We jumped. A couple screamed in surprise.
Master Talik moved like he had suddenly had hours and hours of rest and sleep, and the timeometer he’d been holding was already gone. Instead he’d raised his other hand, and by the time the handle moved down for the fourth time, the door opened.
No key in the hole, though Reggie had left it there.
No lock had turned, yet Calren came in, looking a little flushed.
“What…” He looked up at Master Talik, disoriented, swinging the door still.
“It’s an old thing. It jams a little sometimes,” the old Timekeeper said, waving Calren off, before he turned to the clock he’d been lecturing us about before.
“Right. Right. I’ll have someone look at it,” Calren muttered as he took his seat again.
Master Talik pretended he hadn’t even heard him. “Now, as I was saying about this clock…”
The rest of us looked at one another, and we all knew not to say a single word. It was obvious that Master Talik didn’t want Calren to know about the timeometer.Veryobvious.
But why in the world had he showed it to us? Why had he told us that it was illegal in the first place?
Rotten, rotten seconds.
I wantedto talk to March so desperately. I had no idea what about, only that I wanted to talk to him. To be in his proximity—when nobody else was around. But he’d hardly spoken to me all day, and I was now regretting having slipped out of his room that morning, and regretting that I’d gone to his room last night at all.
Maybe I should have stayed in mine. Maybe I shouldn’t have made this so damn complicated.
But how could I possibly regret having felt all that he made me feel?
I had no plans for the night, and I’d decided to sit in my bath after dinner just to have something to do, but I already suspected that midnight wouldn’t find me in my room at all, if the night before was any indication. That scared me especially. It scared me because I was eleven-hours certain that March wouldn’t answer the door, and if he did, he’d send me right back to my room again this time.
What would I do with myself then?
But just as I finished bathing and put on a fresh pair of clothes, there was a knock on the door. It was ten o’clock already, and Lida never came this late, so I automatically assumed it was March.
It was Mimi instead.
“C’mon! We’re headed to the kitchen to grab snacks, and we’re meeting outside in the garden,” she said in a hushed whisper, and waved for me to follow.
Others were already out the door, March included. The words were at the tip of my tongue and I wanted to call out to Mimi as she walked up the hallway—I’m not coming!
Except March was there in front of his door, and he was looking right at me. It could have been just me, but I thought he was waiting.
Waiting to see if I’d go.
Without word, I stepped out of my room and closed the door behind me. At that, he turned and followed Mimi and the others up the hallway.
It looked like I was going outside, after all.
My hair was still wet when we made it, all of us with snacks in hand. I’d taken crackers because I couldn’t find any of that chocolate mousse tonight, and March hadn’t offered to find one for me. He made sure that we were close, but never too close to actually talk, even when we sat in the mechanical garden. I was on the bench with Helen and Mimi, and he sat on the ground with Seth and Russ. We were all there, it seemed, except for Silas, Reggie, Cook and Levana.
As we ate our snacks, we talked in hushed voices about Master Talik’s timeometer, and we all agreed that the Timekeeper had wanted us to know about itwithoutCalren finding out.
“It’s for the last trial,” Seth said. “I know it—he’s trying to help us, the old man. We’ll be dealing with timeometers in the last trial.”
“Makes perfect sense. I think he likes us. I like him, too,” Mimi said as she popped a cherry in her mouth. She had a bowl full of them on her lap, and they did make me nostalgic. Jinx had adored cherries. I hadn’t tasted one in two years.
“Let’s hope so. Let’s hope that the last trial iseasyand that we get it over with quickly like we did the third,” Anika said. “As much as I enjoying seeing your stupid faces, I think I’m about ready to go home.”
Yes. I was, too.
