Page 92 of Right Place, Right Time
‘I know exactly what you both mean,’ I murmur quietly, unable to prevent my own trauma from being forced to the front of my mind. ‘Why did I survive?’
‘What happened to you, Eve?’ Barney asks, looking surprised to hear me say this. ‘What’s your story?’
I look at them both, and see two kind faces gazing back at me with worried and concerned expressions, and, for the first time ever, I want to share my story. I want to unburden myself to these two people I’ve become so close too.
‘I was in a car accident,’ I tell them. ‘My whole family was – including Jake, my then fiancé.’ I glance at Adam to see if he remembers me mentioning Jake to him before. He nods to let me know he does. ‘I was twenty-four at the time and we were on our way to visit mygrandparents here in Cambridge for Christmas. It wasn’t like we were even packed into one car or anything. I was driving with Jake in my car, and the rest of my family, including my younger sister, Ruth, were in the family car. A lorry was going too fast on the opposite side of the road. He lost control on some black ice, jack-knifed and skidded into us both, pushing us off the road and crushing our cars between his vehicle and an incredibly strong drystone wall that held its own even with all the force thrust upon it.’ I shudder as I remember both the force of the blow from the lorry, which sent us spinning across the road, and then the awful sounds that followed, of hot metal buckling as the cars were crushed between the weight of the lorry and the rocks the other side. ‘My father and my sister were killed on impact, my mother died on her way to the hospital, and Jake died after an emergency operation – one I didn’t even know he was having until they told me afterwards. I was rescued and taken to hospital, but with only a broken bone in one hand and a few cuts and bruises. The paramedics and the police couldn’t understand how I’d managed to be in the same accident and come out so unscathed. I might have been relatively unscathed physically, but the mental trauma of what happened lived long after the physical scars had healed.’
Although I told them quickly and without drama, I realise that what took only seconds for me to say has suddenly and powerfully unburdened me of the years of anger, anxiety, sadness and guilt that have weighed heavily on me for so long. I can’t believe how much lighter I immediately feel. When people talk about the weight of the world being lifted from their shoulders, I now know exactly what they mean.
‘Christ,’ Adam says, taking my hand. ‘That’s bloody awful. Losingallyour family in one accident? I just don’t know how you’d ever come back from something like that. I knew you were a strong woman, Eve, but I had no idea how strong. You’re amazing. Really you are.’
‘I’m so sorry, Eve,’ Barney says, looking shocked. ‘At least I was too young to remember what happened to me. You were twenty-four. No chance of forgetting.’
‘It messed me up, that’s for sure – for a long time. That’s how I came to live here in Cambridge with my grandparents. They were my only remaining family. I was in such a bad state that I couldn’t look after myself. So even though they were going through their own grief, my grandparents cared for me just like they had when my sister and I would come to stay with them when we were young. They loved me and listened to me, and did everything they could to try to help me – even when I didn’t want to be helped.’
‘Is that why you stayed here and never went back to your previous life?’ Adam asks. ‘You felt you owed them something for looking after you?’
‘Partly, and partly because living here in Cambridge, and working in a little antiques shop, was easy and just what I needed to begin healing. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Clockmaker Court is a very calm and healing place. I’ve always felt safe here, nestled among the buildings, with this strong oak tree protecting us from above. So I decided to stay and to give back to both them and Clockmaker Court what they had given back to me – my life.’
‘That’s really beautiful, Eve,’ Barney says. ‘You’re right – this place does feel special. I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve always enjoyed working here with you so much more than my other job at the university.’
‘Thank you for sharing your past with us.’ Adam squeezes my hand. ‘It seems like we’ve all had far too much trauma in our lives and yet I suspect we’ve all come out the other side stronger because of it. We survived when many of those around us sadly did not.’
‘It’s almost like we were saved,’ Barney says, considering this. ‘Saved because we had a greater purpose to fulfil.’ He hesitates. ‘I hardly dare say this, but do you think that purpose was protecting this time portal?’
‘Whoa, that’s a bit deep, man,’ Adam says, his brow furrowing. ‘Suggesting we were saved from death because we had a greater purpose in life than those around us.’
‘Sorry.’ Barney’s face reddens. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just what it sounds like, though, when we all tell our stories, don’t you think?’
‘If what Orla and Ben were saying last night is true, maybe we were saved?’ I say quietly. ‘It seems an awful coincidence that all three of us survived different life-changing events when those around us didn’t.’
We all stare at each other as the enormity of what I’m suggesting begins to sink in.
‘You don’t really believe that, do you?’ Adam asks just as quietly, as though we’re all party to a huge secret that no one else knows about.
‘I really don’t know what I believe any more. So much has happened over the last few weeks and months since I met you at your grandfather’s house back in February. Some of it good.’ I squeeze his hand now. ‘But a lot of it very strange and extremely odd.’ I shiver, and I realise the sun has moved in the sky so we’re now bathed in shade from one of the branches of the tree. I glance up to see exactly how far the shadow is being cast – across the court and between our two shops, so it completelycovers the missing building, the one that was bricked up, the one that hides the secret office and the time portal …
‘Oh, my God!’ I leap up, letting go of Adam’s hand.
‘What is it?’ Adam asks as I stare at the tree above us. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing … Nothing is wrong at all. In fact, everything could be all right from now on.’ I look down at Adam and Barney still staring at me. ‘I think us sitting out here might just have allowed me to figure out how the time portal actually works …’
31
‘It’s a sundial,’ I say to the two of them as I walk around beneath the tree. ‘This oak tree above us. That’s why there’s always been a tree planted here, so it can work as a sundial – the earliest form of telling time.’
Adam and Barney still stare at me as if I’ve lost it.
‘The sun moves around in the sky above and therefore, at different times of the day, the tree casts its shadow over the buildings in Clockmaker Court like a sundial does. On a sundial there are twelve markings, like the markings on a clock that allow us to tell the time. I think the portal only works when the tree casts a shadow over number seven, the missing building.’
‘I get your theory,’ Adam says, not sounding as enthusiastic about this idea as I am. ‘But Ben said when Dotty went missing it was the evening, so there would be no sun then to cast a shadow. Unless it was seven o’clock in summertime, I suppose. But I got the impression it was later at night than that.’
‘No, you don’t understand. This particular sundial doesn’t tell time, it simply tells the exact moment when the portal is open. Look, the tree is casting a shadowover the missing building now, but it’s not seven o’clock.’ I look at my watch. ‘It’s just gone midday.’
‘Moonlight also casts a shadow if it’s bright enough,’ Barney says. ‘To cast a shadow, you only need a source of light and something blocking it. So, in theory, when the tree casts shadow from moonlight onto the building, it could also happen at night too.’
‘You see,’ I say, gesturing my hands between Adam and the bricked-up wall. ‘Our hidden building could be picked out twice a day. That must be when the portal comes alive – when it’s hit by shadow from the sun or the moon!’
