scary

Sarah!”.

“I know” she whispered, Sarah walked over to an old picnic

bench and sat down rubbing her fingers over impressions people

have drawn into the wood. Tom was starring at Sarah thoughtfully,he followed and sat beside her one arm around her shoulders,

“maybe we should tell your dad Sarah, about uncle Patrick, he’s

obviously scaring you. I mean its only a clock, so what if my dad

lied about where he found it, its only. a clock.”.

“let me look at the photo again” asked Sarah. Tom passed her the

photograph, she looked at her mother and tom's father, then

flipped it over to read uncle Patrick’s message again, she placed afinger underlying each of the words written as she read. Sarah

looked up towards tom and said “you know, maybe there is some

truth in this tom, I mean how did this photo end up in Italy? Andwhat legends? And the key, he knew mother to have that key

which means that he's seen it, and he's seen mother with it!”.

“yes” replied tom “but....if your uncle really has cracked then its

probably real to him, but of course its all fantasy!”.“i know that, but how do you explain dad arguing with him?”

asked Sarah.

“maybe your dad realises that he’s gone loopy and doesn’t want

him upsetting you!” replied tom.

“yea maybe, but shouldn’t we at least look into this, see if it is

real?” asked Sarah now looking at tom affectionately, hoping to

persuade him.“gosh Sarah!, what are you like?....um .. Okay it is your birthday

after all!” smiled tom.

“GREAT!” Sarah rose to her feet holding the picture high in the

air, “but wait” she lowered her arm, “where are we going to find

anything out? We cant fly to Italy!”. Sarah stood their scratching

her head with her free arm.

“maybe we should start with this key, didn’t the message say it

would be at the cottage?” asked tom.

“yeah, good idea! We could ask uncle Patrick for a bit more



information as well”. Said Sarah, now placing the photograph into

her pocket along with the locket tom gave her.

“but what about your father Sarah? Don’t you think we should

mention..” but Sarah cut him off

“nooo! He obviously doesn’t want me knowing anything, lets just

see what we find out first”.Sarah and tom began to walk back to the cottage, “you know

Sarah, if we find this key, if it exists of course, what are we going

to do with it?”.

“well, we use it I suppose. Maybe it makes that clock work, you

did say that your dad could never find a key that would fit it!”.

“okay” replied tom and they both carried on until they reached the

cottage.

“where’s uncle Patrick’s car gong tom?” asked Sarah looking

around the drive. The little blue car had gone.“maybe he’s popped out for something” replied tom.

“why would he do that?, the shop's only a little walk away” said

Sarah.

“well he is getting rather rounded at the edges Sarah! Maybe he'snot that keen on walking!”

“or he’s already left!” and Sarah quickly walked up to the porch

door and entered the cottage “dad?!”. Tom followed at a slower

pace.

“dad?!” she called. It was cold in the cottage, the fire wasn’t lit, it

was getting cloudy outside, the sky was turning grey. “DAD?!”

she shouted.“yes? Sara? What’s wrong?” her father came down the spiralling

staircase with a small towel wrapped around his waist and a

toothbrush sticking out of his mouth, “what’s the matter Sarah?”.

Sarah held one of her hands over toms eyes “um..sorry dad, um..

do you know where uncle Patrick has gone?” she asked, tom

trying to break free of Sarah’s hand. Her father walked back up

stairs and came back down, this time in his dressing gown and

minus one toothbrush. Sarah released her hold over tom's eyes.

“he's gone Sarah. He’s left. He said that he had to go, I told him it



was wrong to go on your birthday but he insisted he had to go”.

He looked around the room to notice the fire wasn’t burning and

started to shiver “is everything okay Sarah?” he asked.

“oh, yeah,...everything is fine, just wanted to say goodbye that’s

all”. She replied. Her father walked over to the basket of logs in

the kitchen and lit one in the fire “he never gave you that birthdaycard did he?” her father asked.

“oh, yea I did get it, I found it upstairs. He gave me twenty

pound!” she replied taking out the twenty pound note.

“right” said her father “well that was nice, fancy a cup of tea?”.

“yes please!” Sarah and tom both answered at the same time.

They walked over to the settee and sat in front of the fire, tom had

his head in his hand and Sarah kept rolling and unrolling thetwenty pound note. “dad?” she asked “are you thinking of going

anywhere today?”. Her father brought over three cups of scolding

tea and they all wrapped their hands around their cups.“um..haven’t thought about it, this is your day Sarah”, he replied.

