The Ring

Past the last stone the gravel gives out onto a concrete pad. A brass ring the size of a pie tin lies loose on it, with a marble going around in the groove. That was the sound. Once a lap the marble clicks over the place where the groove is cut through. The gap is no wider than the marble.

Through the gap you can see a second ring, smaller, a step down. It has a nick in its lip. So does this one, in the same place.

In the middle, behind a pane of glass, there is a number, 31, and someone has drawn a band on the glass in grease pencil, from 40 to 50.

You pick up the ring and tip it. The marble speeds up, the number goes to 58, and it clicks over the gap and keeps going.

Behind you, among the stones, a ghost has started to hum, one note a lap, on the click.

You find 44 and hold it. This lap the click is different. The marble dips into the gap as it passes, and comes out again.