The Santa Code Part 2

Time is of the essence.- Michelle Liew

In Part 1 of the Santa Code, we came to Algaard and met its sleuthing librarian, Maybelle Snow and her rambunctious niece, Juniper Juno. The dilemma -the town's clockmaker cum mayor has been knocked unconscious by something - or someone, leaving behind a cryptic message that time reveals all.

The plot thickens.

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Aunt and niece left Mr.Tick’s well-ordered but now troubled home with disturbed and puzzled looks of their own.

“Someone wanted Mr. Tick to stop ticking,” Juno, as usual, tried to lighten the mood with her against-the-grain humour. She danced down the driveway with hops and skips. “What do the engraved words mean, Aunt Maybelle?”

“You mean time reveals all?” Maybelle paused and fixed Juno with a ponderous look. Then she spoke.

“What happened to Mr Tick is more than strange - it means that Algaard holds secrets that may disrupt Christmas as we know it and Algaard - well, let’s say Christmas won’t be the same.”

Juno groaned. “Home with mum was already blah. I thought we’d have fun when I came here,” she pouted, then bounced back with her usual cheeky grin. “But at least Mr. Tick has given us something interesting to do!”

“Juno!” Maybelle shook her head as her niece took off along the driveway in front of her. Maybelle shook her head and smiled. Juno, and now Algaard, would keep her hands full.

She recalled a time when she had brought in watches for the clockmaker to repair. "Every clock tells two stories," He greeted her with a mysterious glint in his eye. "The time it keeps, and the time it reveals." He looked at the sentinel clock in the corner of his workroom.

Maybelle broke out of her reverie. She caught up with her too-bubbly niece. "Juno, slow down. Mr. Tick once mentioned that every clock tells two stories - one about the time it keeps, and another about the time it reveals. It's an open secret among the townsfolk - no one dares to discuss it, though I remember Mrs Pork, the butcher, saying that Mr Tick's words stress how important time is.

I'm not sure what he meant, but what if he's using his sentinel clock to send a message to Algaard? "

"He'd pick his clocks to send it, for sure," Juno looked at her aunt, wide-eyed. "Perhaps that clock has a - compartment, something we've not seen yet? A clue to his secrets, perhaps?"

The clockmaker's cryptic words stayed in Maybelle's mind. She recalled them - and that he mentioned that time, much like Algaard's rich history, had deep layers. Each tick contained something deeper than the one before. What if it changed Algaard as they knew it?

"We'd better find out then, time's of the essence." Maybelle urged, more tense than she had ever been.

As they turned the corner of the driveway, a figure loomed in the shadows, peering at them from the safety of Mr.Tick's precisely manicured and rounded bushes. Shadowy, lanky and donning a heavy trenchcoat, his features obscured by the faint light, he seemed displaced, a too-unnatural presence.

"Did you see that?" The usually fearless Juno, a little overwhelmed by the dark display, turned to her aunt. "Who was that? she pressed, her eyes combing the otherwise pristine surroundings. he clung to her aunt's sleeve.

"I'm not sure," Maybelle answered, trying her best to sound brave but failing miserably. "But whoever it is probably knows Mr. Tick's secrets. And possibly about the Santa Code - they don't want it. Or Christmas. They feel wronged by Christmas."

A cold draft blew from the bushes as the two women continued home. Somewhere in the darkness, the same dark figure caressed a metallic object. As a faint glimmer of light caught its form, it shone, as though making a sinister promise.

Meanwhile, in Algaard - children screamed or sobbed as their presents vanished from under their well-decorated Christmas trees. The wind's howls grew in their loudness.

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The Santa Code Part 1 is here.