Yesterday's Sun Read Online Free PDF Page A

feel weird to you?” Holly asked, unsure if she had imagined it.
    Tom gave her a puzzled look and then stroked the surface of the slab. “Feels like stone to me,” he assured her. “What were you expecting it to feel like?”
    Holly tentatively touched the stone again and this time there was no tingling sensation. She shook her head, dismissing the thought. “Nothing, it’s just me. Can we move it?”
    “And do what? You seriously think we can lift it onto the plinth?”
    “Yes, of course.” Holly could visualize the stone circle balanced perfectly on top of the plinth and taking center stage in the garden. It belonged in its rightful place and Holly wasn’t going to rest until it was moved.
    “Are you sure you don’t want to ask the builders?”
    “Are you a man or a mouse?” Holly stood with her hands on her hips, challenging him.
    “I’m a man, of course. But it doesn’t help that my only partner in crime is a feeble woman.”
    “Just get on with it,” warned Holly.
    Holly put her hands on the stone again, almost hoping the latent power she’d felt in that first touch would help them with the task that lay ahead. Tom joined her and they dug their hands deep into the dirt to find a hold. As they lifted the slab, Tom’s face went a beautiful shade of puce, and he grunted and groaned. Holly matched him groan for groan and could feel the veins in her neck throbbing with the effort. After what seemed like an eternity of laborious shuffling, they dropped the stone to the ground to take a rest.
    “Not bad,” panted Tom.
    “Sure,” gasped Holly. “We’ve moved it all of six inches.” She looked over at the plinth, which was still about twenty feet away. “At this rate, we’ll get there in three days and two hernias.”
    There was a tut-tut of disapproval behind her. Holly turned to see Billy shaking his head.
    “Mr. C., I’m disappointed in you. You should know better than to treat your lady like a common laborer,” he said, before turning around to his workmates who had followed him into the garden. “No offense, lads.”
    Holly was about to tell Billy that heavy lifting was an occupational hazard as far as she was concerned, but then she thought better of it. “My knight in shining armor,” she said.
    Tom groaned as he tried to straighten his back. “Mine too,” he said, winking at Billy.
    Billy and his crew of builders picked up the stone slab as if it were made of balsa wood and two minutes later they were lifting it over the plinth.
    “Hold on a minute,” Holly shouted. She realized that the inscription was still upside-down.
    With a little more effort, the slab was turned over and placed on top of the plinth. It was a perfect fit. Everyone gathered around the newly formed table and stared at it.
    “It’s a clock,” one of Billy’s lads said.
    “And it’s telling me it’s time to get back to work,” replied Billy pointedly.
    The builders disappeared as quickly as they had arrived, leaving Holly and Tom alone with their puzzle. Billy’s lad had been right about it looking like a clock. The top had a large dial carved with Roman numerals in much the same way as a traditional clock. There was still a gaping hole about two inches deep in the center of the dial where the top of the plinth didn’t reach the surface. It was only now that Holly noticed that there were grooves and notches in the upper surface of the plinth and this must be where the dial’s mechanism would fit, the mechanism that was no doubt made up from the box of gizmos Billy had discovered. As well as the inscription running around the outer edge, there was also an assortment of symbols, similar to those on the box, etched beautifully into the stone surface.
    “It’s a sundial,” Holly said.
    “It’s going to make a great feature in the garden.”
    “All I need to do now is work out how to fit all the cogs into it and get it to work,” Holly replied, eager to return to the kitchen to retrieve the wooden box