Every night, on the stroke of midnight it happened. Ed heard it, or rather didn’t hear it, every night for a week and every night for a week he was caught by his dad and sent back to bed; ignoring Ed's protests. The clock missed its ‘tock’ every single night. Over eight days Ed had lost eight seconds, well, he thought, the world lost eight seconds and the only people he knew that could do anything about it, his parents, didn't believe him!

  ?We can't blame Ed's parents for not believing him. They were older and, as is the case with adults, had forgotten how the world works. For them life is a series of mechanics, gears, wheels and no magic.

  ?Ed was looking at the clock with Ed’s eyes and Ed’s eyes saw the magic that kept the clock 'ticking' and 'tocking'. Ed knew how important that magic was, how important it was for the magic to continue working because, after all, that's what keeps the world turning.

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  ?The world would be a much better place if people could see the magic in children's eyes because, as we will find, Ed was right! And if that little boy hadn't done what he did then you and I wouldn't live in this world where time flows just as it should.

  ?It was a Wednesday and Ed's father was fed up with Ed; Ed had been waking him up every night. He decided to move the grandfather clock into Ed's sister's old room, he thought that maybe if Ed couldn't hear the clock then he would forget about the missing 'tocks'.

  ?Ed's sister was grown up and had married a man from the Navy. Ed liked his sister and was sometimes sad that they never saw one another. But, as Ed's mother explained to him, 'she's got her life and we have ours'.

  ?Ed didn't mind that the clock was in his sister's room. It was the only carpeted room in the house so Ed felt confident that, if he managed to navigate through the creaky floorboards, he could move about in there without making any noise. Which is what he did.