JFB Chapter 3: the Real 19 Tide Street

         A girl pulled down the flaps of her wide-brimmed hat and slipped into the bustling crowd of people ending their daily carousing of the market and heading home. Her eyes lazily slid over the assortment of ripe fruit and shining jewelry as she glanced for a street sign. If anyone cared to look, sharp grey eyes twinkled from her fair face and her raven black hair that reached to the middle of her back gave her an outlandish look amidst the simple townsfolk. Eva’s air was almost noble, despite the worn dark blue dress that hung from her light figure. Crossing her arms against the street corner, her hand strayed to a chain around her neck that gave off soft light on the cool day, its jewel hidden beneath her dress.

         It had been a little over a year since the night of the Great Fear and Eva wished she was so much younger than nineteen. New things had replaced what formally mattered. Home had lost its charm. Strange tales had reached her ears about her most cherished possession, her crystal, and she was ready to take matters into her own hands. A cool composure had settled on her face, her features quite suited for the look of bright determination. Perhaps Eva’s mother was right about her taking some wrong turn on her path to adulthood; if that meant no more hoping and dawdling and finally acting, Eva did not mind at all.

         A courage stirred behind her movements, bringing her to the world beyond safe home, the far off places her father had spun so many tales about. She couldn’t help but wonder if it was really her new conviction that led her to the unfamiliar places of independence and strangers, or her own wandering feet aching to dash from her favorite hill, away from her mundane lifestyle. For one evening she did, with only a small bag and the necklace she strived to make whole. Maybe she was meant to be a drifter of paths, unsure of where she belonged till sooner or later it all led to some far chasm; but for now, Eva would settle for this. Regardless of her bitter venture, Eva twitched into a quiet smile, watching middle-aged men bicker over bread rolls from the bakery and autumn leaves twitter every so often in the brisk autumn wind, as free as Eva now felt.

         “Are you lost little lady?” A kindly man peered at Eva, slightly squatting to catch a better look at her face. Eva raised the brim of her hat for him, keeping on her rare smile that surprisingly lit up her eyes.

         “Oh no, I’m just resting,” Eva replied, although she furrowed her brows at a second thought. “Actually, do you know where I could find the Bloom residence?” The man scratched his head in brief deliberation.

         “Bloom, Bloom… Is there a first name to go with that?”

         Eva paused. “Jakob Bloom.”

         “Jakob Bloom? Nah, never heard of him,” the man muttered, walking off.

         I thought so, Eva confirmed, leaving the corner and striding down a different street. After all, who would associate with such a man, disregarding the fact that he had disappeared from society without a clue? She hadn’t gone far when a voice stopped her.

         “Did I hear Jakob Bloom? I didn’t know people still knew that name...”

         It had a ring to it, a cracked voice of wisdom acquired over many years, yet as precise as a sudden breeze on a humid day. Eva spun around and saw an old man with crisp pepper colored hair, donning a bright orange sweater, casually standing at the street corner she had just left. His back stood straight without hindrance and he smiled with youthful charm, though many crinkles spread from his eyes. Those were of the lightest blue and shimmered at the brink of a joke only he understood, or merely because Eva was hopelessly lost.

         “And I suppose you know him?” she asked skeptically, unsure what to make of the man.

         “Not the best of questions to ask. After all, who truly knows a man, at once so complex and unpredictable, with a dash of…” he struggled for the word… “madness to keep himself sane. Yes, that’s it.” The wizened man strolled forward, taking his time until he joined Eva’s side and resumed conversation. “Are you a friend of his?”

         “Afraid not,” Eva replied nonchalantly, her stormy eyes questioning how knowledgeable the old man really was. “Are you?” He laughed and beckoned her forward.

         “Afraid so.” The man walked forward without waiting for a response from the hesitant Eva. Glancing quickly from side to side, she decided to catch up with a few nimble strides.

         “Where are you going?” Eva asked hurriedly. “I don’t have time…”

         “I can answer all your questions,” the man said simply, “if you’ll just follow me.” He strode forward again, but Eva didn’t comply so easily.

         “Well, it’s not like I’ll just follow anyone. And you can’t answer anything since you don’t know anything about me,” Eva said, crossing her arms in the middle of the sidewalk. The old man’s mouth couldn’t decide between laughing or scowling.

         “Well then,” he settled on, but his eyes clouded over seriously so no passerby could hear his next words. “You’re Evalyn Marie Reaper, a long way from home, and looking for a man the whole world is scared of, yet has not seen or heard of for over a year. Currently,” he tilted his head aloofly, “I’m not so sure I want to help you at all.” The man raised his eyebrows knowingly at Eva’s shocked expression. “Bye,” he called, turning.

