The tide clock

Source: an original fiction extract.

At eleven on Sunday, Owen arrived at the maritime centre with his grandfather's tide clock. The wooden case was wrapped in a blue towel, and its single hand had stopped above the word Low. He had booked a repair appointment with Ms Webb, who worked in the workshop behind the exhibition room. She asked him to set the clock on a padded bench and place the towel on a chair. Owen explained that it had stopped on Friday. Outside the workshop window, visitors were queuing for a tour of the old lifeboat.

Ms Webb removed the back of the case and studied the mechanism. Owen watched her put the screws into a shallow dish. His grandfather had kept the clock beside the kitchen door, consulting it before walking down to the shore. Owen had assumed that it knew the sea in the same way a thermometer knew the temperature. Ms Webb explained that the clock had to be set and checked; it was a useful guide, not a promise that every tide would arrive exactly when the hand suggested. She showed him the adjustment on the back.

While she worked, Owen went through the exhibition. In a glass case lay a notebook filled with tide observations. The handwriting changed halfway through: first a heavy, sloping script, then smaller letters that fitted more neatly between the ruled lines. A label said that a daughter had continued her father's record for twenty years. Owen bent closer. Beside one entry she had added a few words about a storm, and beside another, a note that she had arrived too late to take a reading.

Back in the workshop, the clock lay face upwards on the bench. Ms Webb said she could replace the worn part, but he would need to return for it the following week. Owen asked whether he should leave the towel. She shook her head and gave it back to him. Without the clock inside, it seemed unexpectedly light. He folded it twice and carried it home under his arm. On the way he stopped at the shore, where water covered the stones his grandfather used to sit on. He had not checked the tide before leaving.

When the repaired clock returned to the kitchen, Owen followed the instructions Ms Webb had written for him. He kept them in the drawer below it. The hand began its slow circuit again, passing the familiar words without hesitation. Owen looked from it to the window. He could not see the sea from the house, only a strip of road and the neighbour's hedge. On the next page of his notebook he wrote the date and the time he intended to walk down. He left space beneath for what he actually found.

Refer only to the first paragraph. Choose one answer for each item. Write the four letters in order, labelling them 1 to 4.