The Clock House

14 x 11, Mixed Media Paper, Watercolor, Pen, and Ink, 2016

Tyme stuffed a Phillips screw driver and a hammer in her backpack with a couple apples. She was heading over to the old house that looked like a clock, which was near her little towns train station at the end of Main St. Her little town had two streets. One street was named Broadway and the other one was Main Street. Main St. was a straight shot through town passing the towns schools to either the old highway or up into the mountains and it ran by the train station. Broadway was where the Dime store and other business lined up with store front windows advertising anything your heart desired was on sale. Tyme loved the Dime store, she could by a chocolate candy bar for 10 cents.

The Clock house had a large clock embedded on the front facing the street. The face of the clock was large, taking up the wall of the second story, surrounded by ornate golden wood siding and designs. It looked just like someones old grandfather clock. Everyone set their clock to the Clock House time. Tyme figured if she could break the clock she wouldn’t be so pressed getting ready for school and finishing her homework. She wouldn’t have to clean up her room and her Mom wouldn’t get so mad at her as she puttered around her mounds of toys and hobbies instead of cleaning up her messes. She closed the front door and started walking towards the train station at the end of Main St.

She put away her house keys and grabbed her phone fast dialing her brother Sean. “Hey Sean,” Tyme said when her brother answered. “Hay what Sister?” Sean said. “I am heading over the the old Clock House. I should be back before dinner, can you tell Mom where I am at and don’t worry if I don’t show up on time.” “Okay Sis, I will see you when I see you!”

Sean was 13 years old, he was 5 years old when she was born. He was almost as tall as their mother who was 5’10 and he was still looked like a skinny boy. His hair was straight and dark brown just like his eyes. Sean face looked like his Mom's he was beautiful for a boy and hated it when people told him how pretty he was. Sean had a mean streak, not too big but he loved to tease his sister until she lost her temper. Red-heads lose their temper as easy as water runs down hill!

Sean Also liked to collect bugs, frogs, and other creatures. He kept them in their barn’s old granary room. He had lots of terrariums full of all sorts of creatures. He said they talked to him but she didn’t believe that at all! Her brother like to tease her and her mother told her to just agree and let him have fun.

Tyme Tries To Stop Time

The old Clock House was built around the same time the train station was built some time in the mid 1800s. The train station was used to transport lumber from the old forest that flowed like a sea in slow motion across the waves of mountains that surrounded her little town. Now the old train station was falling apart all the timber had been cut down and the hills looked like an old man’s bald head. "If I could go back in time I would stop time and save our lovely woods too," she thought to herself as she walked.

From her house to the Clock House took about a 15 minute walk. She was amazed when she arrived, where did time go? It seemed only few minutes ago she had stepped out of her house. I guess getting lost in thought makes time go faster?

The Clock House wasn’t falling apart like the old train station. People worshipped time and kept the clock and old house in tip-top shape. The door was never locked, the key hung on a little hook by the door but was never used. It looked like it was made of gold but it was probably made of brass.

Tyme open the front door and walked into the front room. It was used as a meeting room for the town elders. There was a round table with 8 chairs that sat in the middle of the room. The floors were golden brown wood of the Douglas fir and the walls were made of red cedar. The town elders were a mix of farmers, business owners, teachers, and religious leaders. The walls were lined with all sorts of books and records. Books of the past that dictated what would happen in the future. Time never seemed to run out of words.

There was a stairway that led to the gear room full of the mechanical bits and pieces. She could hear the click-clacking of the clocks gears as they counted the seconds and moved the hands of the clock. Tic-tok, seconds of her life going by without a care what she thought. Maybe I can unscrew one of the bolts that hold the gears together or I could use my hammer to break one of the gears I could stop the clock as she walked up the stairs. The old stairs were like most stairs built in the 1800s, very steep and narrow.

The room was full of brass gears, rods, and bolts holding everything together. I wonder if that’s how time is held together with bolts and gears? She found the biggest gears and dropped the screw driver in-between their brass yellow teeth. “That should stop time,” she thought to herself. Nothing happened, she waited five minutes, ten minutes...She pulled her phone out and started playing Minecraft and 30 minutes flew by. It was almost an hour and the clock hadn’t stopped! Then suddenly the gear moved and then stopped. Everything stopped, no tic-tok, nothing, all the gears had stopped moving, big ones and little ones.

The silence felt like time was holding its breath.

“I stopped time! Now I have all the time in the world to do what I want. I wonder now that I stopped time I can go back in time like walking up or down stairs,” Tyme thought to herself as she walked down the steep narrow stairs.

She walked through the front room and saw that the door was shut. I thought I had left the door open. That’s weird. She tried to open the door and it was locked! No one locks the clock house door. No one has to lock their doors in her little town.

Tyme ran back up the stairs and looked through the clock’s face to see if anyone was outside. Maybe if she yelled they could hear her. She saw a huge owl fly away with the front door’s key! No one else was outside and she doubted if anyone could hear her anyway. The house walls were solid Douglas fir planks and the face of the clock was made out of thick glass. She ran down the stairs to the back of the house where the kitchen and bathroom were but that door was locked too!

Tyme rummaged through her backpack and found her phone and called her brother. She didn't want to call anyone else and get in trouble. No one would believe that a huge owl flew away with the key.

He didn’t answer so she left a message telling him her predicament. "Sean I'm locked inside the Clock House and an owl flew away with the key, can you believe that? Please when you get this message come and unlock the front door for me." Then she looked around the kitchen and saw the refrigerator was running. Someone must of stocked it for the next meeting as she pulled open the door. It was full of food old men liked to eat. Lots of cheeses and meats and bottles of beer. At least she had two apples to eat while she waited for her brother to figure out how to unlock time.

Chapter 1

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