The very first day I started as a store clerk, which is also the day after I tried to break into the same place, I found Sebastian waiting outside the door when I wanted to open for business. He must have been waiting to get some compensation for helping getting me that job. No sooner had I opened the door or he wormed his way in. "Well Jemmy?", he rushed to say.

"Well what, what do you want?” "Now that's not a way to treat a friend", he said angrily. "No no I don't mean it that way, let's start over. What happened last night did you talk to Mr. Hubbard before last night?". ”I'm surprised you hadn't heard of the old man before tonight, most of the urchin patrol knows him and does small favors on occasion. In return he pays us well". Sebastian blurted all of this out in one breath and probably rehearsed this so he could say it as fast as he could to get to the good stuff. "You've got direct access to the man now Jemmy!” he almost hurled at me. "What's he like? what does he want from you, he didn't tell us you know". "To tell you the truth I'm not sure myself. He told me a lot about clocks and watches and about people but other than that I'm not sure". At this Sebastian stood there frowning with his head slightly to one side. "Does he at least pay you well for this?” he asked incredulously. "I forgot to ask", I said. It was true, throughout the evening and night a lot of things went through my mind but payment was certainly not one of them. In truth our discussions had fascinated me. Not that I believed all he said mind you. On the streets you live from day to day you see and now here is someone who is telling me that you can life a little bit a day just enough to save enough time to do things for pleasure. None of it made sense to me. But it provided a roof over my head and a very good position to potentially grab a few valuables. Sebastian in the mean time had given up on me and was leisurely making his way through the store. “I’m sorry Sebastian but Mr. Hubbard is not awake yet. If he promised you payment you will have to come back later”. This made Sebastian turn. “Oy, Jemmy don’t you be giving me lip here, I gots you this job don’t you forget that!” “What exactly did Mr. Hubbard ask you to do?” I asked. “Nothing fancy, he told us he knew one of these evenings you would try to break in and if so we were to make sure nobody from the streets would see you. If someone passed we were supposed to provide a ‘diversion’”. “You are telling me you were to make sure I made it safely in instead of out?” “Yeah that’s right. Hey I ask no questions”, replied Sebastian with a shrug. “I’ll go see if the old man is awake yet. Now you stay here and don’t you let your hands loose!” As I made my way to the back I heard him say: “Don’t you worry you can trust me with these pretty little things”. I made my way slowly up the spiral staircase past the kitchen into the back.

Apparently Mr. Hubbard was already awake and was sitting with a book in the small library with a cup of tea. “Marvelous man this Mr. Humboldt, he goes wherever he pleases and has a great sense of adventure. Did you ever read any of his Amazon explorations? Makes you glad that you live in the civilized world you know”, he said, clearly addressing me but speaking to the air in front of him. “Mr. Hubbard, Sebastian is here, he says you still owe him something” “Ah yes, well tell the young man to return later on in the afternoon, I will be able to give him what he wants then”. Having said this he became even more engrossed in his book and started mumbling to himself about frogs. There was nothing to be done but to go downstairs again and tell Sebastian. When I returned in the store Sebastian was examining a whitish mantel clock with lots of tiny cherubs floating around the top. “Mr. Hubbard told me to tell you he will see you this afternoon”. “Always the same with these gents, they will only talk to you when it suits them”. And with that he stormed out and slammed the door behind him. The store opens at 8pm sharp and when I had let Sebastian in it was 10 to. It looks like we were ready for business. As I walked over to the door to turn over the ‘Open/Closed’ sign I noticed that the small mantel clock Sebastian had been admiring had started to chime. Not two seconds later the large grandfather clock in the back of the store chimed in together with the set of wall clocks to the right of it. All of a sudden it seemed that every clock in the store joined in and the noise was overwhelming. Mr. Hubbard appeared on the edge of the spiral stairwell with a bedraggled look on his face. All of a sudden it occurred to me that Sebastian had kept his word about not taking anything from the store, he could not have the time for it while he was setting every clock he could get his hands on to chime the full hour.