The Pocket Watch

by Michael Shaw

  I turned my head. “Don’t go in there.”

  His hand rested on the door handle. “Don’t… what? Why?”

  Suddenly Jacob burst through another door. His pistol was back in its hiding place.

  I tried to run. He tackled me.

  We slid on the concrete, and everyone around us got out of the way. A few comments and worried expressions came from onlookers. But for the most part, people just kept walking.

  He reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of what looked like handcuffs, but they were dark, and they didn’t make any jingling sound like metal cuffs would.

  When he tried to pull them out, I punched him in the face. I don’t know what compelled me, but I did it without even hesitating. I only had one thought on my mind, and that was getting away with the watch in my pocket.

  He reeled to my right from the blow and landed on his side, but he quickly started to get up. His hand reached into his jacket and pulled out the gun.

  I pressed the button and endured another flash.

  This one rocked me forward. I fell onto my hands and knees. The ringing came back. Get up, Jon, I told myself. Get up and get out of here.

  I rose to my feet and began to walk away, wiping my ears off and getting blood on my palms. Once I made it to the car, I took a look at myself in the rear view mirror. You’re fine, I let my breaths slow down. You’re… You’re fine. I looked terrible.

  I kept time paused as I drove home. My joints began to stiffen. The ringing increased, and the pounding pain grabbed my head. The longer I kept time paused, the worse I felt.

  I had to get away from those people, but I didn’t know what to do. Would they follow me? Would they call the authorities? I ran into the house quickly, planning on just keeping time paused until I felt safe again. But when I reached my bedroom, the watch started beeping. I opened it up. What? What’s happening? It sounded a tone every second, and it felt hot. I felt miserable.

  Internal time was at nine minutes, 40 seconds, and counting.

  I reached into the closet, grabbed my parents’ box, and dumped its contents into a book bag. Underneath all the pictures and letters was something I hadn’t noticed. A drawstring bag. It jingled when it fell into the back pack. I quickly forgot about it and kept working. Before I zipped up the book bag, I put my wallet, my father’s gun, and the bullets into it. The last thing I brought with me was the baseball bat.

  The beeping stopped. I looked down to check the watch, but didn’t have enough time to see anything other than one number. Internal time had reached 10 minutes. The flash occurred without even being prompted, without the button being pressed. It just happened on its own.

  ∞

  The pocket watch showed me events from June 2037. After Alex called me from the hospital, I immediately said goodbye to Hunter and drove toward Klara Medical. While on the way, I called Jason. He asked me to stop by the house before I went. Now, he drove both of us to Klara. He glanced at me a few times as we made our way to the hospital.

  The radio played low in the background. It was the same old news station Jason listened to every day. “Tune in tonight at eleven. Authorities are trying to figure out why an unknown group of thieves intercepted a mass shipment of neodymium-”

  Jason cut it off. “What were you up to?”

  “Just hanging out with Hunter.” I shifted in my seat. I had thrown the gun into the console before I got to the house; Jason didn’t know I had taken it with me.

  He gave me another pointed look. “I’m not stupid, Jon. No more playing detective.”

  I nodded. “Well, unlike you, I haven’t forgotten.”

  “Forgotten?” He echoed, raising his voice.

  The car pulled to a stop as we came to a red light.

  Jason looked at me. “You think I don’t care?”

  “No. I think you suppress it,” I replied. “I think you have found no solution, no course of action,” my voice escalated, “no answer as to where that murderer is, and so now, you’ve given up.”

  His chest rose. He inhaled deeply, containing himself. His jaw moved to the side, and his lips pursed.

  “You’ve given up on them,” I said bluntly.

  The light turned green. Jason put his foot on the gas and propelled the car forward.

  “It’s not that simple,” Jason explained. “This man’s life intersected with ours, and now-”

  “He’s still out there.”

  “He’s disappeared!” He yelled.

  I shut my mouth.

