The Alarm Clock in Carriage Nine

The night train left the city at ten. Carriage nine was almost empty. The heater under the seats was broken. It blew out cold, dusty air and nothing else.

Imani sat by the window in her big coat. She pulled her scarf up to her nose. She could see her own breath in the air.

One other passenger sat at the far end. He was a tall man with a toolbag on his knees. He wore two scarves and a wool hat. He looked as cold as she felt.

At twenty past ten, a loud bell rang. It was a harsh, shaking sound, like an old school bell. Imani jumped up from her seat. The noise came from her own bag. The bag stood on the floor under her seat.

"Sorry!" she called. She pulled out a round brass alarm clock. She bought it that morning at a street market. The seller let her have it for almost nothing.

"It's a little loud," the seller said. She thought that was funny then. She did not think so now.

She pressed the button on top. The bell stopped. The clock showed twenty past ten. She did not set any alarm. She was sure of that.

The tall man came down the carriage. "May I look?" he asked. "I fix machines at work. My name is Xander."

"Please do," said Imani. "I'm Imani. I only got it today."

Xander turned the clock over in his big hands. He looked at the back and the bottom. He touched the small lever at the side. "This is the test lever," he said. "Push it and the bell rings once. The alarm is off. It should be silent."

"But it rang," said Imani.

"Yes, it did." He gave the clock back. "Let's see if it does it again."

They sat together on the same bench. It was warmer with two people close. Xander took a pencil and an old ticket from his pocket. He wrote the time on the back. Twenty past ten.

Nothing happened for a long time. The train rattled through dark fields. Lights from far houses flashed by and were gone. Imani put the clock on the floor. She watched it.

At twenty to eleven, the bell rang again. Imani almost dropped the clock. Xander laughed and wrote down the time. "Twenty minutes," he said. "It rings every twenty minutes."

"But why?" asked Imani.

"That is the puzzle," said Xander. "We have eight hours and nowhere to go. Let's solve it."

Imani liked that. Her fingers were cold, but her mind woke up. "Clue one," she said. "Every twenty minutes."

"Good." Xander wrote it down. "Now we watch for clue two."

At eleven, they both sat very still. The train hummed. A door banged far away. Then something knocked under the seat. It was a hard, short knock, like a hand on a drum. A moment later, the bell rang.

"Did you hear that?" whispered Imani. "First a knock. Then the bell."

"Clue two," said Xander. He wrote the words "knock first". He looked pleased.

Imani looked at the clock on the floor. Xander put his hand under the seat. He waited with his eyes closed. After a few seconds, he smiled.

"Clue three," he said. "Warm air. It comes out of the heater after the bell. It stays for one minute. Then it goes cold again."

Imani felt the air with her own hand. It was true. A thin, warm breath touched her fingers and then went away.

"A knock, a bell, and warm air," she said. "What does it mean?"

"I don't know yet," said Xander. "But the clock and the heater are friends. I am sure of that."

He opened his toolbag and took out a small lamp. Then he got down on the dirty floor. He looked under the seat for a long time. Imani held the lamp for him. Her arm began to shake, but she did not mind.

At last, Xander started to laugh. He laughed so hard that he had to sit on the floor.

"What is it?" said Imani.

"Look," he said. He pointed with the lamp. "There is a pipe under your seat. The heater valve is stuck. Every twenty minutes, the pipe jumps and knocks. Your clock stood on the floor, right next to it."

"The knock hit the clock," said Imani slowly.

"It hit the little lever. The bell rang. Now watch the next part." He pointed again. "The bell is so loud that it shakes the pipe. The shaking opens the valve a little. The heater coughs out some warm air."

Imani looked at the clock in her hands. Then she began to laugh too. "So my clock wakes up the heater."

"Yes!" said Xander. "The heater needs a loud noise to start. It is just like me in the morning."

They laughed until their eyes were wet. The sound ran down the empty carriage. For a moment, it felt like a warm room.

Then Xander stood up and took a metal tool from his bag. "Now we do it the quick way," he said. He gave the stuck valve three hard hits. It rang like a bell of its own.

The heater made a long, deep noise. Then warm air poured out under every seat. It smelled a little like burning dust, but it was warm. It was lovely.

Imani took off her scarf. Xander took off his hat and one of his scarves. They sat back and let the heat reach their feet.

"Thank you," said Imani. "I think I'll keep the clock. It did a good job tonight."

"It did," said Xander. He took the clock from her hands again. He looked at it in the lamp light. His smile slowly changed. "Imani, look at the back."

"I looked at it already. It's just brass."

"Exactly." He tapped the metal. "There is no door for a battery. There is no hole for a key." He held the clock up to his ear. The hands moved round, smooth and quiet.

Imani stopped smiling too. The heater roared. The train rushed on into the dark.

"So," said Xander quietly, "what makes it go?"