Another mystery among many.
Once done stacking the books, Jake sat cross-legged on the bed and pulled the gold watch out of his pajama pocket. He set it between him and his sister.
“How did those thieves know we had it?” Kady asked. “Did you tell anyone?”
“Of course not! How about you?”
Kady rolled her eyes.
So no.
Her eyes settled back on him. “You’re supposed to be the brains of this outfit. You don’t have any theories?”
“Only that Bledsworth must somehow be involved. Back in Calypsos, lots of people knew we’d found Dad’s watch. Maybe word got out, reached ears here in our time. That’s all I can think of.”
“If so, can we trust Drummond?”
“I don’t know.”
Jake had mixed feelings about the man. He knew Morgan must be lying—or at least was not being totally honest—about how he came to be in the house so conveniently. Yet Jake could not discount his gut reaction. He sort of liked the big guy.
Jake took a deep breath and continued. “Which brings up another question: why did those thieves come here for the watch now? We’ve been back for three months. So why come today of all days?”
Neither of them had a clue. A silence spread over them, both lost in their own thoughts.
Kady finally picked up the watch and turned it around in her fingers. Her gaze grew wistful. “I remember when Mom gave this to Dad. I was only five. He let me sit on his lap and wind it up.”
She opened the case and stared at the watch face. None of the hands moved. After sitting in the cabinet for so long, the watch had run down.
Kady began to turn the stem of the watch, winding up the mechanism. Jake didn’t try to stop her. They’d both done everything they could to manipulate the watch, to see if they could use it to transport them back to Pangaea to continue the search for their mother and father.
But nothing had worked.
They needed to find another way to go back.
Kady stopped winding the stem and let the watch tick away in her hand. Her voice grew as tender as a young child’s. “I remember how he used to carry it in his vest pocket, and I’d place my ear against it and hear it tick. To me, this was always Daddy’s heartbeat.”
Jake saw the pain mixed with happiness in his sister’s eyes.
“Let me,” he said, and took the watch from her.
He placed it against his ear and listened to the soft click of the precise mechanism. He closed his eyes; but instead of his father, Jake pictured the machinery inside the watch. He couldn’t help it. He’d read volumes on watches as a part of his study of horology, the science of the measurement of time.
Jake knew there was something important about watch-making and the movement of time, something just out of his grasp. He continued to listen to the ticking, straining for insight. He pictured the clockworks inside the watch, the precise movement of wheel, shaft, gear, and pivot. And it wasn’t all metal inside the case. To create less friction, watchmakers used jewels for some of the moving parts: rubies, sapphires, emeralds, even diamonds.
As Jake listened, a picture popped into his head. He again stood inside the Astromicon atop the castle of Kalakryss in Calypsos, staring into the mechanism that filled the dome overhead. As the watch ticked in his ear, the copper gears in the Astromicon dome turned, and a parade of crystals orbited around. Sunlight drove the movement. Powered by solar energy, it was a clockwork masterpiece.
Suddenly Jake lowered the watch, twisted around, and reached under his bed where he kept a backpack always prepped. He yanked it free and unpinned a square badge fixed to the outside.
“What are you doing?” Kady asked.
“Let me think,” he said, teetering on a realization.
The silver badge was the size of his thumb, with four crystals mounted on it. In the center rested a white crystal as bright as a diamond. Positioned around it in the shape of a triangle were three other stones: a ruby, an emerald, and an icy blue sapphire. They represented the four main crystals of Pangaea, the four cornerstones of that land’s alchemy.
He turned to Kady. “Do you remember when I placed my flashlight in the Astromicon along with a blue crystal, and they fused together?
“Yeah, you created some sort of freeze ray.”
Jake picked up his father’s timepiece. “Watches like Dad’s also have crystals in them. Jewels, actually. Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds. What if Dad put his watch inside something like the Astromicon? Maybe that’s what gave his watch the power to open the gateway back here. If so, Dad’s watch may be a key to other portals.”
Kady scrunched up her brow. “But we’ve tried everything with it. Nothing’s worked.”
“I said it’s a key. Before we can use it, we have to find the lock that it fits.”
Jake stared down at the open watch. On the inside of the case, someone had inscribed a picture.
An ankh, the Egyptian symbol for “life.”
Both of them knew this must be an important clue, another bread crumb on the path to discovering the true fate of their parents. It was why Jake had been researching Egyptian history, mythology, and writings so heavily. Now he realized that the symbol was more than a clue to their parents’ fate. It was a signpost to that lock.
Jake felt pieces falling into place in his head. He didn’t have all of them yet. It was like a half-completed jigsaw puzzle. A part of him recognized the danger of acting without that complete picture, but he pushed such reservations aside in his excitement.
“Someone must know that Dad’s watch can act like a key,” Jake said, swinging off the bed and standing. “That’s why they came for it.”
“But why now?” Kady asked, parroting his earlier question.
Jake pointed at her. “Exactly!”
Kady frowned her confusion.
“Why now?” Jake stalked the room, barely able to hold back his excitement. “Haven’t you sensed this strange feeling building over the last couple of days, like a freight train’s barreling toward you?”
Kady had been looking at him as if he were crazy, but his last words struck a nerve. He read it in her face.
“So you feel it, too!” he shouted.
She sat straighter. “I’ve hardly been able to sleep these past two nights. I thought it was the double mocha lattes from Starbucks.” Kady stood up and joined him. “But what does it mean?”
“We’ve been bounced back and forth in time like Ping-Pong balls. That must have some effect on us physically. Maybe somewhere at the submolecular level we’ve become tuned to time’s flow. Maybe it’s jacked up our intuition.”