It was a beautiful evening. The air was crisp but not cold. New York glittered with early Christmas lights and hundreds of people moved swiftly to their unknown destinations. The whole world seemed eager to get home in time.

The boy balled up his watch and aimed for a trash barrel.

“Don't throw your watch out,” cried Annie. “It's a really cheap one. I shouldn't have expected it to last. You can't get this kind of watch fixed, you can only get another.”

“May I keep it for a souvenir?” said Annie quickly, and blushed at his stare. “After all, I don't meet extra Lockwoods all the time.”

He laughed and gave her the watch. “I've noticed,” he said as they walked, “that just about every sentence we've said has the word time in it.” He said, “Are you warm enough without gloves?” He took her hand in his. “Listen,” he said, “speaking of time, what are you doing next Saturday?”

Who cares about other times and other worlds when you can dream about next weekend? thought Annie. The best time is always now. “I'm free,” said Annie Lockwood to Lockwood Stratton.

She put the broken watch on her own wrist because she had seen right away why the watch didn't work.

It was full of sand.

FACTS

The Metropolitan Museum of Art did have an exhibition in November 1999 presenting the tomb artifacts of Hetepheres, mother of Khufu, who built the Great Pyramid. It was a mysterious tomb. Her sarcophagus, although sealed in antiquity, contained no mummy. The tomb, small as a closet, contained much less than a queen should have. George Reisner, who excavated that tomb in real life in 1925, guessed that it was a hurried reburial, possibly after a botched robbery.

The tomb entrance was found during the Reisner dig when the cameraman's tripod broke some plaster.

That did not happen, however, in 1899, and the cameraman was not Strat.

No Hiram Stratton, Sr., or Hiram Stratton, Jr., existed or made donations to the museum.

Copyright

Published by
Dell Laurel-Leaf
an imprint of
Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this
book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the
publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any
payment for this “stripped book.”

Copyright © 2001 by Caroline B. Cooney

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where
permitted by law. For information address Delacorte Press.

Dell and Laurel are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers

eISBN: 978-0-307-48500-7

RL: 6.7

Reprinted by arrangement with Delacorte Press

v3.0