Night Time Story: The Map in the Old Clock
When Grandpa died, he left twelve-year-old Ben his most prized possession: an ornate grandfather clock that had been in the family for generations. Mom called it an eyesore, but there was no room for it in their apartment anyway.
“We’ll store it in the attic,” she decided.
That night, Ben couldn’t sleep. The clock seemed to call to him. Sneaking to the attic with a flashlight, he examined the aged wood and intricate carvings of leaves and symbols that didn’t make sense.
The clock hadn’t worked in years. The hands were frozen at 3:27, and the pendulum hung motionless. Out of curiosity, Ben opened the small door where the pendulum hung and discovered something tucked in the corner—a yellowed paper.
Carefully unfolding it, Ben found what looked like a map, but with pieces missing. At the top were the words: “When the hands align, the path reveals itself.”
Ben remembered Grandpa’s stories about a hidden fortune that their ancestor, a sea captain, had buried somewhere on the family’s old property—which was now the town park.
For weeks, Ben studied the clock and the partial map. He noticed that the carvings on the clock matched landmarks on the map. But without the missing pieces, the treasure’s location remained a mystery.
One night, while tracing the clock’s designs with his finger, Ben accidentally pressed a hidden switch. The clock face popped open, revealing a secret compartment containing gears and—tucked behind them—the missing map pieces!
Ben assembled the pieces, but the complete map still made no sense. The landmarks didn’t match the modern park.
Then he remembered: “When the hands align…”
Ben moved the clock hands to 3:27—the time they’d been frozen at—and held the map up to his flashlight. Hidden markings appeared, drawn in invisible ink that only showed when warmed!
The next day, Ben convinced his mom to take him to the park. Following the completed map, he found an old oak tree that matched one on the clock’s carvings. Twenty-seven steps east and three steps north, just as the hands had indicated, Ben discovered a metal box buried beneath a stone.
Inside wasn’t gold or jewels, but something more valuable—his great-great-grandfather’s journal, filled with adventures and wisdom, along with a letter addressed to “The One Smart Enough to Solve the Clock.”
“The true treasure,” the letter read, “is our family’s story. This journal contains the coordinates to properties I purchased around the world. They now belong to you.”
Ben and his mother discovered that the “fortune” was real—the sea captain had invested in land that was now worth a small fortune. Enough to keep the grandfather clock exactly where it belonged—in a new house with room for both it and the stories it protected.
By Horace Timewell