“well I think tom and I are just going to hang around, nothing

special” Sarah nudged tom, almost causing him to choke on his

hot tea.“um..yea..hang around” tom said.

“okay” her father said, “I guess I could do some shopping, how do

you fancy a birthday dinner then? the three of us? And you can eat

what ever you want! Ill go out and get it, what do you fancy

Sarah?”.

Sarah glanced into her cup of tea “um, how about....some of those

wrap things, you know with the chicken and salsa?” Sarahsuggested.

“i think they're called fajitas” tom said.

“yea fajitas dad, some of them”

“okey doke! Box of fajitas coming up!” said her father, he put his

cup into the sink and went upstairs.

“great! Now while he's out shopping we can try and find this key

thing!” said Sarah enthuesiastically.

“okay” replied tom yawning every now and then. The log fire



must be making him drowsy.

Her father came back wearing neat black trousers and a blue polo

neck jumper, he pulled his coat from the coat hanger by the door

and checked that he had his wallet. “see you later then kids” he

said “wont be long” and he left the cottage.

“Sarah?” said tom “he just said he wont be long!”.

“trust me” she said “dad takes ages shopping! He keeps picking

things up and reading the labels, he goes out for milk and it takes

him half a hour, but then again he normally comes back with more

than just milk, anyway, where do you think this key is going to be

tom?” she whispered.“maybe your fathers bedroom is a good place to start, if it was

your mother's then wouldn’t it be in there?” said tom.

“lets go then”.Sarah and tom made their way up the spiral staircase and into her

father's bedroom. It was light and airy apart from the usual piles of

books scattered around. The walls were white and clean, the two

large round circular window were visible through the draping lacecream curtains. The large double bed positioned in the centre of

the room was neatly made with thick white and cream bedding

sheets and an array of pillows stacked from the headboard in

ascending order. There were two bedside tables, one with a picture

of Sarah’s mother and the other with a picture of Sarah. Besides

the picture of Sarah lay a jewellery box. Sarah walked over to the

box and opened it, a plastic ballerina popped out and started totwirl around in tune with the lullaby music that was now playing

from somewhere inside. Sarah rummaged around the old pieces of

jewellery, but nothing resembled a golden key. “there’s nothing in

here tom”. Said Sarah looking disappointed.

“maybe its just kept in a draw somewhere?” suggested tom.

Tom walked over to the second bedside table and began to look

through the draws, Sarah followed suit and looked through her set

of draws. They searched and searched, every draw after another,

searching twice, three times and four times over. But nothing,



nothing even resembling a key. Mostly clothes scarves gloves and

pieces of paper. They tried putting the draws back as they found

them and began searching through a tall wardrobe. There were hat

boxes and shoe boxes all filled with nicknack’s, one even

contained little reminders of Sarah when she was little, even the

hospital wrist band that read “Female born 03/10/90 @ 23:59”.“wow! One minute before 12!” said Sarah. Tom looked at the

bracelet.

“yeah! I guess you couldn’t make your mind up which day you

wanted to be born Sarah!” laughed tom. “you were holding out for

the 4th but gave in at the last minute!” tom laughed again.

Sarah put the bracelet back, she noticed that there was one card

kept for every birthday and pictures, hundreds of pictures just of Sarah. But Sarah placed the box back and continued to look for

the key. They searched high and low, through every pocket of the

ten hanging coats, through every hat and shoe box but nothing, nokey.

There wasn’t many more places they could search. Sarah knew

that the key wouldn’t be in her room.

“how about the kitchen? My dad keeps some keys in our kitchen”suggested tom.

They both proceeded to walk downstairs and search through the

kitchen draws and cupboards. They were searching for a while

when tom shouted “I'VE FOUND IT! I'VE FOUND IT!” tom held

up a large steel ring with several keys attached, Sarah excitedly

grasped it holding each key in front of her eyes, but neither one of

them was gold, not even yellow. Most were brown and rustedlooking. “no tom” she said, “you haven’t found it, but we've found

the shed key at least”. They both looked warn out, they turned

around towards the living room. Sarah walked over to the piles of

books and began to rummage through.

“Sarah what are you doing, we're not going to find a key amongst

that lot!” tom said.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, I just remember catching uncle

Patrick searching her when he...” she broke off.