         “Wait!” Eva called, dress fluttering against her legs as she caught up once more. “How do you know all that?”

         “With time, one can learn anything,” he plainly answered, looking straight ahead.

         “How can you help me?” Eva questioned, ignoring the fact that she seemed to be getting on the man’s nerves. He faced her with a keen stare and a hint of irritation.

         “Follow me.” The aged man mumbled a few more words Eva couldn’t catch, but she took care to glare at the back of his head as she fell behind. Pulling the brim of her brown hat lower, she walked with arms still crossed, sensing the man peek at her from time to time. After several minutes, Eva almost bumped into him when he abruptly came to a halt.



         “Here we are.” They were outside a squished wooden shop with a revolving door. There were no windows, only a sign that read “Clocks, the real 19 Tide Street.” Backing up slightly, Eva saw that they were indeed on Tide Street, a rather average road with small boutiques and a few shoppers. To the left was a bakery with several cakes begging for attention, each with a bright cherry on top. “They have great chocolate,” Jasper commented, watching Eva intently. To the right of the clock shop was a clothing store with old-fashioned mannequins sporting colorful sweaters not unlike the one the old man was wearing. In fact, there was an orange sweater on display right next to the store name and address…

         

         “Wait,” Eva spoke, stepping closer to the clothes store, “The clothes store is also #19...”

         Sensing the confused look on Eva’s face, Jasper pointed to the sign on the clock shop. “Hence, the real 19 Tide Street,” he said with a glimmer in his eye.

         Eva gazed at the shabby store, and let her eyes trail after other people who also passed by, wondering if they saw the same thing. She squinted suspiciously; the people who passed by didn’t even come near the shop, eyes jumping from the bakery on the left to the clothing store, seeming to miss the clock store entirely. I don’t blame them, Eva thought, turning back to the ragged building, though she sensed a powerful feeling waiting beyond the spinning doors. “After you,” the man declared, holding his arm forward.

         “That’s okay, you can go in first,” Eva simply said, not in the mood for politeness and still very curious about this man who had known all about her. A surprised look crept onto the man’s face, which he broke with a chuckle as he proceeded through the doors. His form disappeared with an enigmatic spin, and a cautious Eva followed.

         Eva’s boots made dull thuds in the ground, now that they were no longer in the dusty streets. The room they entered was spacious despite the narrow alley from the outside, and had its walls filled with nothing but clocks, up to the high ceiling, where lamps brought soft light to tinkle upon the many clock faces. One glance showed tiny alarm clocks, grandfather clocks, cuckoo clocks, sundials, and even more of all shapes and colors. Eva’s eyes briefly fell upon a golden grandfather clock with ivy cascading all over it, instantly a favorite. There were aisles placed in no particular order, much like a maze, and of no apparent category, filled with disheveled clocks, but Jasper quickly navigated through, leaving the girl behind to find her way.  Finally performing a final zigzag through the last set of aisles, Eva strode toward a counter at the front.

         “Do you own this shop?” Eva asked in awe, watching the man step behind the long white counter. She seated herself on one of the swivel stools on the opposite side of him.

         “Yes. By the way, I’m Kasper,” he introduced himself, holding out his hand over the counter, where it waited.

         His hand was definitely wrinkled, but what Eva noticed most was his faint calluses and the rough texture that gave his hands a weathered look, like they had worked long but still possessed as much life as ever. In fact, his whole self had that feeling. Blinking quickly, a flood of knowledge came before Eva‘s eyes. Closing her eyes, she smiled, no longer uncomfortable in the presence of the stranger.

         Eva‘s grey eyes shone brighter than before as she shook Kasper’s waiting hand. “Nicely met, Kasper Laurence. Or do you go by Father Time?”

         Kasper examined her more thoroughly than before, a faint shadow passing over his face as his age showed for a slow second. His eyes lost their shimmer and they looked out from a dead weight hanging on his brow, his hand  falling from Eva’s in the process. Eva grew uncomfortable beneath his gaze, removing her hat as she averted her face.

         “So I‘m not the only one with a few tricks up my sleeve.” Jasper finally broke the hush, while he pulled out a broken wristwatch and several tools from beneath his counter.



         “I‘ve never actually met a Virtue,” she answered. Eva inwardly laughed, thrown back to the days of her childhood. Beautiful images had once popped into her head at the word, thinking Virtues were heavenly beings in their midst as a child. Like angels. Most foolish of all, there was a time when she would beg her dad to go meet one on his travels. Now, Eva knew much more about them than the average person. She did not know the right word for her interest, or how she was able to find so much information on such cryptic figures. With only a name, Eva knew the true identity of a person.

