Sunlight flowered over the horizon and poured through Ed's window; chasing away shadows and the last remnants of Ed's deep sleep. It was breakfast time and then, as always, time for school. Ed's parents met him in the kitchen and no one mentioned the previous night's activity. In fact, if any one had observed the small family that morning they would have thought that that morning was like any other.

  ?For Ed it wasn't. No matter how hard he tried, his mind kept wandering back to that missing 'tock'. He couldn't explain why it had upset him so much, why it had felt so important to him.

  ?Time passed and soon it was time for school; Ed dressed himself, brushed his teeth and hopped on his bicycle. As he cycled towards school heenjoyed the warm sun and felt like the day was going to be a good one - if only he could get that missing ‘tock’ out of his head.

  At school Ed did as he always did. He kept his head down and tried not to get in anybody's way; particularly the larger boys in the year above him. Ed didn't talk about the 'tock' to anyone; maybe he would have if he had any friends to talk about it withbut sadly, as is the case with most extraordinary boys, he was quite alone. Alone in a sea of people - Ed liked it that way.

  During his lessons Ed was finding it hard to concentrate and was getting more and more frustrated; his mind was occupied by more important things. Since he’d not managed to get the blasted ‘tock’ out of his head he had made up his mind to do something about it. He was waiting for the night, another chance to monitor the nocturnal doings of his clock, though, unfortunately, for Ed, it was only 11:14 am! It seemed an eternity until bedtime and the chance to listen to the clock.

  ?At lunch time Ed, as he did every school day, took his packed lunch into the school's science lab and began to eat. He liked it there. The school's boiler sat on the other side of the left hand wall so he was always able to find a warm, comfortable place to eat; alone.

  ?It just so happened that on that particular lunch time a certain Mr Jones had an errand to run in his science lab. Mr Jones was a particular favourite of Ed, he liked him because out of all the adults that he knew Mr Jones was the only one that didn't treat him like a child. There was a certain vibe between them; like two men meeting on equal terms. It was this comfortable familiarity that allowed Ed to ask the question that he had battled with all day. "Sir?" Ed asked from his warm little perch as Mr Jones bustled into the room.

  "Ed? What are you doing here?" the jovial teacher replied.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  "I'm eating my lunch Sir."

  "I can see that, but why are you eating it here?"

  "I like it here."

  "OK, well very good, carry on then."

  "Sir?"

  "Yes Ed?"

  "What do you know about time, Sir?"

  Ed's teacher gave him a strange look, the kind of look that is filled not only with questions but filled with answers.

  "Time," the teacher explained, "is what stops everything from happening all at once. It brings order to the world, makes everyone have something that they can make sense of. Time, my dear boy, is what makes our past our past, our future our future and well the present, present."

  The answer, if you can call it an answer, didn't really help Ed. He was expecting something a little more; understandable. "Sir?" he asked, his heart speeding up a little, "what would happen if time went funny?"

  "Funny in what way?" the teacher asked, forgetting the work he had come into the science lab to do.

  "What if it stopped working? If it just stopped?"

  Mr Jones looked at the boy, a glint in his eyes; he let out a small chuckle, "I guess the world would stop working, everything would be chaotic and nothing would make sense. How would you feel if you were a baby and an old man, like me, at the same time? If everything that you have done and everything you are going to do happened all at once?"

  "I don't think i'd like that Sir" Ed explained "I don't think anyone would like that."

  The teacher looked at Ed seriously for a minute; he looked as if he had something important to say but didn't quite know how to say it. Unfortunately, for Ed, the school bell rang at that precise moment signalling the end of lunch time. Floods of students swamped into the building and both the student and the teacher knew that the conversation was over.

  ?The rest of the day was a worry for Ed. If, he thought, Mr Jones' predictions about Time were correct then his whole life may well be over soon. He was sure that the world couldn't take that kind of trouble. As far as Ed was concerned he was the only one on the planet that was aware that time had begun to break. What can I do? He thought, after all, I am only a kid. (I am only a kid. It was quite possibly the silliest thought Ed had thought all day.)

  ?Still Ed waited, impatiently, for the night time. There, he thought, he would find the answers. Ed wished for time to hurry so he could once again lie under his sheets and listen to his clock. But no matter how hard he wished time didn't speed up! In fact, Ed was reasonably sure that time had actually slowed down, as it sometimes does when you are waiting for something.

  ?Eventually, at school, the final bell tolled and Ed was released. He hopped on his bike and pedalled, as fast as he could, all the way home. He gobbled down his food as soon as it was put in front of him and kissed his parents good night at the early hour of seven. Then he was in bed, waiting; listening.

  'Tick, tock, tick, tock' said the clock.