  He rubbed his head. “He’s vanished,” he continued. “Evaporated. Gone. He can’t be found, and trust me,” he turned his head and made eye contact, “you’re not the only one who’s tried to bring him back.”

  “It’s not just about him,” I said. “It’s about why. Why did he have to take them? Why did he have to do it then and there?” I gripped my seat belt.

  “We can’t…”

  “Why did it happen like this-”

  “We can’t change it!” He asserted.

  I quieted down.

  “It’s been several years now, Jon.” Jason switched lanes and accelerated. “It isn’t normal for us to…”

  “To care?”

  “To run around like we can do anything about it now. It happened.” He peered over at me. “And - and things happen for a reason. Some things… Some things are just meant to happen a certain way, and we don’t have any control over them.”

  “Meant to happen?” I repeated. “Meant to happen?”

  He gripped the steering wheel tightly.

  “No,” I persisted, “don’t tell me this was fate. Don’t tell me about the… grand scheme, or whatever.”

  His face fell. “Jon, I didn’t-”

  “They didn’t die because of destiny. They died because he shot them!”

  “You know that’s not what I meant.” He pulled the car into the parking lot of Klara.

  “You’re right about one thing,” I muttered. “Maybe I’m far past the ‘mourning period.’ But it’s not about mourning. I’m fine, trust me. But I feel like I’m the only one cares about what actually happened.”

  The car rolled to a stop.

  “If things happen for a reason, tell me why we're visiting this hospital.” I got out of the car.

  ∞

  Alex met us in the waiting room, and he told us the news. He himself was fine. It was his mother that had been injured. We sat down together. Jason and I faced him. His head hung low. My hands were folded. I watched him as he stared at the ground. “Your mother…” I said. His mother, Claire Nelson, was one of the sweetest women I knew.

  “She got T-boned turning onto Lincoln Highway,” he replied.

  Jason put a hand on Alex’s shoulder.

  He just covered his eyes.

  “Is she…” I hesitated. “I mean, is she-”

  “They say she’ll live.” He uncovered his eyes, but they stayed on the floor. “But it was bad.” He looked up at Jason. “The bottom half of the driver’s side door took most of the impact. Her legs…” He held his hands in front of him. His eyes seemed to picture her, as though she were right there. “Her legs were crushed.” His eyes dropped back down to the ground, and he covered his face again.

  “Alex,” Jason exhaled softly.

  He let out muffled cries.

  I watched Alex, unsure of how to comfort him. Empathy was easy before; we had both lost people we loved. This time was different. My best friend was in pain, but it was pain I didn’t understand. My heart sank even more because of it. It made me angry at myself. I wanted to help my friend, but I didn’t know what to do. Maybe it was because there was nothing I could do.

  “Alex, we are…” Jason shifted his eyes at me. “We are so sorry about this.”

  This time Alex looked up at me.

  I nodded in response.

  He bit his top lip, and his eyes held back tears.

  Not much else was said. He thanked us for coming to see him. We told him that we wou
ld be there for him and help in anyway we could. We left a short while later and walked out to the car.

  I tried to open my door, but it was locked. Jason was behind me, walking slowly. Instead of going over to his side, he approached me. I leaned against the car door. He fumbled with the keys as he walked up to me, looking down at them.

  I wiped my eyes and pulled the handle again. “Jason,” I said, “I’m… I’m-”

  Jason shook his head slowly, looking down. He stood in front of me. I lifted my hand from the handle and faced him. His eyes ascended up from the keys and caught mine. His mouth was open, but words were slow to come out. “A long time ago,” he began, “you told someone not to call you son.”

  My teeth clenched together. I looked at him, thinking of Alex, and the conversation I had with Jason in the car, and the fact that out of everything in life, the things we cared about most were the things that we couldn’t keep ourselves from losing.

  “You said no one could call you son,” he continued, eyes red.

  I breathed in and out through my nose.