         “Where’s the long silver beard?” she asked. Jasper rubbed his hand along his smooth chin, grinning.

         “Common misconception. Beards are not all they’re cut out to be and they certainly don‘t pass you off for a wizard.” Jasper returned to the broken watch. “You need a wand for that.” He abruptly knocked the broken watch against the counter three times and put it to his ear, listening. Eva had a fleeting thought that Jasper had been charming when he was younger as she watched him smile cheerfully. However long ago that might have been.

         Perhaps one of the greatest Virtues sat before her, though she had never considered his existence. Still Jasper’s eyes were of the frankest blue, the kind that could not help but convey sadness, joy, wishes all in one blink. She slowly began to relax her cool composure, as the truth of what Jasper was unexpectedly clicked in her head. It was like an intuition, and at the least, Eva felt she could trust herself. No doubt was in her mind that Father Time was before her now, orange sweater and all.

         Sensing that Kasper was occupied, Eva pulled a small brown notebook from her bag. She struggled to find a page, and after a few moments, stopped. Atop the page was written in Eva‘s hasty handwriting, Father Time? A feeling of satisfaction overcame her as she erased the question mark and wrote on the next line, Kasper Laurence.

         “What’s that?” Kasper asked, peering over the counter. Eva jumped in her seat, closing the book.

         “I, um…” Eva began. She had never told anyone about her journal, let alone an actual Virtue. “I like to write about Virtues.”

         “I didn’t know what to expect when I met you, but it wasn’t an investigator.” Kasper narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

         Eva let out a long sigh, thinking hard. Sweeping her eyes about the shop, she finally rested them on Kasper. All her life she wanted to meet a Virtue, and now that she had, she faced the dilemma every person faced. Except she had anticipated this moment with pride, knowing that she would be the first person to trust a Virtue. Eva moved her journal to the counter.

         “I’ve been able to find information no one else can,” Eva began. She couldn’t help the edge of excitement in her voice. Kasper’s leaned back, a knowing smile on his lips.

         “See what others can’t see?” he added.

         “In a way.” Eva flipped to a page close to the front. “You know Deceit? People say they’ve forgotten his real name. But I know it: Felix Rayner. I even have a rough sketch of what he really looks like.” She handed the journal to Kasper, where a face of a young man was drawn, much different than the face on the “Wanted” signs.

         Impressed, Kasper flipped to the next page to see lines upon lines of Eva’s writing.

         Fear - Jakob Bloom. Born: December 15, 1991. He scanned lower to see notes on where he lived and various news reports that were tied to Fear and Deceit. There were all robberies of some sort, whether from well-known establishments or wealthy estates. At the bottom of the page, two words were written: Celesti crystal.

         “You probably know all that though,” Eva said, taking back her journal.

         Kasper shifted in his seat, slowly taking up a tool and lifting the wristwatch. His eyes wandered to Eva’s neck, where some light caught on a thin chain, mostly hidden by her dress. “You could do a lot of damage with that book of yours. Why not turn in Deceit and Fear?” he questioned.

         “I thought of that. But when I actually began to learn more about these Virtues, I realized their lives have given them enough to handle.”

         Raising his eyebrows, Kasper thought pity a peculiar thing to be associated with Virtues. He watched Eva with a new curiosity, as she spun in her swivel chair, staring about the shop once more.

          Eva smiled in mid-spin. She didn’t realize how incredibly normal she looked as she twirled and smiled, but Kasper didn’t have the guts to tell her. For years, he had waited for the most powerful Virtue to arrive, inevitably menacing and all-knowing: Truth. Yet for all that, Eva was innocent beyond her years, and somewhere, Kasper knew, there was a nineteen year old girl unaware of how far her good heart would take her. A distant clock chimed and Kasper was brought back to his senses as he realized Eva was speaking.

         “I don’t think you can fix that wristwatch.”

         Kasper’s eyes were a deep sea of sadness. “I know.” Glancing skyward, Kasper saw that evening was approaching. “Eva, I need to tell you something, though you might already have guessed. You know and see things other can’t for a reason.”

         Eva stopped swaying in her seat and looked to Kasper intently. The question she had never asked floated in the air before her, and she found she was scared to know the answer.

         Kasper leaned closer. “Back when I first discovered I was a Virtue,” this time Eva caught another slight shadow flit over Kasper’s face and vanish into one of the crinkles near his eyes, “which was a very long time ago, there was no name for what I was. You see, there were some people who knew they were not normal, before the more abundant generation of Virtues appeared. Those small few managed to find each other, and we tried to use our powers to look into our futures. We wanted to know what to do with ourselves… and what was the source of our strange powers.”

