‘Are you telling me it really existed?’

Igor seemed embarrassed about this. ‘Yeth,’ he said, 'and then again, no.’

'Things either exist or they don’t,’ said Jeremy. 'I am very clear about that. I have medicine.’

'It ecthithted,’ said Igor, 'and then, after it did, it never had. Thith ith what my grandfather told me, and he built that clock with thethe very handth!’

Jeremy looked down. Igor’s hands were gnarled, and, now he came to look at them, had a lot of scar tissue around the wrists.

'We really believe in heirloomth in our family,’ said Igor, catching his gaze.

'Sort of… hand-me-downs, ahahaha,’ said Jeremy. He wondered where his medicine was.