  “And you’re right.” He smiled solemnly. “You’re right.” He put his hands in his pockets. “But even though I’m not your father, I… I’m doing my best to be one.”

  I bit my tongue. My eyes dropped to the ground. I allowed myself to move forward. I let him wrap his arms around me. Whether for his own sake or mine, I didn’t know. And while he did, I just stared at the hospital with my head over his shoulder.

  A look of concern had been in his eyes the whole time. One of worry, but not for what would happen to me, but for what I would do. I wondered that night if I was a crazy person. Chasing after a murderer that had gotten away with his deed years ago. But I wasn’t depressed. I was angry. I wanted to find that man more than anything, but it seemed that other people were becoming worried by my obsession.

  Am I crazy for chasing after this? I wondered.

  Thank goodness Jason hadn’t found the gun.

  Chapter 7

  The flash ended, and I was back. Blood dripped off my chin and onto the floor. I rubbed my face with my sleeves and ran into the bathroom. Using a towel, I wiped my face off. The pocket watch showed 2:50 pm, and the power display showed five percent, flashing on and off.

  I tapped the cover as I rushed out of the room. What happened? I remembered that the watch beeped, internal time reached ten minutes, and the device brought back time on its own. Was this some sort of overheating prevention? A cool-down function?

  I cringed and ripped the watch out of my hand. It stung. I grabbed a few more things from my house and threw them into my car, along with the book bag, and drove out of there. I knew where I had to go; I had to see Jason. I had to find out what this was about and whether he knew anything about it.

  I pulled into Klara Medical and ran toward his room. I wondered, if they were still following me, would this be a predictable move? Would they follow me here? Or were they even chasing me? It was 3:10 now. It usually took about ten minutes to get from my house to Luna headquarters. If they tried to follow me, they could even be at my house right now.

  If they were really going to accuse me of theft, then they would be calling the authorities as well. How this had been kept a secret from them for so long, I didn’t understand. It was just in a box. It was lying there for years.

  I reached Jason’s room. Thankfully, he was wide awake. Our eyes met; his gaze immediately unsettled me. Wide-eyed, uncomfortable. He looked scared.

  I kneeled next to his bed. “Jason,” I pulled out the pocket watch. “What do you know about this?”

  “They’re coming for you,” he croaked.

  “What? How did you know?”

  His breaths continued unsteadily, out of rhythm. “Your father told me to leave the pocket watch with you. They wanted it from him then, and they still want it now. He wouldn’t let them have it, and until now, they thought it was gone.”

  I looked down at the device, then back at Jason. It wasn’t a mistake that this had been left with me. “Do you know what it does?”

  “I don’t need to know. Believe me.” Jason’s eyes stared directly into mine. “Your father gave specific orders to me. I had to leave it with you when you left for school. I put it in that box of yours. Your dad said I had to allow you to be free to use it. He said you’d know what to do.”

  “But I don’t know. What am I supposed to-”

  “Jon, you weren’t crazy for trying to find your parents’ killer.”

  I held my breath, still distraught by the look in Jason’s eyes.

  “I kept that watch hidden for you, Jon. I kept it until you went to college, just as I was instructed.” His face became grave. “But now, you’ve got to run. They’ll say he stole it. They’ll make up all sorts of things about you and your father.”

  “But what about the police? We can explain-”

  “No, no. You can’t go to the police.”

  “Why not? If I’m innocent-”

  “Jon. Trust me.” His eyes connected with mine. “George warned me about this. I… I should have done something differently, to - to prevent all this from…”

  I rubbed my temples. “I have nowhere to go, do I?”

  “As soon as you leave this hospital,” he told me, “they will hunt you down. Luna and the police.”

  “So what do I do?”

  He looked me in the eye and whispered, “You run.”

  I shook my head. “Where will I-”

  “Don’t go back to the house,” he urged. “Don’t trust anyone. You get in your car, and you drive.”

