Riddle of the Red Bible
closed the bedroom door. Courtney knew however, that as comforting as her mum’s words were, she couldn’t sleep just yet. Something else in her room had emerged as the thing that kept her mind on overdrive each night, and it was not what anyone would have expected a child of her age to be fixated with. Hung on the wall at the end of her bed was a rather large clock that had been specially designed to help young children learn to tell the time. Everything needed for the task was labelled largely and clearly. Hours, minutes and even seconds as well as indicators for half past, quarter past and quarter to. Ever since it was placed there it had become her friend, and she had been totally mesmerized by it over the years. Whispering to the clock she said, ‘You’re such a good friend to me do you know that? In fact, you’re my only friend. Just make sure you never stop. Can I count on you to do that?’ She paused for a while. ‘Shall I tell you a secret, hmmm? Your heart ticking all the time is the only thing that does help me to sleep.’ She pondered more as she cuddled her only other friend; a stuffed cuddly toy tiger. The ticking was relatively loud, so she constantly heard it, whether she was awake or asleep; mainly due to the fact that it had been there right from the day she was born. The sound had been permanently embedded into her brain and had become such a part of her that even if it were to stop it would relentlessly continue in her mind as an imprinted memory. She would even sometimes put her tap shoes on and dance merrily to its rhythm. However, that night she had a different agenda ‘We’ve got big plans tonight you know,’ she said decidedly. ‘I hope you’re ready. I’ve been racking my brain about this moment for a long time. Do you want to know what I’ve come up with?’ She looked at the face of the clock as she would whenever she spoke to it and would see shapes in the position of the hands that would give her different facial expressions that answered her questions. 9