Chapter 3 Chapter Two The Big Clock Strikes Thirteen

The chime of the grand clock chiming the time.It became Tom's familiar voice.Especially at night when everything is silent and people are sleeping soundly, they can hear it very clearly.Tom can't sleep at night.He always goes to bed on time.Hour after hour is often spent half asleep and half awake.He never suffered from insomnia before, and he doesn't understand why he can't sleep now.He felt bloated and uncomfortable in his stomach, which probably caused his insomnia.Sometimes he also dozes off for a while, and in the half-asleep and half-awake, it seems to be two people.One Tom didn't want to sleep and selfishly kept the other from sleeping, and kept muttering about all the rich foods that he ate during the day, such as whipped cream, shrimp paste, wine butter, mayonnaise, etc. Wait.So Tom was certainly relieved to wake from such a sleep.

Aunt Gwen's sumptuous dishes and Tom's own lack of exercise contributed to his insomnia.Tom was locked in the house all day and could only do crossword puzzles and play with jigsaw puzzles.Even the milkman was not allowed to open the door, lest he infect the poor milkman with measles.Tom's only activity is helping Aunt Gwen prepare various meals in the kitchen.He had never eaten so much and so well before. Tom didn't quite understand the causes and effects of insomnia, so it didn't occur to him to complain.At first he tried to induce sleepiness by reading Aunt Gwen's childhood books.But such books, dull as they were, did not help Tom to sleep.Still, he bit the bullet and read on.Later, Uncle Allen found out that he was still reading at half past eleven at night and criticized him.From then on they stipulated that Tom could only read for ten minutes in bed, and they also made sure not to turn on the light in his bedroom after his aunt said good night and turned off the light.It is no pity not to be allowed to read these books, but it is really hard to have nothing to do in the long dark night.one night.Tom lay awake in bed as usual.The room was pitch black, and when he thought that his uncle and aunt might be sitting in the brightly lit living room reading, chatting, doing whatever they liked, while he was lying helplessly in the dark room, unable to do anything, he felt very wronged.He felt that although he had endured many nights, he could bear no more today.So, he sat up, lifted the quilt with one hand and jumped out of bed.But.What he was going to do, he did not know.

He touched the door of the room.He opened the door softly and walked into a small hallway. Tom heard Uncle Allen's cadenced voice in the closed drawing room, probably reading a witty article in his favorite Newsweek, while Aunt Gwen was listening meekly or asleep caught. After a short pause Tom slipped into the kitchen, and from the kitchen into the pantry.At home, this sort of thing was common, because it was what he and Peter were good at. In Aunt Gwen's pantry, there were two frozen pork chops and half a large cake.A few bananas and some buns and pastries.Tom hesitated, as if he could not make up his mind.In fact, he knew in his heart that he was not hungry at all.He picked up a very ordinary, not very fresh bun, but immediately became anorexic, and he put down the bread for the next meal.

Tom walked softly all the time--it would be a fool if he couldn't do that.However, his luck was bad. He had just walked out of the kitchen and pantry when he met his uncle coming out of the living room.The uncle cried out in surprise, and the aunt heard it too. Tom knew he had done something wrong, but there was no need for them to make a fuss!Aunt Gwen was most anxious, thinking: Tom must have been hungry when he slipped into the pantry at night; Uncle Allen, who had watched Tom carefully at mealtimes, did not believe that Tom was really hungry.Moreover, Tom himself said that nothing had been taken from the storage room.So why did he go there?Is it for no reason?what is the root cause? "

Tom tried hard, but failed to make them understand the simple truth that any boy, hungry or not, loved to live and run in the pantry.This is extremely common and natural.But his uncle and aunt still told him that he went to bed too late and he should go back to bed immediately. His uncle stood at the head of his bed and said solemnly: "Don't do this again, Tom! You can't turn on the light after the light is out, and you can't get out of bed. You know, it's for your own good." "Aren't you allowed to get out of bed in the morning?" asked Tom, interrupting his uncle.

"Certainly in the morning, that's another matter, don't be silly, Tom, but you can't get out of bed at night, because..." "What if I want to go to the bathroom?" "Of course you can go to the bathroom, but you have to go back to bed immediately after you go to the bathroom. You go to bed at nine in the evening and wake up at seven in the morning, and sleep ten hours. You need ten hours of sleep because..." "Uncle, I can't sleep!" "Listen, Tom!" shouted my uncle, suddenly impatient. "I'm reasoning with you! Where did I go?"

"Speaking of ten hours' sleep," replied Big Tom reluctantly. "Yes, a boy like you needs ten hours' sleep. Tom, you should know that. As I said, you need ten hours' sleep in bed! I'll say it again, my aunt and I want you to start at nine o'clock at night." Go to bed and get ten hours of sleep if you can, and it's all for your own good, understand, Tom?" "Understood." "Well, now I want you to promise to do as I say, will you, Tom?" Why do children have to agree to the demands of adults?Tom said grudgingly, "I think I can. I do."