  I didn’t understand. “What will I do after that?”

  “I know you never believed me, but things do happen for a reason, Jon.” He forced his lips into a somber smile. “You will find help. You’ll just have to look in the right places.”

  I placed one hand on my forehead. Thoughts racing. “Why would Luna do this?”

  He shook his head. “I only did what your father told me. He never said anything about Luna. But now I know why he had me hide it all that time.”

  “Then how did you know that Luna was coming for me?”

  His eyes fluttered, and he pointed to the table next to him. A single syringe sat on the surface. As he pointed, I saw a red mark in his arm. It was swelling.

  My eyes widened. “Jason?”

  The heart rate monitor began sounding more quickly.

  He reached his hand up and grabbed my shirt. Shaking, he pulled me closer.

  “I know that Luna’s coming for you,” he said, “because they were already here.” He looked down at the syringe, and his grip on my shirt loosened.

  The monitor lit up. Jason’s heart rate increased dramatically.

  I leaned forward. “Jason?”

  “I saw the name on his tag. David Kemp.” He struggled to speak. He whispered into my ear. “And he had a boss…”

  “Howard Miller,” I said.

  “That man will make David and anyone else who works for him hunt you down. And if you give them the chance,” he took one last look at me.

  I held me breath.

  “They will kill you.” He fell back onto the bed. His eyelids shook violently, and then the rest of his body joined.

  I picked up the syringe while keeping a hand on Jason. What is this?

  His shaking maintained.

  I didn’t know what to do. “No, no-”

  His shaking increased. The beeping became more and more rapid.

  I dropped the syringe on the floor. “Jason!”

  The gap between each tone went away. I looked at the screen. The hops in the line on the cardiograph were gone, and now it just showed a straight line. “No,” I inhaled, squinting my eyes.

  A nurse ran in, much too late. Everything was always too late. I was always too late. Too late to save my parents. To late to save Jason.

  “Where were you,” I exhaled, as much to myself as to her.

  “Sir, what were you doing in here?” She flashed her e
yes at me accusingly.

  I took a step back. “I…” My eyes dropped down to the syringe on the floor.

  She followed my gaze and saw it. Picking up the syringe, she raised her voice. “Excuse me, what were you-”

  I backed up further, and further, and then I ran. I ran out of the room.

  “Sir!”

  I bolted through the hallway. Two hospital security officers looked at me suspiciously, and after I sped by, they started following after me. “Hey!”

  I glanced back and kept running. Doing so caused me to accidentally knock straight into someone. We both fell down. I immediately jumped up, rushed through the hall, and exited out the door.

  As I ran through the parking lot, tears obscured my vision. I tried to hold them back, but Jason’s face was fixed in my mind. His dying breath, right in front of my face.

  I jumped into my car and pulled out of the lot. It was clear that I had to go somewhere, but right now I was just driving away. They were going to come after me. I reached forward and pressed a key on my dashboard. “Show me the house.” The camera feed came up. “Front door.”

  It cut to the cameras positioned at my doorstep.

  Police stood in front, pounding at the door.

  I put one hand on top of my head. “No, no…” The time was 4:00. They called the police on me.

  I couldn’t believe the pocket watch had caused this. They wanted to charge me with being in ownership of stolen Luna property. I closed the screen and kept driving. There was nowhere to go. I drove away from the hospital. Away from my house. I just drove away from everything.

  My parents were gone. Jason was gone. My house was probably being searched by the cops that very moment. I had nothing but a bag, my car, a gun, and the watch. So, I just kept driving. Just like Jason told me, I drove, further and further into a future different than I had ever planned. And I left my mind as deep in the past as it had ever been.

  ∞

  “Where are you?”

  “Alex,” I held the phone in one hand. I had been on the highway for ten minutes now. “I can’t come back.”

  “Jon, please just tell me what’s going on. I mean, the cops are busting into your house.”