CHAPTER 2: The Hour Everyone Learned to Ignore

Evan noticed it first in the way people moved.

At eleven fifty-eight, the town flowed as usual. Doors opened. Conversations continued. Footsteps crossed the square without hesitation.

At noon, nothing changed.

No one paused. No one looked up. The absence of sound did not interrupt anything, because it was no longer expected.

By twelve oh five, Evan realized the silence had been rehearsed.

He spent the morning walking the square, listening more than speaking. Alderwyn did not hide its routines, but it did not announce them either.

At the bakery, the owner slid fresh loaves onto the rack with practiced ease.

“Does the clock ever ring?” Evan asked.

The baker shrugged. “It moves. That’s enough.”

At the post office, a woman stamped envelopes in steady rhythm.

“It used to,” she said, without looking up. “But we adjusted.”

Adjusted to what, Evan wondered.

Near the library steps, the child from the day before was still reading.

“You waiting for someone?” Evan asked.

The child shook his head. “Just finishing a chapter.”

“What happens at noon here?”

The child considered the question seriously. “Nothing special.”

“That’s special,” Evan said.

The child smiled faintly and returned to the book.

That afternoon, Evan climbed the tower again.

He inspected the bell closely. The striker was intact. The rope was strong. A single pull would be enough.

He did not pull it.

Some silences earned patience.

As the day folded into evening, Evan sat with Thomas on a bench near the square.

“Was there a time it rang?” Evan asked.

“Yes,” Thomas replied. “For a long time.”

“What changed?”

Thomas looked at the clock tower, then at the mountains beyond the town.

“Something happened at noon,” he said.

Evan waited.

Thomas continued, “Not an accident. Not a disaster. Just a moment when people chose differently.”

“Differently how?”

“Separately.”

Night came gently to Alderwyn.

The clock hands glowed faintly in the dark, moving without sound. The square lights flickered on, one by one, until the town rested in a soft circle of illumination.

Evan returned to his small rented room above the general store.

From the window, he could see the tower clearly.

He checked his watch again.

Twelve hours until noon.

This time, he planned to be listening.

The bell remained silent.

But the town was not.