The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,60

in the room, and his complete focus on it drew Landon in. Then, in the silence, Landon heard a soft but steady ticking. It was a clock, or maybe a ticking time-bomb, but Landon leaned toward the former.

“So, Landon,” Dr. Brighton said, still not diverting his focus away from the contraption. “Truthfully, what causes a student to be up at this hour? Surely you weren’t working on something course related.”

“No,” Landon replied. “Nothing to do with classes. It’s just I’ve been trying to figure something out, and I get so caught up in it that I totally lose track of time.”

“Understandable. Must be something terribly important to warrant such dedication. Most students I know wouldn’t dream of doing anything that cut into their valuable sleep time.” Dr. Brighton paused for a moment as his face contorted and he peculiarly glared at the clock. “But as Leo Tolstoy said, ‘The two most powerful forces are patience and time.’ If you accept that, I’m confident you will eventually find your answer.”

“Thank you, sir,” Landon returned with trepidation. He felt a bit awkward having a conversation with someone who was so obviously focused on something else altogether, and that in turn, was making him nervous. “I’m sure I will.”

“Anyways, to get to the reason I allowed you to come in. You see this clock here. Something is wrong with it, and I cannot figure out what exactly. Perhaps you can help me diagnose and correct the problem.”

“Well, back home whenever the television or anything wasn’t working right, we’d just whack it until it got better.”

Dr. Brighton let out a small laugh. “Ah, if only that would work here. I’m afraid this contraption would only get worse were I to ‘whack it.’ Clocks are very temperamental pieces of equipment.”

“Well, what do you know is wrong with it so far?” Landon asked.

“What? You don’t hear it?” Dr. Brighton returned quickly. “Listen.”

Landon closed his eyes and tried to focus on whatever Dr. Brighton was hearing. Apart from the gentle hum of his breath and the almost inaudible electrical hissing of the lamp, all Landon could hear was the steady ticking of the gears turning in the clock.

“What am I supposed to be hearing?” Landon asked hesitantly. He’d hope to impress his teacher with his natural ability to discern clock abnormalities via auditory stimulus, but not so much.

“The ticking. This clock is a fraction of a second out of sync.”

“Oh, of course,” Landon replied matter-of-factly. “The clock’s out of sync. I heard that, but I was thinking you were talking about some other problem with it. Is a fraction of a second something to worry over? That’s such a small amount.”

“Were you not listening to what I said? ‘The two most powerful forces are patience and time.’ Time is so important that you must ensure it is precise and accurate. Unless this clock is fixed, it is useless. We must fix the problem now before it grows and throws everything off. If we allow this clock to continue, its inaccuracy will compound and eventually be a full second off, and then a minute and so on and so forth. Any ideas?”

“Umm . . . ”

“Try using your abilities. Maybe by searching it, you’ll see something I haven’t that might be causing the problem.”

“If you think it’ll help.” Landon leaned forward in his chair and stared at the back of the clock. With a deep breath, he tapped into his abilities and became fuzzily aware of everything around him, including the wooden timekeeper sitting before him. “I just see the clock.”

“Look deeper, Landon.”

With another breath he attempted to focus his feeling solely on the clock. As he reached in deeper, he began to sense the gears and pieces that made up the mechanism inside, but they were hidden within a foggy haze. Landon still hadn’t garnered the sensitivity in his abilities that allowed him to see clearly through his gifts. “I don’t feel anything odd, but I really don’t know what I’m looking for.”

“That does make it difficult,” Dr. Brighton said pensively as he stroked his chin. “Clocks are complex machines—gears, cogs, pins, dials, crystals, weights, needles and keys—understanding them is like understanding fate. Like every event in our lives, one affects the other until it results in the foreseen end.”

Suddenly, Dr. Brighton’s eyes opened wide and gleamed with excitement. He then leaned away from the desk and raised his right hand, palm upward. The clock lifted off the desk and rose into the air until it was