A storm loomed over the town as I swept the school cellar for punishment. In the shadows of the boiler room, I found a metal box bearing the coat of arms and the date 1911. The latch gave way and inside lay a heavy pocket watch, cool as ice. The seconds hand moved backwards and the crown had engraved months and years. The inside lid was engraved with the phrase: "Get back before the third bell rings". I wrote to Tymek, who knew all the school gossip and strange passages. He came in whispering, with a torch and notepad, as if he were going hunting. "It looks like a clock for setting time, not hours". - he muttered. We set the crown to September 1923 and noon, almost breathlessly. The light flicked on, the dust danced and the air smelled of ozone and old wood. Phone screens froze, as if someone had stopped them with an invisible, silent magnet. The corridor narrowed and the tiles regained their former patterns and pale colours. Students in long aprons and a teacher with a cane flashed through the doorway. We ducked behind a display case of trophies they should not yet know here. I looked at the notice board and froze at the name: Helena Lenart. It was my great-grandmother's name, written in ink, as if she was waiting for me. From the boiler room came the iron smell of steam and the echo of distant footsteps. The first bell sounded, low and heavy, and the watch whined warningly. "Three bells, remember?" - hissed Tymek. - "After that, everything can shut down." A girl in a navy blue uniform, almost my age, emerged from the semi-darkness. In her hand was a twin watch and a look that knew no hesitation. "You're a hundred years late!" - she said. - "Do you have the courage to climb the tower?" A second bell cut through the silence, and the wooden steps of the bell tower squeaked upwards. The mechanism in the clock skipped a tooth, as if counting our borrowed seconds. Tim nodded, I tightened my fingers on the centuries-old metal and we took off running. The door to the tower opened of its own accord, and cold air gushed from inside. As we stood on the first step, the stone trembled and the third bell took a breath.