**
Robert’s Regret
Books are curious things. They’re rarely wrong.
–Harry Finkle
Robert finally managed to make his feet work and get him back to the shop.
Robert didn’t say a word to Jack and Lizzy about Mr. Lowsley. Instead, he entered the hourglass room and slammed the door. He fought back tears, wiping his eyes furiously to keep the impulse to cry at bay.
Robert wished Lizzy and Jack would stop scolding him. He wished they’d understand that he had just made a mistake. He didn’t mean to talk about the hourglasses in front of Miss Caroline…and especially Mr. Lowsley.
And now Mr. Lowsley was asking him questions and threatening his whole family.
I’m sorry for what I’ve done, Robert thought. If I could take it all back, I would!
But he couldn’t take any of it back. Robert’s stomach was in knots. Without Jack and Lizzy’s help, he felt all alone.
Robert sat at the desk of the hourglass room, placed his crossed arms on it in front of him, and buried his head on his arms. Then his right hand felt something. It was the book that he’d found in the library. With everything that had happened, Robert had forgotten all about it.
Robert didn’t care much for reading. When he tried to spend time with a book, it made him sleepy because he quickly got bored. Lizzy was the book lover of the family.
This book was strangely interesting to Robert, though. It was very old and worn. The course leather felt brittle in his hands. And he liked the title: Book of Memories.
Suddenly curious, Robert sat up straight and opened the book. The pages were blank!
Is this for a diary or something? Robert wondered. He slid his hand down one of the blank pages. “You’re an odd thing. What are you all about?” Robert asked in a whisper.
All of a sudden, letters began to appear in a swirling motion on the page. It was as if someone was stirring a bowl of soup made with letters from the alphabet. Robert couldn’t believe his eyes. He blinked several times to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
One by one, the letters spelled out words, until a full sentence presented itself.
Robert read the sentence aloud: “I am a collector of memories.”
Robert reared back with a start. “Whoa!” He touched the page to make sure it was real. “How is this possible?” he asked out loud.
“What would you like to know?” read the next sentence from the swirling letters on the page.
Robert stared in awe. A magical book! he thought. A real magical book!
Robert held his tongue. He wasn’t sure what to say next. He tried to remain calm and reason it through.
Robert leaned closer to the book and asked the first question that came to his mind: “Did Jack find Mr. Lowsley?”
Robert believed his brother. In his experience, Jack always told him the truth. But Robert figured this was a good way to test the book, because the right answer had to be no.
The letters swirled and then spelled out one word. “Yes.”
“What?” exclaimed Robert. “Jack said he didn’t find Mr. Lowsley. You must be lying!”
The book didn’t respond.
“Huh,” said Robert. “Either you’re mad at me and have stopped speaking to me…or you only reply when someone asks you a question.”
The book didn’t respond.
“Okay,” said Robert. He felt a bit silly talking to a book, but something magical was happening and he needed to find out more. “Are you sure Jack found Mr. Lowsley?”
Sketchy lines began to appear on the empty page. The book was drawing a picture! It showed Jack hiding behind a bunch of feed sacks and Mr. Lowsley nearby talking to Peter and Paul.
On the opposite page letters began swirling again. After a while they gathered into sentences that formed, word for word, Mr. Lowsley’s conversation with his companions!
Robert was shocked. “Jack really did lie to me and Lizzy! He’s never lied to us before. I don’t understand why he’d keep something this important from us!”
Robert thought more about it. “Jack and Lizzy didn’t tell me about the hidden room full of books. Jack lied to me and Lizzy about finding Mr. Lowsley. And I’m not telling Jack and Lizzy about the lightning lever and the threat from Mr. Lowsley. We’re all keeping secrets from each other.”
Robert continued talking things out to the patiently listening book. “If I hadn’t decided to sneak into the library, I wouldn’t have found the glowing book. I wouldn’t have been tempted to pull the lever that creates lightning.”
“Because I pulled the lever, lightning burned down Miss Caroline’s home. Even worse, Father is sick in bed from breathing the bad smoke. And to top everything off, I’ve all but told Mr. Lowsley about the magical hourglasses, when the most important job I have is keeping them a secret.”
Robert reached out to the book again. “Thank you for listening to me. You’ve been helpful.” He closed the magical book—and finally allowed the tears to fall down his cheeks.
The tears kept flowing until Robert was all cried out. He then wiped his cheeks with the sleeve of his shirt. Robert placed the Book of Memories in the bottom drawer of the desk drawers for safekeeping.
“If only I could get past all this,” Robert said. “Over time Father will be better, Miss Caroline will have her home again, and Mr. Lowsley will forget about me. Things can only get better as time goes on.”
At that moment, something in Robert’s mind clicked. “Wait a second. Maybe I can get past this. I can use the magical clock!”
Robert stood and looked at the clock on the wall in the hourglass room. “Do you truly control time?” he asked. The clock just kept ticking.
“Well, I guess it’s time to find out,” Robert whispered.