“when he what Sarah?” asked tom.



“he fell over” she laughed “it was really funny”.

She looked around the floor and set her eyes on the Britannia’s

version of the encyclopedia, she pulled it towards herself, not

attempting to pick it up as it looked heavier that she was. “he fell

over this book” she said to tom. Tom just sat there with his legs

crossed watching Sarah flip through the pages. The book wasobviously not the key's hiding place but Sarah felt it necessary to

turn every page. After nothing was discovered Sarah flipped the

book over hard in frustration, as it landed on its back a torn piece

of paper fell out, tom picked it up, there was a drawing of four

circular rings and inside each one was a different size cog.

“what a funny drawing” tom said. Sarah took the piece of paper

and studied it,“wait, there’s something written underneath the drawings, its says,

“the key”.

“the key?!?” asked tom looking bewildered.“yeah”, said Sarah, “but this can't be the key, its just a piece of

paper”

“maybe its a clue to the key” said tom.

“yeah, maybe”. Sarah folded the piece of paper and put it in her jeans back pocket. She looked around the room “I don’t know

where else to look” she said.

“hey! Hang on a minute!” said tom, “Sarah where do people keep

keys?”

“on a keyring?” Sarah said.

“right!” he exclaimed.

“ah! So dad must have it on his set of house keys! Great thinkingtom!” Sarah turned towards the kitchen clock, her father had been

shopping for a hour and a half, it was 6pm. “we'd better make a

pot of tea or something, I reckon dad will be home soon.

So they did, they washed up the old cups and made a fresh pot of

tea. They took theirs and her fathers and settled at the kitchen

table, removing the birthday cake and placing it on the worktop

opposite them. Tom picked up a book from by his foot titled“huckleberry Finn” and began to read it.

It wasn’t long after Sarah had managed to prize the Cookie jar



open and dunk her first biscuit, her father walked through the front

door with at least six bags of shopping in his hands.

“alright kids” he said.

“alright”, “alright?” they both sat there watching him put the

shopping away and then he took out his keys and placed them on

the table in front of tom and Sarah.They starred down at them in silence and after some time Sarah

picked up the cluster of keys and examined then one by one.

But no, no golden key. They both looked puzzled.

“right then! Lets get these fajitas on the go is it?” said her father.

“yes please” they both said and her father placed the wraps under

the grill to warm through, tom made the salsa and Sarah sliced thechicken and some cucumber.

All three of them sat relaxed and enjoyed fiddling with their wrap

trying to fold it so that the filling doesn’t fall out while they try toget their mouths around one end. Tom got in a sticky mess, salsa

kept dripping down his arm and a few pieces of cucumber and

chicken kept escaping from Stewart wrap. Only Sarah managed at

least one good fajitas.They were all laughing and giggling, Stewart kept embarrassing

Sarah with stories of things she used to get up to as a child “do

you remember the first time you rode a bike without stabilisers

Sarah?” her father asked. Sarah shook her head.

“well” her father carried on “we were on a field in Wales, on

holiday I think, anyway I was getting so frustrated with Sarah

running along on her bike, at most points the stabilisers weren’teven touching the ground. So I took them off gave her a push and

off she went. The only thing was, she didn’t know how to stop

without falling over because the stabilisers always kept her upright

you see. Well, she just kept on riding and riding, eventually she

rode into a wooden fence and landed face down in a big muddy

puddle!” tom and her father cried with laughter.

The laughter slowed down eventually and everyone was looking

tired. “I think its time to cut the cake Sarah!, gosh its coming up to



half past eight, are you going to be okay getting home tom?

Actually forget I asked, ill give you a lift. Lets just have some

cake and we'll make a move” her father got up and lifted the red

heart shaped cake from its box and onto the kitchen table. He

turned to one of the kitchen draws and took out some

multicoloured candles. He placed ten around the edge of the cakeand lit each one with some stove matches.

“now come on tom “happy birthday”” her father and tom both

started singing together “happy birthday to you, happy birthday to

you, happy birthday dear Sarah, happy birthday to you” and with

that Sarah lent over and blew out the ten candles. There’s was a

cheer and clapping and tom picked up the large cake knife and

began to cut three large slices of cake.“mm mm..chocolate fudge cake, lush dad!” said Sarah. They all

sat down trying to finish each of their enormous pieces and

everyone had brown spongy moustaches.“right then tom, better get you home!” said her father, he picked

up his set of keys and said while putting on his coat, “ill go and

start the car” and left through the front door.