"That's right!" said Aunt Gwen. Uncle Allen went on: "Good! I knew you were a sensible boy." "But I still can't sleep." Uncle Allen said sternly, "Baby can sleep," and Aunt Gwen added kindly, "Tom, when you say you can't sleep, that's just your own imagination." Poor little Tom didn't dare to answer back, so he kept silent. Uncle and aunt walked away. Tom lay in bed, and it was too dark to see anything.He thought about writing a letter to his mother, asking her to "take me home right away."But after thinking about it, no, it might be a sign of cowardice to do that, and my mother must be worried.He thought it would be better to write to Peter what he was holding in his stomach, but Peter was suffering from measles and could not reply.Then he still had to tell Peter: It was very lonely here, even at night it was boring.There is nothing to do, no place to go, no one to play with all day long.All in all, this place sucks.Tom was still thinking about what to write in the letter: Peter, I will do everything I can to get out of here and go somewhere else, anywhere. "A desire for freedom seemed to swell in him and in the room, and one day it would burst the walls and make him truly free.

Uncle and aunt are gone, and they are going to bed too.Uncle Allen took a bath.Tom lay there, heard him taking a bath, and hated him to the core.For some reason, Tom could always hear the sound in the next bathroom clearly, as if he was there too.Tonight he could hear better, almost as if he were taking a bath with Uncle Allen.Then he heard walking and talking somewhere in the apartment.Finally, a ray of light from under the room also disappeared, The lights in the passage were turned off. The surrounding gradually quieted down, and after a while, the big clock struck twelve.Usually around midnight, my uncle and aunt had gone to bed.Only Tom was still lying on the bed with his eyes open, infinitely irritable, as if he was in confinement.

"Dang!" The big clock finally struck, and it was one o'clock.However, it seemed to want to show its independence on purpose, and then it struck again, "Two!" Tom counted, and for the first time he hated the random clock. "Three, four! But it's one!" Tom muttered angrily, resting his chin on the quilt. "Why don't you just strike one, like an ordinary clock? But the great clock hasn't struck yet." Finished, "Five strokes, six strokes! Tom continued to count, in spite of his anger, and it had become a habit of his nights. "Seven!"Eight times! "In the dead of night, after all, only this clock is willing to talk to him." Nine strikes!Ten hits!It's not over yet! ’ Tom yawned, and began to admire the clock. Indeed, it was still striking. ‘Eleven!Twelve blows!Hi, strike twelve twice in one night!Tom sneered sleepily. "Thirteen! The clock strikes loudly again before it stops.

Thirteen?Tom thought for a moment: Was it really thirteen knocks?Not even a deranged grandfather clock can strike thirteen!It must be my own hallucination.Is it because I am sleepy?No, I clearly counted thirteen, it must be thirteen! Tom began to struggle with his thoughts. He tossed and turned in bed.The silence seemed to foretell something to come; the whole building seemed to be holding its breath; and the darkness that surrounded it urged him to answer a question: "Tom, the great clock has struck thirteen. What are you going to do?" "No idea!" cried Tom, and after a moment he thought of adding, "Don't think about it!" What on earth could he do?He had to lie in bed, sleeping or not, from nine o'clock at night to seven o'clock the next morning, ten hours.Get ten hours of sleep.This is what my uncle promised him while reasoning with him. Uncle Allen thought he was right, but Tom felt there was a hole in what he was saying... Uncle Allen took it for granted that there were only twenty-four hours in a day, and only two twelve hours.What if instead of twenty-four hours a day had two thirteen hours?Then from nine o'clock in the evening to seven o'clock the next morning should not be ten hours, but eleven hours.In this way, in addition to lying in bed for ten hours, there is an extra hour, and he can do whatever he wants in this hour! But don't be busy, don't be busy!Everyone knows that there are no thirteen hours in half a day, your idea is really ignorant and ridiculous! Then why did the clock strike thirteen?This is an undeniable fact. It is true that the clock struck thirteen, but who doesn't know that the grandfather clock is always striking indiscriminately?For example, at five o'clock, it strikes only once, and so on. "Yes," pleaded the first voice that kept weary Tom from sleep, "the great clock does always strike the wrong time, but it always strikes every hour, and it tells the real time. Now The clock struck thirteen, so at least it was an hour longer this time, and there was a thirteen o'clock." "Impossible!" cried a second voice.The building, which had been listening to the debate between the two Toms, sighed impatiently. "At least I don't think there's such an hour, it's just knocking!" continued the second voice. "Then you're going to miss a great opportunity!" whispered Lou to Tom. "I can't take advantage of this opportunity. It would be dishonest to do so, because I know the clock is striking thirteen and the time is wrong." "Hmph," Lou said coldly, "the old clock is lying, isn't it?" Tom was a little angry now, too, and he sat up straight up, and said, "Well, anyway, I've got a way to prove who's lying. I'm going downstairs to see where the clock's hour hand is pointing."