Daphne stared into the cuckoo clock, frowning. She was always searching out old, broken items to repair them to sell at a markup. While it wasn’t going to be her main job anytime soon, it helped, and she found it fun. The selling part especially. This led her to a consignment shop she didn’t usually go to, up in the mountains a few hours out of town.

There was always something interesting there, and today was no exception, as she found a cute little birdhouse cuckoo clock for $10. She had been hoping for a quick repair that included a new felt bird and fresh paint. Unfortunately, she found that wasn’t the case.

There should be gears, chains, and at least a platform for a little bird, but they were all missing. Their lack would make her plan much more difficult. But just because the gears weren’t in the box didn’t mean it was empty.

She began to reach in when a store employee decided to be helpful. “That’s broken,” he said.

“I can see that,” Daphne replied. “But I’d like to know how it’s broken.”

The man shook his head. “I wouldn’t.”

“Well, you’re not me, are you?” She snapped.

“I’m just saying. Better things to spend your money on.”

Daphne rolled here. Him trying to talk her out of buying the cuckoo clock only spurred her resolve. “Thank you for your input.” She said tersely, turning back to the birdhouse. Back to what was inside. It almost looked like…she reached in with two slender fingers and picked up a business card. Blank on one side, she flipped it over, reading a single world in strangely glowing letters.

Cuckoo!

“Ah, crap! Duck!” the employee shouted, but he only added to Daphne’s confusion. And then It happened. She was at one struck, grabbed, pulled, and shoved by an overwhelming force before it yanked her into the birdhouse, the door of which snapped shut behind her.

For seconds there came bangs and shouts, the little clock bouncing on its small shelf.

“Let me! Squawk!...”

“I am not! Chirp!...”

“What the hell! Cuckoo!”

The door opened with a snap, and right behind it came Daphne, now clad in a ridiculous cardinal outfit that robbed her of her arms and gave her plush pointed feet. And while her mind was awash in a dozen questions and a thousand expletives, one thing overrode all of it. The thing she had to do. The thing she was made to do.

“Cuckoo! Cuckoo!” She cried out, pitching her voice up. “Cuckoo! Cuckoo!”

The employee, a giant now, approached, wincing. “Damn. I tried to warn you.”

“Warn me!” She said, reclaiming her voice, though it retained a bird-like chirp. “You didn’t say fucking one damn word about this shit!”

“Well, I can’t. He won’t…he won’t let us.”

“What?”

“There’s this weird guy who lives up in the mountains. He comes down every so often and hides weird items in the store. We try and stop him, but he’s…well, he’s a funny guy.”

Daphne had the distinct feeling the employee didn’t mean funny in any typical way. And she was beginning to understand why the employee had been talking around the topic.

“Can I get out of here?”

“You’ll, uh, have to ask him, when he gets here. He always knows, somehow, when one of his items…gets interesting. He comes in and buys it.”

Daphne blinked, grappling with what the employee just said. This mystery man left items in the shop for free, only to buy them later? Her profit-oriented brain refused to understand.

“Well, get me—Cuckoo! Cuckoo!” Daphne blurted, just as her time outside the clock was up. With a final cry she was jerked back into her little compartment where plush limbs squished against each other.

From there, she counted the minutes and seconds until her next release.