Tom also put on his cost and gave Sarah a hug “i guess ill see youtomorrow then Sarah, sorry we couldn’t find that key, but maybe it

does exists, we did find that weird drawing” said tom.

They both yawned “yea, maybe we could try the library and look

for something on clock legends” replied Sarah.

“alright then, see you tomorrow!” tom said and Sarah waved him

good bye.

Sarah turned to the settee, jester was asleep, curled up on a pillow.

She lifted him up in her arms, his bell jingling, and proceeded

upstairs. Sarah laid jester onto a pile of sheets by her bed and got

changed into her pyjama's that were way too small for her. She

took out the wooden box from under her chest of draws and placed

uncle Patrick’s card, photo and message inside along with the

piece of paper with the drawing of cogs. She rummaged through

her hooded pocket and found the birthday present that tom had

given her, the silver locket that read “friends forever”. She pulled



at her chain around her neck which held the golden charm that she

found and placed the locket onto it. Sarah stroked jester's fur and

then got into bed.



The Elemental Clock

Sarah woke up to a loud banging noise, she leaped out of bed

threw her dressing gown around her shoulders and ran downstairs. She found jester, her pet cat, playing with all the balloons

on the living room floor. Jester hadn’t seem to realise that his

claws would pierce the balloons. He was popping them and

jumping around after a few that kept floating away from him. He

noticed one balloon attached to a wall in the kitchen above the

table, he jumped onto the table and into the air knocking the

balloon off, jester had reached the floor long before the balloon

would. He jumped again, snagging at it with his paws, and then as

he shut his mouth around the sealed end, it burst. There were tiny

pieces of balloon attached to jester's fur and the tied end still in hismouth. Jester looked shocked and then realised he still had part of

the balloon in his mouth, he led down placing the part between his

paws and began to chew it.

Sarah stood there giggling to herself, her father was making

breakfast on the gas stove singing to himself “oo it feels like a Sunday morning, yeah, yeah”.

“morning dad” Sarah said still giggling to herself.

“morning Sarah, morning Sarah” her father still in song, “do youfancy some breakfast? Yeah, yeah.”



“no thanks dad, id better get dressed” she replied.“okay..Sarah’s getting dressed, yeah, yeah, yeah!”.

Sarah still giggling to her self, and jester still destroying every

decoration in sight Sarah went to shower and put on some fresh

clothes. Her choice was a red polo neck jumper and yet another

pair of jeans.Sarah walked to her chest of draws to pull out her jewellery box.

She took from it her photograph with uncle Patrick’s message and

the piece of paper with the drawing of four cogs and placed them

into a satchel. Sarah continued downstairs clutching at her satchel.

Her father was now at the kitchen table, there were bits of burst

and half chewed balloons strewn around the floor, jester was

trying to attack the “happy birthday” banner that half hung fromthe fire's wall.

Sarah made a cup of tea from the pot and took out a large black

bag and began to pick up all the bits of decorations.“got any plans today Sarah?” asked her father.

“um..yea, I think I might go and spend that twenty pound that

uncle Patrick gave me”.

“okay” he said while chewing his bacon and egg, “and will tom bejoining you?”. He asked.

“yea, I think so” she replied while trying to prize the banner from

jester.

“okay” he said and then broke into song again, “Sarah and tom,

sitting in a tree, kay, i, ess, ess, i, en, gee!”.

“DAD!” Sarah shouted back trying to stop her father singing

anything more, “WILL YOU CUT IT OUT!”.“alright, alright, anyway I hope you have a nice time. I wont be

doing anything today, I’m having a lazy day!” he said.

“im so happy for you” Sarah said sarcastically, she was still

annoyed with her fathers little innuendo.

Sarah picked up the twenty pound note she had left on the lounge

table put it in her satchel and left the cottage. She made her way

out the drive, up to the main road and followed it across the little

bridge passed the disused park.

It was chilly this morning, Sarah took out a pair of gloves from



her satchel and put them on.

The sun was still low and shining into Sarah’s eyes, she put her

hand over them to try and shade herself. There was an object

moving fast in her direction but the sun was so bright she couldn’t

see what it was. It could have been a bicycle, but it looked too big.

