The sundial’s visitor

Original fiction extract.

In the courtyard, Felix wanted the sundial to do something. His aunt pointed to the shadow on the stone and said it was already doing it. He bent close enough for his own head to darken the dial. She moved him gently aside. They sat on the wall to eat their sandwiches, and he watched the metal point instead of the black line beneath it.

The shadow was a narrow, silent finger resting on a number. It seemed too certain of its place to move. Yet after a while a small wedge of sunlight appeared where Felix was sure the darkness had been. The stone had opened a secret margin. He stopped chewing. Nothing jumped or clicked; the change arrived wearing the same face as stillness. Around the courtyard, footsteps crossed and voices rose, but on the dial a patient division was being redrawn without anyone lifting a hand.

He asked his aunt whether they could stay until the next number. She looked at the remaining sandwich and said they could stay a little longer. This time Felix watched the edge of the shadow. A fly landed on the metal point and left again, much too quickly to understand what had become interesting.

Choose three powerful words or phrases from the extract above. Analyse how the writer uses language to present the child’s changing attention to the sundial’s shadow.

Write about 200 to 250 words.