         Kasper paused and looked into the distance, his far-off thoughts making Eva feel she was only looking in on a picturesque scene from an ancient storybook. “All we found out, which became our only hope, was to await one of the last Virtues, late in her powers, but with our only hope. A certain crystal…” Kasper’s eyes were curious, and Eva jumped when she comprehended just what crystal Kasper meant.

         “So you know about my crystal too?” Eva questioned with a weariness she had recently acquired “It’s just, it used to be, a crystal my father gave me from one of his trips…” Eva’s voice trailed off, to be lost as it floated to the high ceiling.

         “There’s not much I know about it, unfortunately,” Kasper said, running his hands over the broken side. “In fact, I didn’t believe it existed. Till I saw you.” His eyes flicked from the crystal to Eva. “You are a latecomer in the generation of Virtues. There are few more to come, but you were long awaited.” Eva defiantly sat up straighter, though faintly aware of her dirtied boots and tangled hair. “The Celesti crystal, source of the Virtues, around the neck of lady Truth. What I didn’t expect… was for it to be in half,” Jasper continued, handing the crystal back to Eva.

         “So I’m a Virtue?” Eva asked, holding Kasper in her gaze. Kasper gave her the straightest face he had summoned throughout his usual laughing manner.

         “Truth, greatest of us all.”

         Eva looked down, eyes stormy. “I wondered sometimes... But Truth?” She gave Kasper a lost look.

         “You won’t deny it?” Kasper asked.

         Eva closed her eyes, his words burning in her mind. She knew she could never deny it, the honesty in Kasper’s voice haunted her thoughts. Her intuition swelled up within her so that she knew the next time she heard her name, the name Truth would unavoidably follow.

         “I can’t.”

         Kasper laughed. “Good answer. I have waited on that street corner for a long time for nothing less.” His smile soon faded, however.  “You have the Celesti crystal which you must protect with your life.” Kasper said with finality. Yet another time, he looked over the girl before him with a puzzled expression. “What do you know about it?”

         Eva glanced at her crystal and suddenly wished no one knew about it. “I’ve had that crystal since before I can remember. It reminded me of my dad when he was away. He was a ship’s captain… Then I found out that Deceit and Fear were hunting for it-”

         “Fear and Deceit were looking for it?” Kasper asked, perplexed.

         “Still are. I have no idea why they would want it.“ Eva raised her chin and brushed her hair aside, not noticing Kasper‘s worried expression. “I have spent a year trying to find out all I can. I couldn’t find any record of a Felix Rayner ever existing, but a Bloom family once lived here...”

         A clock chimed again from somewhere in the shop, a sweet and sad note strong enough to echo throughout the shop. A realization sprung into Kasper’s eyes and his body sprang to life.

         “You must leave,” he said quickly.

         “What? I thought -” Eva began, stumbling off her stool.

         “Please trust me, Eva. I’ll tell you why in the morning, same street corner.”

         Confused, Eva gathered her things, slightly stung by the fast farewell. But as she lowered her hat onto her head, she caught a look of pure compassion in Kasper’s eyes and the feeling stole into her own eyes as she looked once more at him, and strode quickly away.

         “Hurry!”

         Her swift steps began to sound feeble even to her as the chiming continued throughout the shop. Glancing as she passed, she realized the stirring melody was coming from the golden grandfather clock covered in ivy. Its fateful notes resounded in place of Eva‘s heartbeat. The revolving doors were in sight though, and she confidently moved forward.

         Wanting to give a final farewell, Eva turned her back to the doors as she reached them to help carry her voice to Kasper, now unseen, at the front of the shop. She struggled for good enough parting words to give to Father Time in a hasty mood.

          “I’m sorry if I let you down!” she called.

         “Get out!” Kasper’s voice carried faintly over.

          Suddenly a chilly breeze blew Eva’s hair and sent jolting chills down her back from the doors behind her. A cold hand gripped her arm, locking her in place, and she realized someone had stepped through the doors. But Eva had quick reflexes; the hand was just an obstacle in her resolve to obey Kasper. So as her eyes spun to meet the stranger, her right fist swung also, clenched in a frightened fist.

         It would take more than just anyone to stop Eva when she was determined, but his shadowy eyes did it. Her fist froze inches from his pale face, then fell limply back to her side.

         The clock chimed its last note. Kasper rested his head in his hands. Fate froze Eva in place, and seeing its job done, flew through the swinging doors to join the rush of life beyond.

         “Ah, Jakob, you’re just on time,” Kasper pronounced from the front of the shop.



         



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