Then she heard, “Sarah?”. It sounded like tom but she still wasn’tsure. The object came closer and closer “Sarah? What do you

think?” the boy's voice called. She looked and looked but the sun's

light was so strong she covered her eyes completely which forced

her to stop walking. She heard a loud bell ringing and ringing.

“Sarah, you can open your eyes now!”

she did just that. It was tom, and he was riding a type of bicycle

that could sit two people, two saddles, two handlebars and twosets of peddles all attached to one frame and two wheels. It was

long in length, longer than a car.

“what is it tom?” asked Sarah.“its a tandem, a little surprise, I found it at the back of dad's shop.

I didnt think you'd want to be walking in this weather. Its too

cold!”

“a tandem? Is it safe?” she asked looking a bit scared.“of course its safe Sarah. Ill be riding at the front, you only have to

sit and hold on. Ill do all the peddling”.

“alright then” agreed Sarah unenthusiastically, she hopped onto

the second seat and gripped onto the handle bars tightly.

Tom turned the tandem around and began to peddle slowly along

the path.

“see! Its not so bad!” he said. Sarah still gripping to the handlebars.

“no, not bad”.

Tom continued along the path until they reached the cobbled

village road. They stopped at the village hall. There were three

bars welded to the ground, tom tried to position the tandem

between two of them, hoping to get the chain around the back

wheel and attach it to one of the bars. With a feww grunts and

tugs he managed to attach the lock and the tandem stood straight.

Tom seemed pleased with his atcheivment even if the tandem



stood a clear two metres onto the road possibly blocking somones

pathway.

“so,what we got planned today then?” asked tom.

“i told dad I was going to spend that twenty pond uncle patrick

gave me, I guess at some point we could do that”. Sarah replied.

“at some point?” tom asked “what else are we doing then?”.“dont you remember? Last night we agreed to go to the library, to

look for information on clock ledgends?” remided sarah.

“yea, I remember, so to the library then!” tom said while linking

sarah's arm through his and walked across the cobbeled path to a

large white building with a large white wooden door that had a

circular nob handle in the centre, larger than both sarah's hands put

together. Above the door a large sign that read. “destines library”.Tom noticed a little button by the door,

“must be the door bell tom, better press it, im not gonna turn that

handle!” said saah and tom pressed the door bell and waited.A friendly womans voice came from a hole above the bell, “hello?

Can I help you?”.

“um..yes” said sarah, “hi, im sarah and with me is my frend tom.

We would like to use your library please” sarah asked.“of corse dears, come on in.” the lady said, then with a swoosh the

door flew open knocking tom onto his bottom.

“oh, by the way..watch out for the door!” the lady warned, but it

was too late. Tom scrambled to his feet rubbing his soe back and

whispered “she could have told us that sooner!”.

Sarah was giggling “oh come on, it'll be warmer in here”.

They both entered the libray, there was a large bright white hallwith one little desk in the centre. The wiped their shoes on the mat

they were standing on hoping not to dirty any part of the

imaculate room and walked over to the desk. A small thin young

woman dress all in white walked around the desk to meet them.

She was very pretty with blond hair a large smile and glasses.

“hello” she said kindly while handing tom and sarah two white

plastic cards with one black strip on the reveres, “you'll need these

to get into the library, they are swipe cards. Just swipe them by the

door over there,” she pointed towards another white door that



blended well into the background “its nice to see some young

people using the facility, especially with the world wide web

taking over the world” and she jestered to sarah and tom.

“um..thankyou” said sarah. They both made their way over to the

other white door and swiped their card. This door didnt swing

open like the last, it opened graciously without a sound. They bothwalked through to find another even larger white room, almost the

size of a large grocery store. Rows and rows o shelves filled with

books, all the way to the ceiling. They took a feww more steps

forward and “BANG!!!”. They both jumped covering their ears

and turned towards the noise, it was the door, it had slammed hard

behind them. Sarah's look of shock turned to relieif and tom

muttered “these door are starting to annoy me!” sarah giggledaagain breaking the tension and walked over to a see through

plasitic stand infront of them. The stand held what looked like

leaflets, sarah picked one up and opened it out. It appeared to besome form of map to the library.

“welcome to destine's library! Each shelf in each section is

alphabetical and each section is labelled on the end of each case,

also alphabetical!”. Below that were different shapes and eachshape was labelled.

