Page 56 of Right Place, Right Time
Adam nods. ‘Yeah, I didn’t realise to begin with, but I’d perforated both my eardrums in the blasts, so everything sounded muffled for a while. The hearing eventually returned fully to my left ear, but this one never worked properly after that.’ He taps his right ear. ‘That’s why I have this. It helps me a lot.’
‘What other injuries did you have – was it pretty bad?’
‘Surprisingly not a lot. Some cuts and grazes, mainly from the glass, a few broken bones in one arm, and a cracked rib. But in the greater scheme of things, it was incredible neither Lucky or me were hurt more.’ He smiles. ‘The dog was out for walks a lot faster than I was, that’s for sure. He certainly lived up to his name.’
‘It sounds like you were both pretty lucky that day.’
‘It was twenty years ago today,’ Adam says. ‘Since it happened. That’s one of the reasons it hit me so hard tonight at the pub. It was what you guys were talking about that reminded me. But the thing I was upset about was the fact that, for the first time ever, I’d forgotten the date. I remember every year. Every year since it happened. But this year, for some reason, it completely slipped my memory and that’s what I couldn’t handle – the fact I’d forgotten.’
‘You’ve had a lot on. You can’t blame yourself.’
‘Yes, I can, Eve.’ He pulls his hand away from mine as he stands up. ‘I can’t forget. I must never forget. Otherwise it was all for nothing. I need to remember. I need to remember her.’
Again, I know exactly what he’s feeling right now. His hurt is stirring within me all sorts of painful memories and feelings, most of which, just like Adam, I suppress all the time too, because no one I know gets it. But I know I must choose my words carefully right now. This is about Adam, not me.
‘Remembering those dates is important,’ I say instead. ‘But just because you might forget occasionally doesn’t lessen the importance of the event. It just means you’ve moved on a little with your own life – which can only be a good thing, surely?’
Adam looks at me, his face still holding all the anger and hurt, and I think for one moment he’s going to have a go again. But then his expression softens.
‘You’re very wise, do you know that?’
I shrug.
‘What you said is exactly it. All these years I’ve never had the opportunity before to forget that date. Nothing and no one have ever been more important to me thatI’ve been able to forget. Then I came here to Clockmaker Court, I met you and your friends, I bought my little shop, and, for the first time, my life has moved on from that day. It may have taken twenty years, but now I feel like I’m ready to move on with the rest of my life.’ He sits down again on the bench and takes hold of my hand this time. ‘And it’s all thanks to you, Eve.’
‘Not just me,’ I say, feeling a tad embarrassed. ‘Perhaps you should thank your grandfather too for wanting to hire me?’
‘Perhaps, but if you hadn’t knocked on my door that day, telling me it’s your birthday and that we both shared such an unusual and important date, I might not be here now telling you all this.’ He prompts me when I don’t immediately respond. ‘Eve?’
‘Oh, sorry, yes,’ I say. ‘You’re totally right. Something just occurred to me, that’s all.’
‘OK …’ Adam says, clearly a little put out that I haven’t responded in a way that matches his own enthusiasm.
I feel his grip on my hand loosen just a little, so I quickly explain. ‘I was just thinking when you were talking about remembering significant dates, and then you mentioned our birthdays are both on quite a significant date too.’
‘Yes …’
‘What if the missing numbers on the combination lock in your shop are also from a significant date?’
Adam thinks about this. ‘It’s a possibility. You think our birthdays could be relevant? The twenty-ninth of February is pretty unusual, but why would it be used for the combination? That would have been set years before we were born.’
‘True …’ My mind whirs again.We’re so close; I can feel it.I look back across Clockmaker Court at our twoshops.There has to be something we’re missing …‘I’ve got it!’ I suddenly say. ‘How have we not thought of this before?’
‘What?’Adam asks eagerly. ‘What have you got?’
I explain as calmly as I can while my insides are doing a dance of excitement. ‘Not only do our birthdays both represent the numbers 292, but the grandfather clock in my shop, and the clock in the painting, have both stopped at just before two-thirty …’
Adam looks lost now, so I fill in the last pieces for him.
‘Otherwise known as twenty-nine minutes past two …’
17
We both leap up from the bench and rush over to the bookshop. Adam hurriedly unlocks the door.
‘I can’t believe you’ve figured this out, Eve,’ he says excitedly as we go inside.
‘Let’s wait and see if these new numbers work first,’ I reply, trying to remain calm as Adam locks the door behind us and we head over towards the metal door. ‘We might have got a bit carried away.’
