An entry to Fiction Writing prompt #5: The Magic Starts at the Beginning by 
Thank you to 
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
The Opening - The Time Between Times
Jenny crept down the corridor. Each creaky floorboard was mapped out in her head and she stepped from corner to corner like playing a game of hopscotch back at school.
She never thought she'd miss school. Mrs Granger with her funny long nose and that wart on the lip. Her friend Sam had her in fits of giggles flapping his lips as she chalked on the board. A pang of guilt sliced through her belly whenever she thought about their private joke about warty Granger.
They were all memories now. She resisted stamping her foot and kicked the wall softly instead. It was so boring living with her great uncle after her father had died of Covid-19. Now cities were off limits for kids and the whole world was in stasis.
Covid-24 had taken hold and mass-crops had developed some type of antibacterial super strain. We were all shipped off to the country. Child laborers conscripted to cottage gardens and stately homes, organic farms and microbreweries. Anywhere which produced untreated, heirloom varieties of foods.
She giggled at the thought of the text she'd got from her friend Roger.
Working @ Goodachres brewery just outside Guildford. I drink as much as I make and spit in every second bottle. Goodachres' supply the underground parliament, C ya Soon Jen lol 😜
She stepped across the corridor to the next spot and a loud creak split the stale air. Shit, she'd forgotten the sequence. The grandfather clock loomed large ahead of her, only two meters distant.
The tippy-tap of typing stopped in the study a few doors down and she held her breath. A creaking and shifting noise from just beyond the door froze her in place. She leaned in to the wall and held her breathed, scared of her uncles reaction if he saw her near the clock again.
His obsession with antiques, and that clock was not normal.
Don't touch.
Don't go poking about... and especially that clock.
I don't even want to see you look at it.
She carried on, moving from safe spot to safe spot until she stood before it. A mahogany monster staring down at her ticking with that maddening repetitive metallic beat.
"Father," a loud call echoed down the corridor.
She spun around and saw Billy, her cousin at the top of the stairs grinning.
A loud stomping came from the study and the door was flung wide, just as that obnoxious brat piped up again.
"Father, Jenny is messing with the clock again."
Uncle Steven strode down the corridor, fists clenching at his sides "What have I told you about touching that clock."
Jenny hunkered down knowing what was to come. She steeled that place inside, swallowed the bile down to that diamond hard spot in her stomach which turned her blood to stone.
As she stared up at her uncle, his upraised fist shaking she could see the reflection of the clock face in the dusty portrait on the wall. One second to twelve.
Tick.
His fist began to descend.
The first bell of twelve midday chimed.
His fist halted.
The second bell didn't come. Dust motes drifted across the sunbeam in the corridor, illuminating and settling on the two wax work dummies.
The clock face lay still.
Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay
As did Jenny, as she waited for the blow to hit. But it didn't.
Waiting another second, Jenny risked a peek at her surroundings and was surprised to find it achingly familiar.
Collapsing from her hunkered position, Jenny found herself sitting and caressing the well-worn carpet surrounding her. She knew this place all too well..
"Jen!" She heard a voice call her name down the corridor. Cautiously, she stood up just as she heard footsteps coming closer. It couldn't be, could it?
But rounding the corner was- "Jenny! Time for school! Let's get-Oomph!" Jenny couldn't help herself as she ran headfirst to her father, but how? How was this happening?
"If this is your way of getting out of school young lady, I'm not buying it." Her father tried to sound strict but he still patted her comfortingly.
She sniffled, "I just had a really bad dream...dad." Pulling back and looking up at her father, she tried to hold back tears.
Her father stared at her worriedly for a second, as if trying to assess the situation she was in, before he ruffled her hair good-naturedly, "Rough night huh?"
Jenny was just about to agree when a thought suddenly struck her, "Uh dad.. What year is it today?"
Giving her a bewildered look and probably thinking if she hit her head somewhere, her dad took a moment to respond, "It's the first month of the year 2020- you know, back to school after the holidays..?"
He was most likely thinking that she did hit her head somewhere around the house, but Jenny was already doing a backtrack on her memories.
"Dad, you'll be having a major project.. at the lab during these times.." Jenny mostly muttered to herself, but her father caught on to her words.
"We were supposed to have a "major project" coming up, but it's still in the works. I wasn't sure you'd remember our dinner time talks-"
Oh Jenny remembered alright; she remembered how he started feeling sick afterwards; remembered how he wasn't able to come home anymore because of it; and finally, how she was coldly notified and later shipped off to her Uncle Steven.
It all started today, but she was given a chance to possibly change her future.
As if feeling her hand twitch and move on its own, she dug something out of her pocket, "Dad, here!" as she held out her lucky chain of sunflowers.
"Are those.. dried sunflowers???" Her dad didn't get a chance to question her further as she placed the chain around him. She wasn't sure if it was still antibacterial during these times, but she had to try.
She hoped it helped; her dad was the best virologist she knew. But just as she took satisfaction in seeing her father's shocked look, she heard the chime of a bell.
It started as a soft sound until it seemed to reverberate in her whole being, violently shaking her surroundings and forcing her to tightly shut her eyes and hunker down, lest she throw up.
This was it. The second bell had chimed.
Tick.
Opening her eyes to sunlight, Jenny suddenly sat up and assessed her surroundings, but what really caught her eye were the sunflowers planted on the windowsill.
Precariously standing up from the bed, she slowly headed for the window and was surprised to glance down on a busy street in what seemed to be like a city.
Closing her eyes to the sound of honking cars and busy street vendors, it took awhile for her to register the voice calling out to her.
"Jenny! It's time to wake up!"
I'm on HIVE 'coz of:
Documenting my life's journey:
I started a series since October 2018...