“so where do we look first” muttered sarah. Tom peered over

sarah's shoulder reading the library's map.

“maybe we should try this symbol” he pointed halfway down the

leaflet to a star shape, by the side of it read “history”.

“yes” agreed sarah, “so if we want history, then we go to the letter

H and then to the star symbol? Yes?” asked sarah sounding unsureof what she just said.

They both walked up and down each bookcase taking note of

every sign. Ty reahed the mddle of the library and came across a

bookcase labelled “No 102” also with the letter “H”. they walked

down the case looking out for a star symbol.

“here it is!” said tom ponting up towards the top of the stack.

There was defnatly a star symbol but it was at leatst six metres off

the ground. They both walked back up the end of the stack pulling

at one of the ladders. The ladders were attached to a track sliding



up and down each bookcase. They pulled it over to where the star

symbol was and began to climb the ladder, tom went up first

knocking dust off each step ans onto sarah's head. By the time

they reached the top, sarah's hair was white in colour.

“right now what do we look for?” asked tom trying not to look

down.“well” said sarah while coughing as some of the dust had ended

up in her mouth “the leaflet said it would be in alphabeticla order,

so I suppose we look for the letter I, and then for a book possibly

called Italy!”.

“okay!” replied tom. He searched through each book pulling his

way across each shelf. He pulled out one book and searched

through it. “sarah? This one says italy but theres nothing in hereabout ledgends. I was thinking, if ledgends are made up or

supposidly not fact, wouldnt they be in a different section? Like an

actualy myths and ledgens section?” tom asked.“yea, I suppose your right” replied sarah and they both made their

way back down the ladder.

Sarah dropped the leaflet to rub the dust out of her hair. Tom

picked up the leaflet, he turned it over and over again turning itupside down and inside out.

“what are you doing?” asked sarah.

“theres got to be morinformation on this leaflet thing!” hi said

while flapping it around in the air, then the leaflet opened out like

a sheet and floated to the ground.

“you see!” said tom, “i knew there had to be another side”.

They both looked down at the leaflet, it was now double in sizeand had sets of lists written on it. Each one a different section and

next to it a number.

“there!” pointed sarah, “under the letter M, Myths and Legends

No 647”.

“oh, why cant it be number one or two or three? At least we'd be

closer to the door!” grumbled tom.

Sarah lifted up the leaflet and they both walked around until they

reached stack number six hundred and forty seven.

“now I gues we look for the letter M?” grumbled tom.



But there were no letters only symbols. They turned to the leaflet

again trying to find the letter M. they found it next to a symbol of

triangle. They walked up and down the section trying to find the

triangler symbol it seemed like hours had passed until sarah spoke

“i think ive found it!” she kneeled down to the bottom shelf

wiping away some of the dust. There was a red triangle stuck to it.She searched with her fingertips through each book and pulled out

a very large heavy book entitled “Myths and Legends, Italy”.

“at least it was on the bottom shelf, wasnt looking forward to

climbing another sliding ladder!” grumbled tom.

“well, we've found it now, hopfully something will be in here and

then we can go”.

They both knelt down to look through the big book. Sarah turnedto the contents page, she scrolled down with one finger and stoped

at one called “The Ledgend of Elements”.

“The Ledgend of Elements?” tom asked.“dont you remember what was written on the clock in your dads

antique shop? It said “elements”” explained sarah.

Sarah turned the pages until she came across the chapter.

“Destine, Margereet, Olovat and Prestego.

Four worlds with four controlable elements.

In the names to rule,

one family shades of black,

one family shades of white,

two families shades of grey.

It is true for black to resign in destine,it is true for grey to resign in olovat,

it is true for grey to resign in prestego,

it is true for white to resign in margereet.

If black turns on white and grey, white and grey must defend.

Grey may part ways, either to the black or to the white, but only



one can be true, only one can take what is theirs.

Only white or black can prevail.

With the power of the pearl,

heat, fire and flame,water, liquid and rain,

ice, snow and wind,

leaves, branches and bark,may come together,

as one.

But only one can prevail.

With four stones and four wheels,

only then can elements be ruled.

There lay four follies but only one elemented clock,

only one resigns with the greys,

only the greys can decide,but only the black or the white can prevail.

Only one.”

“well! That makes sense!” said tom sarcastically.

Sarah did'nt respond, she was still focused on what was written inthe chapter.

