And I have to be on a ship by 21.00."
The time on the pocket-watch was 17.03. It was one minute ahead from last time they checked it!
Josh`s thoughts flew as fast as the amazement that filled his eyes with tears. Did that watch take him back in time in the coffee shop? Did that little thing gave him an extra minute with his father? How? Will it do that again? What about the girl at the coffee shop? And who the heaven is Eldren?
On the late evening of that swift Sunday, the dancing shadows of the branches were smoothly reflected from their home window that were dividing the light and the dark. Josh was sitting at his desk. The homework was sitting on the corner of the dark-brown table. But Josh admired the golden old watch.
Suddenly!
He winced on his chair. Something hit the window. He didn`t move, thinking what was that sound?, still not realizing it was the window.
Again!
This time it was louder and clearer, behind him, across the room. Josh slowly turned to look at the squared modern window, squeezing the watch in his left hand. Only all-knowing silence followed, emerged by the wind in the evening darkness.
Joshua slowly approached the window, hoping the sound will not return. It didn`t.
He looked out the window.
There was an old man, looking like a hobo, with a shopping cart in his hands, full of time-forgotten junk.
Josh opened the window.
"Hey boy!" the old man screamed in whispers. "Come down."
Joshua didn`t answer. He had no intention to go outside, so he started to close the window, hadn`t he heard the madman`s words of whisper.
"I know who`s watch it is!"
Josh hesitated.
Wether or not to go outside. Something thrived him. He hesitated again, whether or not to bring the watch with him, while sneaking outside to meet the stranger. It was solely important to him – the origin of that watch. It had become an obsession. Can the old man really explain what happened at the coffee shop?
The man in the old worn clothes waited by the bushes, behind the chestnut tree. They both looked at each-other without a word. Josh slowly spread the words, opening the palm where the mysterious watch was timelessly resting:
"You said you know who`s watch it is?" asked Josh
The old man looked at it with a weird grin, like watching a chest of treasure.
"Is it yours?" Josh continued when there was no answer.
"It is God`s!" the old man snapped at him, lashed his hand through the air without moving his gaze from the watch.
"God`s?" Joshua repeated. "Are you saying I should bring the watch to preacher John?"
The old hobo grunted in his tall jacket, full of holes, and with a smell of liquor he said:
"There is no watch, boy!"
Joshua couldn`t move. "There is no watch?"
The old man grunted again and said: "You think it`s a watch you`re holding there? It`s not. I can tell you about the Watch and how to use it," the old man suggested.
"To use it? It doesn`t even tell the right time."
"There is no time, boy!" the old man said even louder and continued:
"I`ll tell you what you must do, but you must do exactly like I tell you to. There`s a button on the left. Pull it one notch and then turn it back fast to 1.01 p.m today. It`s two hours behind, right? Then say the pass-key I will give you it, if you agree. I`ll be behind the bushes, by the bench, at the time you found it. Then tell me the numbers 2,8,17,28,33,34. Got it?"
"Why?" Asked Josh
"Just do it, boy! Questions later."
"Why?" Josh asked again.
"Because only then I will tell you about the watch, that`s why," the old hobo was growing impatient.
"Tell me now and I will give you the watch and you can do it yourself," Joshua said.
"For sure!" the man laughed. "I`m gonna go and tell myself some numbers in the park, that will work…"
The hobo raised his hand and pointed a finger towards the watch and looked at Josh:
"Look, boy. I need your help, get it?"
It seemed the old man was trying to act nicely for the sake of his plan when he explained:
"Only you can use it now – IF you know the secret password. You can do wonders with that thing. It`s the Holy Grail. It takes different forms in time, appearing as a golden fish or the lamp where a genie pops out or the well where you toss a coin to make a wish or a Goblet of Youth. These stories are all true. This thing has been here since the beginning of time. It is one of the Words of Creation, the legend says. The God created the world with Seven Days – with the Seven Words of Creation. It`s Sunday you`re holding there. The day the God admired His all creation. You can move inside the Creation with that thing or change it, if you will. Whatever you want – you can have it. But first you must do what I said. Then I will tell you more."
"Those are lottery numbers, aren`t they?" Joshua asked.
"Yes. But I spent a fortune finding information about the thing. So I deserve it. It`s fate, you see? I`ve waited for 3 years behind that bench for someone to find IT."
"Why didn`t you get it for yourself?"
"I can`t, you see? THEY know me. THEY don`t know you. I will tell you the pass-key and you can use it."
"The pass-key?" Joshua was looking at the sun-golden watch, thinking he already used it once, without knowing anything about the pass-key. "Who are THEY?"
“No time for Jeopardy, boy! Will you do it or not?”
Joshua stepped backwards. He really didn`t want to get involved with whatever the hobo was involved with.
The old man hesitated for a while, then grabbed Joshua`s arm with an iron grip, like he had no time for this.
Josh saw the fool`s-golden ring, with an engraving of a snake, on his finger of that hand that trapped him and destroyed all the kind feelings towards that hobo.
In a struggle, Joshua pulled the glittering Watch against his chest and suddenly he saw how everything went blurry and cold. The big threatening arm, which Joshua held on to, started to fade, but the ring got clearer and brighter. Josh felt the frosty shiver, everything started to freeze around him. The trees, the pavement, the deep sky – everything started to fade on edges and coldness entered into his bones. Josh looked around – everything looked the same, except… He felt unwilling to move in the coldness where things had lost their inner “juice”. Everything felt dead and to move his lips took an enormous strength.
“Aah…” Joshua was freezing his words off.
Josh didn`t know what to do next, when he heard behind him the freezing girl`s dim voice that scared him:
"…Eldren… Eldren…"
As he tried to breathe, the girl floated around him, and he saw that this was the same girl from the cafeteria. She was a bit older than he was. They both were freezing.
The timeless cold started to consume Josh`s thoughts and without thinking he took his strength and pushed the Watch away from him.
He felt a pull. Everything went warm, twisted and turned and he felt like he was sucked from one dream to another, finding himself staring at the same street he was on before.
"Josh! Come inside!" he heard his dad. Joshua was outside his house again. The hobo was gone.
"Dad!? I thought you`re on a ship already!"
"What ship?" Andrew asked.
Joshua looked at the watch in his hands, thinking if he had changed the past. What now? What are the Seven Words of Creation? Who was that girl? And who is Eldren?
CHAPTER I:
THE MONDAY
Joshua