The sliding timer

Original fiction extract.

My aunt snatched the little timer before it could slide from the park bench. We had been using it for a drawing challenge, but my cousin had placed his sketchbook partly beneath it. When he lifted the book to show us a bird, the timer travelled towards the edge. My aunt caught it with one hand while holding her pencil in the other. The bird drawing was very good. None of us looked at it properly until she put the timer safely in her coat pocket.

Identify a word or phrase from the extract which suggests the same idea as the words in bold:

My aunt took the timer suddenly and quickly before it fell.