Tom kept glancing at his watch and looking up and down the great

library. There was noone in sight. Then tom turned towards a little

noise coming from sarah's direction. It was sarah, she was

whispering to herself.

“what? I cant hear you?” said tom. Tom went to sit beside sarah,

she was still focusing on that chapter, muttering to herself.

“sarah? What are you saying?” tom asked while pulling his head

in to look directly at hers. Her gaze broke and she looked into



tom's eyes and said,

“look tom” she pointed towards the first line of the chapter, “it

says destine, well, this is the village of destine, isnt it?”.

“yes it is, but dont you think this is all a bit far fetched?” asked

tom.

“what do you mean?”“well” he pointed to the chapter, “elements can be ruled? I mean,

come on! Do you really this that somebody can actually control

fire?!” tom asked.

“well maybe it is a bit far fetched, but im not interested in

controlling fire, im interested in that clock! And it says here that

theres is only one clock but there are four follies? Maybe the clock

belongs in a folly?” asked sarah.“A FOLLY? ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Tom shouted, then a large

percing womans voice spoke down on them,

“SHH! QUIET PLEASE THIS IS A LIBRARY!” it was the prettywoman from the front desk, she had spoken through some sort of

tannoy. Sarah and tom removed their hands from their ears once

the woman had stoped talking.

“sorry sarah, I didnt mean to shout, I just want to leave now. Canwe?” asked tom appoligetically.

“of corse we can, do you think shewill let me take this book out?”

sarah asked.

“dont see why not” said tom. They both made their way back to

the white door, tom was keeping his distance just incase the door

decided to swing open. Sarah swiped their card and the door

swung open so fast a gush of wind hit both of them.“bet your glad you kept out of the way tom?” laughed sarah.

They both walked through back into the large white hall and

towards the front desk. The small pretty woman was reading a

book and eating an apple at the same time, she looked up noticing

tom and sarah and hid the apple under the desk and stood up.

“did we find what we were looking for?” she ashed them.

“yes” replied sarah, “and I was wondering if I could take this book

out on loan please?”sarah placed the old large dusty book onto the

womans desk. Her friendly face had turned into a disgusted



snigger.

“YOU! WANT TO BORROW THIS BOOK?!” she shouted at

them. Tom and sarah both stepped back.

“um...its okay. I dont have to take it out....ill just go and put it

back.” sarah suggested and walked slowly towards the desk and

reached out for the book, she picked it up and walked back towards the white door and swiped her card. The lady was still

sarrig at her with unfriendly eyes. Tom hurried after sarah and

they both walked back into the library.

“quick tom help me find that page!” said sarah.

“what are you doing sarah? You can't steal it!” said tom.

“im not stealing it im just borrowing the page thats all, she dosnt

need to know.” replied sarah and she found the chapter and rippedit out of the book and folded it up and put it in her satchel.

They left the book on the floor and proceeded through the white

door again into the white hall. The little lady looked friendlyagain. Sarah handed over the swipe card and said, “um..thankyou”

“not a problem, come back soon!” she said and then began to

whistle sweetly to herself.

Sarah and tom ventured through the front door and back onto thecobbled village road.

“gosh sarah! We must have been breaking some librarian's golden

rule or something trying to take that book out!” said tom.

“yes, or, maybe, she didnt want me taking it out because of what

was written in it!” replied sarah.

“oh come on sarah!” said tom.

“what? You know im beginning to get the feeling that peoplearound here already know things we dont! Something fishys going

on!” replied sarah now starring around the village with beady

eyes.

“alright sarah! I think you need to take a break before you crak up

like your uncle patrick!” laughed tom.

Sarah began to smile and walked over with tom to their tandem.

Tom took a look at his watch again,

“its getting on sarah, its quarter to three. Do you fancy getting a

hot chocolate? I think its cold enough for snow!” said tom looking



up at the sky.

“what about you bike tom?”

“im sure it will survive another hour”.

They both began to walk towards the small alley way when they

noticed the young pretty woman from the library run past them

and enter the “tea stop” café.“not sure I want a hot chocolate anymore sarah!” said tom.

“oh, come on. Maybe she's having hot chocolate as well”. Replied

sarah.

“then wy is she running?” asked tom.

“because its cold maybe?” sarah and tom both cotinued down the

alleyway and stood underneath the “tea stop” sign, they peered

through the cafe window, it was silent like before, not one personin sight, the pretty woman had vanished.

