Before dinner, the snow globe changed again. This time, a tiny hillside town stood inside the glass. Adam couldn’t believe it. Candlewick.
For a moment, Adam stood still, paralyzed by indecision. The doubts of continuing his adventures with the unpredictable snow globe washed over him. He was torn between staying in the safety of his invisible cocoon, and stepping out one more time in the name of curiosity.
His curiosity eventually won out. If he was seeing the town in the glass, it meant everyone there should be fine…right?
Adam took a deep breath, then gave the snow globe a gentle shake.
He felt a light breeze against his hand just before his room disappeared. In its place was a wide garden, bursting with bright flowers and neatly trimmed green hedges. The air burst with the feel of late spring and the sweet smell of early summer. Above him, wispy white clouds—the kind that looked like thin strips of cotton candy—drifted leisurely across the pale blue sky. The same warm breeze ruffled the patch of dandelions at Adam’s feet, so that they brushed gently against his ankles.
At the edge of the garden stood a small girl examining a rosebush. The girl seemed no older than five or six, and wore a simple white dress. As if she could sense him, the girl looked up at Adam. She lifted a pale arm and waved. The girl was barefoot and held a golden pocket watch. A single daisy was pinned in her blond hair.
“Right on time,” the girl said, smiling at him with round brown eyes. “Just like you said.”
Adam didn’t reply. He had no idea who the girl was or what she was talking about.
The girl motioned for him to follow as she brushed past him and led the way across the garden. That was when Adam realized the enormous house behind him. It looked more like a cathedral or a fancy hotel. Above the lofty windows and engraved walls, a weathervane in the shape of a candle perched on the slender roof. Adam had read in a book that the direction the weathervane points is where the wind comes from. Today, the wind blew from the southwest, behind the hills and the faint outline of the factory in the distance.
“Come with me,” the girl called, before disappearing inside.
Adam hesitated, then followed her.
The inside of the mansion was even more impressive. The sleek, wood-paneled walls were decorated with framed paintings of picture-perfect landscapes, as well as portraits of the smiling little girl and presumably her brother and parents, all of whom looked far more severe. The furniture, a mix of stiff-backed chairs and sofas made of glossy fabric, did not seem inviting, and instead gave off a do-not-touch vibe, much like items displayed at a museum.
“Is this your house?” Adam couldn’t help asking.
The little girl nodded, looking rather unimpressed by the magnificence around her.
“Who are you?” asked Adam.
The little girl gave him a weird look as she led him through the foyer. “You know who I am.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
Something odd was going on. Adam debated leaving, but then he smelled the delicious aroma of cooked chicken. His mouth watered. It had been close to dinnertime when he left home, but the sun here had been almost directly overhead. It must be lunchtime, then.
“Mommy, Daddy!” the girl called. “Adam is here.”
Adam blinked. “How do you know my name?”
Before the girl could answer, a frowning couple emerged from one of the doorways. They were the same people he’d seen in the portraits, and they were stylishly dressed in nice, if old-fashioned, clothes. The man rubbed his sallow face and eyed Adam with distaste. Next to him, the woman looked down at Adam as if he were something rotten on the heel of her shoe.
“I’ve heard about you,” the man said without a trace of friendliness. “Just so you know, we keep the business strictly within the bloodline. If this is some ruse to get part of the fortune, you can forget it.”
“I—” stammered Adam, “I d-don’t know what you mean—”
“It’s okay, Daddy, Adam is my friend,” the little girl said calmly. “He isn’t here for the fortune. He’s here for lunch.”
Adam thought the man looked somewhat familiar, though he didn’t know why. He eyed the three people, not sure whether to make a run for it. He glanced at the snow globe in his hand, which still showed the hillside town. He gave it a quick shake. The snowflakes twirled, but nothing else happened.
He stared at the confetti lying on the bottom of the glass. What if he got stuck there forever, with no way to get back to his own time?
After a tense moment of silence, the mother said testily, “Very well, the more the merrier.” She said it with the same enthusiasm as someone being asked to swallow a live spider.
The little girl beamed. Despite Adam’s protests, she urged him into the dining room. Plates of hot bread rolls, macaroni-and-tuna salad, and bowls of chicken soup awaited the family on a long rectangular table that could seat ten. Unlit candles rested in the chandelier holders. The green-and-white stripes looked strikingly familiar.
A chubby boy in a velvet suit was already seated at the table and messily gorging on his plate of macaroni salad. The parents sat down at one end of the long table, and the little girl sat down at the other end, as far away from the rest of the family as possible. Adam followed her.
“Look, this is all really nice, but I’m not hungry,” he said as his stomach let out a loud rumble.
The girl grinned and passed a bowl of soup to him.
“No thanks,” Adam tried again,
