The next day, I woke up with Luke sitting up next to me, with his eyes opened widely, with a
shocked expression.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Look.” He pointed at the direction where the old man Solomon was sleeping. It was empty.
Well, not exactly empty. There was a necklace where he slept, there was an hourglass.
“Where did he go?” I queried, as Luke went towards the necklace.
“There’s a note,” he said, “it said thank you.
So the old man left without saying goodbye, giving us an hourglass necklace as a goodbye gift.
How eerie. “Guess we’ll keep that,” I said to Luke, as I took it from him and put it around my neck.
We carried on our journey. We continued searching clues for the underground chamber.
I fiddled with the necklace the old man left with us. Suddenly, I noticed some sort of ancient
writing on the sides of the hourglass. I looked closely, it said “turn me upside down for three
times.” I did what it said. I suddenly felt dizzy.
The last thing I remembered was hearing my brother shouting my name.
Next thing I knew, I was lying down on a mattress. I figured that I was in a hut. My brother
was nowhere in sight. I looked around. The hut was simple. There was only one table and three
chairs. There was a drawn picture on the wall, showing a couple and a child. I suppose that they
formed a family.
I tried to recall what happened before I passed out. Right. I was in the desert with my brother,
Luke. How did I end up in a hut? I looked down. That’s it! I turned the hourglass upside down for
three times. Did this hourglass sort of bring me somewhere? I was deep in thought until the door
opened and a small boy about eight years old that resembled the picture on the wall peeked in.
“Hey you’re awake!” The boy exclaimed. I just stared at him. There were thousands of questions in
my head but the boy broke the silence before I could speak.
“Hello, I bet you’re hungry! This is my home. I found you three days ago near the fields. Well,
that’s why I decided to bring you in. What’s your name?” The boy was very cheerful.
“I’m Sally. So I passed out for…” before I could finish my sentence, the boy cut in,
“you want some cookies? Or something to drink?” I hadn’t even answered. He dashed to the…
I assumed that was the kitchen, and took out some milk and cookies, then I realized how hungry I
was. Soon, the boy’s family returned, and treated me as if I were a guest. They were very friendly.
There were a few things I found out. I passed out for three days, and I apparently just
appeared in front of their yard when they found me. I showed them my necklace. They didn’t
know how to read the wordings either, and suggested me to go to the boy’s grandfather, since he
knew how to read.
On the way to the old man’s home, the boy asked me a lot of questions. He asked me where I
was from. I said America. He asked me whether I had any religion, I said no. He said his family
was Chinese and believed in Chinese Gods. He also asked me whether I had any siblings. I said I
had a brother, who was apparently looking for me right before I came to his home. He answered
by only saying he was the only child at home.
Soon, we arrived at a shrine. It was beautiful. The boy explained to me that his grandfather
was in charge of the shrine. I was impressed by the architect. Words were crafted on the walls.
Somehow, the words seemed strangely familiar, but I didn’t know what it meant, so I just ignored
them. We went in. The inside of the temple was simple. There were two statues, a table in the
centre, and two rows of candles on each side. Behind the table, there was an old man, sitting on