“see? Nothing to worry about. Lets have that hot chocolate”. Sarah

said and they both entered the cafe setting the bell off above their heads.

They chose their usual table by the shop's desk and sat down.

There was noises coming from the back of the shop, scuffling

noises.Srange mrs lofty came over to their table. She still had that

peacock's feather sticking out of her hair.

“wha will it be?” she squeeked.

“um..hot chocolate please” sarah said.

“yes me too!” said tom.

“i should have known” she grumbled “wont be long” and she

scurried back dissappearing behind the desk.“i think shes getting the hang of us ordering something other than

tea and coffe now sarah” said tom. They both laughed and rubbed

at their hands trying to warm themselves up.

A loud crashing noise came from the back of the cafe, tom and

sarah jumped startled by the noise. Then they heard a familier

screechy voice,

“im telling you! The peace has been broken! She is looking for it I

tell you!”

it was the pretty looking woman from the library, she was arguing



with mrs lofty.

“mum! Listen to me! Im telling you, the peace is broken!”.

Then mrs lofty and the pretty lady scurried into the front of the

cafe. The pretty lady stopped as she noticed tom and sarah sitting

at the table by the desk.

“i think its time you went casandra!” said mrs lofty. With that thepretty lady left the cafe. Mrs lofty gave sarah and tom a scornful

look and scurried back to the back of the cafe.

“im not liking this at all!” said sarah.

“i agree, well it looks like that lady from the library is mrs lofty's

daughter” replied tom.

“yeah, and her name is casandra, but what was she talking about?”

asked sarah.“i dunno, but shes not happy, and neither is mrs lofty”replied tom.

Mrs lofty came back with their hot chocolate almost spilling them

as she placed them on the table in front of them.“you'd better watch yourself girlie!” she whispered to sarah “now

drink this and never come back to my cafe again!”.

Mrs lofty scurried back behind the desk and stood their watching

sarah and tom.Sarah and tom looked scared, they sipped at their hot chocolate

quickly but not managing to empty the cups as quick as they liked

as it was still too hot.

“i think we'd better go!” whispered tom. Sarah nodded and put her

gloves on and picked up her satchel.

They both left the cafe and jogged up the alley way until they

were back onto the cobbled village road. They stopped to catchtheir breath.

“tom im scared!” said Sarah, now trying to catch her breath.

“yeah, I know what you mean. I thin we should go and talk to

your father Sarah. What ever is going on, what just happened, isn’t

right! We haven’t done anything wrong!” tom said apologetically.

“WE ?” said Sarah, “its not we tom, its me! She whispered to me!

And Cassandra said “she”. Sarah looked quite upset.

“well you then, you haven’t done anything wrong!”.

They walked over to the tandem looking up and down the road, as



though checking that the coast was clear. Tom began to undo the

lock attaching the tandem to the metal bar. Sarah took out the

ripped page from the library book and read it while waiting for

tom.

Sarah looked up, she could see a black figure in the distance

walking towards her, she pulled at tom's jacket to grab hisattention but he was too transfixed on undoing the lock, it had

frozen in the cold weather.

The black figure kept walking closer and closer, it was only after a

few minutes it was clear to see who it was. It was Vincent Carnell,

that boy she saw back at The Jade Inn the other day, he was

dressed in his usual black attire.

Sarah had a look of shock and fear in her eyes,“tom? TOM? Its Vincent he's walking over here! Is he going to

have a go at me too?”. She asked.

Tom turned around and strightened up, he noticed vincent walkingtowards them and jumped in front of sarah, almost guarding her

like a sheild,

“what ever you want she dosnt care, leave her alone, she hasnt

done anything wrong!” tom insisted to vincent.Vincent stopped only a couple of metres away. He looked sheepish

as though embarrased to be there. He took out something from

inside his jacket and held it out towards sarah. Tom still guarded

her closely.

“i..i..um...i know its late but I wanted..to..um..give you ..this...

sarah” vincent said squeakily and gave a little smile.

Sarah popped out from behind tom and took the envelope fromvincent. She opened the envelope to find a handmade birthday

card inside. Vincent had written

“to dearest sarah, happy birthday from v. carnell”.

Sarah started to blush and said “thankyou vincent, its lovely” she

placed the card into her satchel and

an unfinished childrens story - should i finish the book?

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