make (3.81): unintuitive recipe execution order on Linux

[SysTom]

Hello,

I have a makefile that produces a dummy object to indicate that
'everything is made'.  The recipe is roughly as follows:

$(DUMMY): $(SOMETHING)
        ...
        $(MAKE) something
        ...
        touch $(DUMMY)

something: $(SOMETHING)
        {make something}

However, it always makes because, for some reason, 'something' is
always 5s older then $(DUMMY).

Strangely, it behaves as I would expect on cygwin, but exhibits this
unexpected behavior on Linux.

Any ideas?

Thanks, SysTom