This was how much time she had. Not three years, not three weeks, but three days .Elise, by no conscious act, was inclined to wish for more time in everything. She was inclined to wish that she had two days instead of one, or four hours instead of three, or five minutes instead of two. It was a subconscious unspoken confrontation that she know she could never have out, primarily because of course she could never have out the conversation of time with anyone other than the creator of time, a far off strange existence which she couldn’t quite put a name or a face too. Thus her uncertainty and uncomfortable resistance to the amount of time that had been dedicated to her for any set activity was not to be reconciled any time soon. That being said, Elise knew it was good to practice gratitude and she must be thankful for the time that she had been given. Further, Elise found that the easiest way to resist this disconcerting feeling was to tell herself that time (and certainly the design of a clock) was in fact a human construct, and while others may attempt to convince her otherwise, she believed that it did not and could not impact her on a spiritual or mindful level, and with that thought she could console herself that it did not matter what time she arrived at the train station, what time she ate dinner or what time it was when the alarm went off in the morning. If of course, she didn’t mind missing the train.

Aunt Valeries face was engraved with more lines in reality than in the image that was in Elise memory. Time was certainly leaving it’s mark on Aunt Valerie, but she never allowed it to lower to mood or attitude to life. Aunt Valerie passed a plate of sourdough toast, smashed avocado and two neatly poached eggs across the table to Elise with a smile.

“Isn’t this what you young ones like at the moment” said Valerie.

“Well I don’t eat out much,” Shrugged Elise.

“The farm’s miles away from the town isn’t it?” interjected Aunt V.

But I know what you mean, healthy is trendy at the moment.”

“You must get bored out there.” said V.

“Bored? No.”

The crunch of the sour dough crust paused the conversation for a few moments. It was at that moment that Elise decided to take the plunge. The sand timer would not last forever.

“Auntie, the breakfast is so kind of you, and being in London is superb and so on, but I’m here for one thing actually, besides seeing you. I need you to give me the Dragon Lotus.”

The colour began to drain from Aunt Valerie’s face. She hadn’t heard the words Dragon Lotus for yonks and was puzzled at Elise’s request. Gormlessly she repeated back what she had head.

“You need me to give you the Dragon Lotus.”

Elise spoke with a grim pause between the words, accentuating the words as if they were covered in a sharp icy coating.

“I need you, to give me, the Dragon Lotus.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Elise.” The reply came with a stern unmoving expression from Aunt Valerie.

“Come on Auntie, this will all be so much easier if you co-operate. Where is it? In the attic? Under a lose floor board? A special cupboard next to your bed?”

“I have no idea where it is – and if I did know, what makes you think I’d tell you.”

Elise was beginning to see that the situation could turn nasty. She suspected there could be trouble, but how much and for how long she was unsure. She considered the nicely-nicely approach for a second time. Aunt Valerie never seemed like a woman with a backbone, why should it suddenly appear that way now. Elise knew she was unlikely to find the vase without her Aunt’s help, the house was big and rambling, and with only two and half days left here, she would be pressed for time. Now that Aunt Valerie knew her intention for the trip she wouldn’t stand aside and allow a house search. No. Aunt Valerie had to give in.

“Listen Aunt, we’re family, there’s good blood between us, let’s keep our bond. It’s owed to us to share in this. I’m not here to steal from you, but I am afraid, I will need to know where the Dragon Lotus is. It is essential that I have the vase, you see.”

“Essential? My dear, the dragon lotus is a gift that God can give to no one other than I, and once I am gone, the Dragon Lotus will be gone too.”

“That is precisely why I need you to give me it before you pass away Aunt, so it can be used to it’s full potential. After all, it would be a shame to waste the power of the dragon.”

The grandfather clock in the hall way chimed ten loud bongs. Time was slipping away from Elise and until she could grasp the Dragon Lotus she would have no hope of changing that reality.

******

Let me take you back to a time when little Elise had witnessed something that she had only began to understand in her twenty fifth year on earth. Little Elise had slipped out of the Christmas Eve party in 1998 hungry for dinner to be served. It was a time long before her days in Regent street, when Aunt Valerie lived in a pebbledash, upside down house on the Cornish coast and was hosting the family gathering.

Elise saw Aunt Valerie glance at the clock that evening. As eight o’clock chimed, Valerie’s forehead creased into a frown as she raced against the clock to prepare the food for the family. She glanced around the room to check that she was alone, not noticing the skinny twig of a girl lingering behind the doorway.

Valerie twisted her long pony tail with one hand and drummed her fingers on the kitchen worktop with the other. Having considered for a moment, she made an abrupt decision and headed out of the door into the side hall way. Passing the lounge which was filled with laughter from the energetic party, Valerie sped down the stairs to into her bedroom.

Elise followed, her soft socks silencing her approach. Elise watched as Valerie went to her bedside table, opened the cupboard beneath and took out the intricately hand painted blue and white vase. It was the Dragon Lotus. Valerie’s bony hand reached into the vase and grasped an emerald pendant and there, within the splitting of a second, the room spun in teal and emerald colours. To explain what happened next would be impossible within the limits of English language, but I can merely tell you, that Little Elise once more immediately found herself watching through the gap of the kitchen door her this time, calm and serene Aunt glancing at the kitchen clock in preparation for the family dinner time, and note that the clock chimed a stunning and inexplicable seven o’clock. The Dragon Lotus pendant harboured power over the peculiar control of time.