The Boy Who Repaired the Town Clock
Chapter 1 - Four minutes slow
The town clock lost four minutes every day. Eli, apprenticed to a watch repairer, offered to inspect it. The council laughed kindly and sent him away. He was sixteen; the tower machinery was older than his grandfather.
His teacher, Mrs. Shaw, did not laugh. She gave him a notebook and told him to record the clock at dawn, noon and sunset for a week.
Eli noticed it ran almost correctly on dry days. After rain it slowed sharply. At the tower's foot, water dripped through a cracked stone joint.
He brought his notes to the council. This time he asked to look, not to fix. A maintenance worker agreed to accompany him upstairs.
