XIII

Later Bobbie lay sleepless in his bed, thinking about the day behind him. It was getting late. He had heard his parents go to bed some time before, and the house was now still. He could hear the big grandfather clock in the downstairs hall ticking, ticking, ticking. It was a comforting sound, a sound that had become part of his subconscious. The clock was part of the house and had been in its place in the hall since long before Bobbie was born. As he lay listening, he heard it strike eleven o’clock. He counted eleven chimes. He thought he had fallen asleep, and he heard the clock striking again. It must now be midnight—twelve chimes. He counted with the slow beat. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. ...Thirteen! He sat up in bed. That wasn’t right. He listened carefully. He could still hear the ticking, but there was something else, a low sound of some sort he couldn’t quite make out. Slipping out of bed he padded to the open doorway of his room and listened. The sound was somewhat louder but he still couldn’t make it out. Bobbie stepped stealthily down the big staircase to the front hall. The moon was shining brightly through the demi-lune transom window above the big front door, highlighting the house number XIII in dark blue glass set centrally in the surrounding clear glass panels . It lit the hall and lower stairs as bright as day. As he stepped onto the cool tile floor of the hallway, he stood directly in front of the tall clock and looked up at its moonlit face. The shadow of the number XIII in the transom window lined up with the XII on the clock face. The hands stood straight up, and he had distinctly heard thirteen chimes. The other sounds he was hearing seemed to be coming from inside the clock itself. He stepped forward. He heard a click. The key on the tower door turned slowly, all by itself. The door began to swing open. Fascinated rather than frightened, Bobbie stepped closer. A rectangle of bright light poured through the doorway, along with a mixture of sounds and smells. He could hear many voices speaking a language he had never heard before and grunting sounds like animals of some kind. He felt chilly all over and his mouth was dry. He stepped forward into the light coming from inside the clock.