The Timekeeper's Watch

Chapter Two - Introductions

"Sit awhile, watch the moon. Sink lightly into your glow. With the lights up. Two bodies were afloat. We were strangers wandering home"

'That was incredible! Who knew old Lutwyche could Reset Time like that?' Artie took the stairs down two at a time, landing with a soft thump on the ground floor.

'The way he just disappeared like that! It was so cool,' Artie said, then added, 'I wonder if we will ever be able to do it. Could your grandfather do it?'

Thom shook his head slowly. 'I don't think so. If he could he never mentioned it to my mother or me.'

'What about your brother? Did he mention it to him?'

'George?' Thom scrunched his brows together. 'I wouldn't have thought so. But he could have, I suppose.'

Artie rested his weight against the banister and adjusted his shoulder bag. 'How long has it been, anyway? Since you saw him.'

Thom thought for a moment and gave a small sigh. 'My mother's birthday last year. He stopped by the house. He was just leaving as I came home.'

'Oh, that's right,' Artie frowned. 'I remember you telling me about that. He just breezed past, didn't he? Without even a word.'

'That's George, unfortunately,' Thom said. 'I don't think he's said more than five words to me since that day.'

Thom remembered the way George had feverishly packed up a bag of clothes that night, a look of fury and disgust on his face as he glanced at his younger brother on his way out the front door.

He had returned barely a few times in the years after, usually to visit with their mother. Never more than a glance, sometimes a word or two aimed indirectly at Thom. His silent anger was almost palpable. Thom had never understood why he was so angry with him, simply because their grandfather had chosen Thom as the Watch's new keeper? How was that his choice, or fault?

Eager to change the subject, Thom added, 'What about your grandfather?'

Artemis gave a grin. 'Grandfather Rigby was more of a passive Timekeeper. He didn't get into that sort of thing.'

Artemis checked his Watch. 'Well, I've got Advanced Chem so I'd better scoot. See you later, Firth.'

The boy gave a two fingered salute to his friend and scampered off down the hall.

Thom adjusted the weight of his bag and set off down the corridor to room 067. He only had one more class scheduled for the evening and it was his favourite. Language Arts.

'Good evening to you all!' A beaming voice greeted him as he entered the room. It belonged to a large woman with piles of brown hair nested on her head. It fell in tendrils around her face. She wore a large red, flowered sundress. Thomas smiled at the image. Professor Harriet Wiley was his favourite professor, and a definitive contrast to professor Lutwyche.

'Thom, there you are, you beautiful boy! Take a seat! Everyone take a seat. Let's get started for the year. Welcome back to Language Arts. Comment étaient tes vacances, Thomas?'

'Bon merci, professeur Wiley,' Thomas replied.

'Ah, ravissant d'entendre!' the professor beamed. 'Now you will find some paper on your desks. Please go through and answer everything as best you can. This will be revision for previous years and also provide me with information on what we need to revise this year. And yes the paper does include all 14 languages in the Timekeeper curriculum.'

Professor Wiley looked down to the large bright silver Watch adorning her right forearm. 'It should take you roughly the next two hours.'

Thomas gave a small sigh. As much as he loved majoring in language, it could be trying at times. He opened his paper and started.

After a while he found his thoughts and gaze drifting. Being on the ground floor had its perks. Especially at this time of night.

The double bay windows set across one side of the room looked out on the grounds behind the building. Large trees adorned the grass and scores of small night Jasmin bushes littered the open ground outside the windows. He could smell the sweet, flowery scent drifting in on the night air. The cicadas rang out rhythmically in the silence of the occasional paper page being turned.

Thom realised that the girl sitting next to him by the window was the new girl he'd cast eyes on in Lutwyche's class. He'd never heard her first name, only Norwood. He watched her now.

Her short hair was bright, almost white in colour, in the moonlight that cast through the windows. It hung down across her face like a wavy curtain. Her shoulders were pushed forward over her paper, almost defensively. Protectively, maybe? Thom thought.

At that moment she turned and looked up. They locked eyes for a few seconds.

'Wo schaust du hin?' She said. What are you looking at? in German.

Thom repressed an odd urge to smile and after a moment, he looked away, back down at his paper. He could feel her eyes on him for the remainder of the class.

************************************

Thom's hand was aching when class finally finished sometime later. He placed his handful of filled pages on professor Wiley's desk with a yawn. She gave him a wink and said, 'Goed gedaan, Thomas.'

Well done.

He left the class and stepped outside into the warming air of an early dawn. The street lamps would soon be switching themselves off in anticipation of the brightening sky. The tram platform was not too far from the Society building, and ran at all hours of the day and night.

As he set off, he noticed someone already ahead of him. A shock of short blonde hair and the steady gait of long legs.

'Hey, wait,' he called and put a hand up in a small wave. 'I'm Thom.'

The girl slowed momentarily and looked at him. She slowed her walk to drop back into step with Thom, their shoulders almost touching.

'Hello, Thom,' she said casually. 'You were the boy in my classes this evening.'

'Yes, that would be me,' he gave a small cough. Her gaze watched him sidelong, blonde hair swaying round her face as she walked. 'I never caught your name?'

'Only my surname, I bet,' she said with a snort, then added, 'I'm Neaka.'

She held out her hand and Thomas, surprised, grasped it and shook. Her palm was small and warm. He caught a glimpse of a startling white Watch on her right forearm.

'Are you heading to the tram, Neaka?'

She shook her head no. 'Just in that direction. I live nearby.'

They continued to walk in silence, feet echoing off the cobblestones.

'You're not going to ask me a thousand questions about me and my family?' Neaka asked, with another sidelong glance at Thom. 'You certainly wouldn't be the first one today.'

Thom shrugged. 'Are you going to ask me about mine?'

Neaka laughed, a gentle girlish laugh. She eyed him in a quizzical way. 'Well alright then.'

The cobblestones ended and the road gave way to tightly packed dirt.

'Who is that other boy I saw you with in class today? Is he your friend?'

'That would probably be Artie. Why is that?'

'Mmmm, he sure stares a lot.'

Thom smiled and chuckled, his eyes wrinkling at the corners. Neaka cocked her head at him as she walked.

'He's excitable, but mostly he's harmless,' he explained.

The lights of the tram stop glared in the breaking dawn as they approached. A single waiting tram sat idle ready for departure.

'Well, this is me,' Thom hesitated. 'Are you sure you're okay to get home?'

Neaka smiled and kept walking up the dirt road, turning back to say, 'I'm a Timekeeper, Thomas. I can get anywhere.'