The People of "Clock" (by Jennifer, guest columnist from Sydney, Australia)

(Manuscript of Jennifer's fiction)

Peter and Jane met in the town square right underneath the grand clock. There was a sign right next the clock said: DO NOT CLIMB CLOCK OR ELSE....The rest had been rubbed off by someone during the centuries it had been there. Many people have talked about who erased it, why it was erased and when.

Every time the clock was just about to strike the hour, two small doors opened, one on each side of the clock, then a wooden strip of wood would come out the first door and then in the other. The clock would start striking and small figures would start to come out one door and along the wooden strip it went. Once it reached the other door, it would disappear into the mass of gears and pallets.

Peter and Jane had met for that especially. It was really amusing for the children to watch the little figures coming in and out of the doors. Just after all the figures had finished parading their little show, Peter asked "Are you brave enough to climb to where the doors are and hold on until 8:59 and 59 seconds?" Jane was indeed afraid but she didn't want to show it, "Of course I am brave enough!" Exclaimed Jane.

Jane climbed to where the little ledges stuck out and supported the wooden strip that carried the tiny figures. While Peter and Jane waited, they had a little conversation as to not bore themselves to death.

"Don't you think the tiny line of figures is getting every now and then?" Jane asked Peter.  "Yeah," Peter replied "I kind of noticed that, too."  "Maybe it had something to do with the erased sign." Jane suggested.  Just then the clock started striking, Jane had not noticed but the wooden strip had already stretched its way across the big wide gap between the two doors and already the figures were coming out.

"YOU CAN LET GO NOW!!" Peter cried in alarm.  "I can't," Jane shouted back. "I'm too scared."

One sweaty hand came loose and Jane screamed in alarm. She frantically scrambled on to the now seemly much too narrow wooden strip and got carried into the mysterious inside of the clock. Peter scrambled up the clock and jumped on to the wooden strip just as it was disappearing into the clock. The only light source he had now was the dim light coming from the one door that would close soon, the one that the wooden strip had retreated through. The other one had already closed.

"Jane!" Peter called, desperate to find his friend.  "Jane! Where are you!?"  All of a sudden the door closed, blinding him. Peter took a cautious step forward and fell into a hole!

The next time the grand clock rang, two extra figures joined the line of the small figures, a boy and a girl.