That morning, all the clocks were running backwards. Tilo spent almost half an hour looking into every grimoire she owned to understand the problem. Her grandmother would say, "Look for the root, you will know how to tend the plant." In this case, she found out about eleven possible root causes, and none of them made any sense. Finally, she called the only two girls she could trust with this.
Lola heard everything patiently and shared, "My great-grandmother once faced this kind of situation. All the clocks in her house were running backwards."
Ritu asked, "What happened to her?"
"She died in twenty-four hours." Lola said absentmindedly, "My dad says that it was her countdown."
An awkward silence loomed over the call. Lola made a face and broke the silence, "But you will not die today. I have seen your cards. You have a long life." She wanted to say a long and miserable life, but bit her tongue to control her words.
Ritu said, "Are they still acting weird?"
Tilo glanced at her wristwatch and said, No, not anymore. But something still feels off."
The day was spent mindlessly after that. Tilo restlessly browsed through the grimoires in her basement. Most of the books were centuries old, written in different obsolete ancient languages, but each gave her similar responses. Clocks running backwards were rarely a good omen. It could be symptoms of a deadly curse or hex, an upcoming natural disaster, the impending death of the owner of the clocks, or something terrible that was going to happen in the near future. To summarize, Tilo's time was coming to an end.
In the late evening, she pushed herself to open the shop. The clients started coming after midnight, so it was not a problem. The real problem was that Tilo could not focus, and in this specific profession, a moment's distraction could cause disasters. The last time she lost her focus in the shop, a man died across the street.
When she went upstairs and opened the doors to her shop, she felt somewhat better. The night breeze calmed her raging nerves, but the worry still remained like a thorn stuck in her heart. She started dusting the shelves, especially the samdalwood box at the upper right-hand corner. In the past eighteen months, she has tried to open it once or twice every day and failed. She glanced at the floral motif on the lid of the box and sighed.
A melodious chime made her turn from her step ladder. A young woman in her mid-twenties stood with a big smile that didn't reach her eyes. "This is Aurelia's, yes? I tried to find it on the maps, and my gps lead me here. But I don't see any signboard."
Tilo climbed down carefully and smiled back. "This is Aurelia's. How may I help you?" She also made a note to repair the signboard. Although it wouldn't make any difference if she ends up dying.
"I want to buy a broken clock. Can you help me find it?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"A clock, a broken clock. I desperately need one. Can you help me find it?" The woman, dressed impeccably in a black designer dress and a purple jacket, stared at her; her eyes showed something unreadable.
"We don't exactly keep those kinds of items, unless they have some historical or spiritual significance. I am sorry," Tiolo tried to sound professional. She mastered the art of indifference from a young age.
"No, it has to be here, at this shop. A broken clock. Can't you at least look for it in your system?" She glanced at the computer sitting on Tilo's desk.
"Ma'am, if there was any such item, I would know."
"Maybe you can look again?"
With a sigh, Tilo surrendered and turned on the computer. The old device will stop working any day. It took about three minutes longer than usual before the screen with the Microsoft wallpaper shone brightly. She gave it another couple of seconds before she opened her database and typed the term broken clock.
To her surprise, there was a broken clock, which had no description in her database at all except for the same term. She looked for further details. It was documented by George about ten years ago, and it was sold to a Dorothea Rutherford.
"Hi?"
Tilo looked up from her computer. The chirpy voice belongs to Kevin, a sixteen-year-old from the neighbourhood. "You again? What happened to the discussion about finding friends from a similar age group?"
He replied, "Do you want coffee or icecream? I am craving for ice cream, but I can settle for coffee too."
"I will take none," she said and looked around. "Did you see a pretty lady here, wearing a black and purple dress?"
Kevin shook his head and said, "There was nobody when I entered."
"That's strange!" Tilo moved to the far corner of the counter and peered into the screen, where the displays from four cctv cameras are arranged side by side. Kevin was right, there was nobody in the store. "When did she leave?"
"See, you definitely need an assistant to help you. What if one day, instead of a pretty lady, a scary man shows up and attacks you? You need a man to back you up."
"And you need a college diploma to survive in this big, bad world." Tilo grabbed a torch and walked out of the counter.
"You want to help me? Here, take this." She handed him a sheet of paper with a long list of items displayed in the far right corner of the store. "Check if any of these items are missing."
She herself went to the back of the store, where the smaller items are displayed. These are the items of most significance, both historically and spiritually, and although they are protected with spells and charms, Tilo often felt the need to check them personally.
If it were another witch, someone more powerful than her, then it would be a cakewalk for the lady to steal a few items in that imported leather bag of hers.
"Umm.. Tilo, is this thing supposed to behave this way?"
There it is, an anomaly caused by a presence in her store, as George had predicted all those years ago. She glanced at the shelf in front of her one last time and rushed towards teh far right corner. There was a faint, white glow.
It felt warm, and cold at teh same time. Tilo shivered, but one look at Kevin's steady and unaffected posture confirmed her that she was the only one to feel it. She was bot curious and extremely fearful to come close to it. She has both dreamt of this day and dreaded it, when it would finally speak.
"What is it?"
"It is a crystal, found only in a few locations. It shows future predictions."
"So, like a regular crystal ball?"
"Yes and no." Tilo breathed carefully, as though it could break the crystal in front of her. "It shows events that connect us to the cosmos, that affect our past, present and future, and change the course of our lives."
"So this man is going to connect you to the cosmos?"
Tilo stared at the face in the crystal.
She was seeing this face after centuries.