Page 35 of Right Place, Right Time
I look at the buildings that surround us. ‘There must be twelve buildings – it begins at number one and ends at number twelve over there where the solicitors’ is.’
‘Weird, isn’t it,’ Adam says, finishing off his bun. ‘I just wondered if you knew why?’
I look around at the buildings again and begin to count them. ‘There’s only eleven buildings here!’ Finding this hard to believe, I count them again just to be sure.
‘Is there?’ Adam asks, finishing off his coffee. ‘That’s odd. Why is it called Clockmaker Court then, if it doesn’t have twelve buildings? I’d have thought that was a given.’
‘Me too. I can’t believe I’ve never noticed it myself. I know we all have shop names we go by, because of the buildings being split now it just seemed easier. But I always just assumed there were twelve.’
‘The buildings are pretty old, and they’re all different shapes and sizes; it’s not surprising you didn’t notice. I just thought it was odd there wasn’t a seven.’
‘Yes …’ I look back at our two shops that stand side by side. ‘You know, it’s funny, when I was younger, I always wondered why Rainy Day Antiques wasn’t bigger inside.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Look at it. On the outside of our shops, we both have a door and one window.’
Adam turns to look. ‘Yes, like most of the shops here.’
‘But in between there’s that large bit of wall.’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘So, it follows that one or both of us should have a similar amount of space inside our shops that equates to that wall space.’
‘I suppose.’
‘Do you have that amount of space in your shop?’
‘Er … no, I don’t think so. The inside wall of the shop runs fairly close to the doorway.’
‘If you look in my shop, you’ll find the same. Where the window ends is where the interior wall of the shop runs. It’s the wall where I have those shelves with the vintage toys on.’
Adam looks at the wall that runs between our two shops, then he looks at all the other buildings in the court. ‘All the other buildings sit really close to each other, don’t they?’
‘Exactly. When these buildings were originally built, there wouldn’t have been the luxury of spacing them out; they were all built close together to utilise space to the max.’
‘So, if the space isn’t in your shop, and it’s not in mine, then what exactly is behind that brick wall?’
10
We quickly collect up the remnants of our lunch and head back over to the shops to examine the buildings more closely.
Adam immediately begins knocking on the outside of the wall.
‘What are you doing?’ I ask, watching him with interest.
‘I’m knocking on it.’
‘Yes, I can see that. But why?’
‘I dunno, really. It’s what they always do on TV and in films. I think it’s to hear if it’s solid or if it’s hollow.’
‘True, but that’s usually on an inside wall, not an outside one.’
‘Oh, yeah.’ Adam looks a tad embarrassed. ‘You might be right there. Shall we try inside, then?’
We head into Adam’s shop first. After he has moved a few boxes, we begin knocking on the interior wall this time.
