The Pocket Watch

A man is truly convinced that his life is exactly to his liking. All is well in the life of Jacob Straw - until a watch maker convinces him otherwise. Is time travel all Jacob makes it out to be?

            Jacob Straw was a happy man.  Life was wonderful for him�"he had everything he could ever dream of having as a child, including a well-paying job, a glorious two-story condominium complex, and a beautiful fiancée, to whom he was ready to spend the rest of his life with.  Imelda was a kind-hearted woman, too.  The two met in college, and two years after they began dating, she said “yes” when he asked her hand in marriage.  They planned to wed within the following year.  In Jacob Straw’s perspective, there was no better life than the one he was living.

He worked for a watch company as a designer for the newest models.  His passion in his career sparked at the age of seven, when his late father gave him a gold pocket watch as a parting gift several days before he passed away.  The design on the front always amazed him�"it imitated the spiral pattern of a spider’s web, and each corner at the edge had a little heart.  The hands of the watch had matching hearts pointing to the numbers, and the numbers’ format imitated the curvature and spiral effect of the front design.  Jacob spent countless hours as a youth examining and admiring the gold watch and its intricate design.  He never realized that every watch he designed shared a feature with the one his father gave him (nor would it matter if he ever did).

            Jacob Straw had a guilty pleasure of sneaking into the production area of his company’s building to see his models being created in mass quantities.  In cafés and subways, he would steal glances at people’s wrists or front coat pockets for chains, just to see if he can spot any watches that he designed.  Whenever he found one, he was hit with great sense of accomplishment and self-worth, which he personally believed very few people have the privilege of experiencing.

            One Thursday afternoon, after clocking out of work, Jacob decided to enter the production area again to see his work being made.  To his surprise, someone was still down there, working in the area that produces watch cogs.  Even more unexpectedly, Jacob did not recognize the man.  “Were you recently hired?” he called out.  “I don’t recognize you.”  Jacob began walking toward the stranger.  “I’m Jacob.”  The man didn’t look up from his monocular piece.  “You know, Jacob Straw?”  The stranger showed no sign of listening to a word Jacob was saying.  “Surely, you recognize the name,” he smiled proudly.  “I designed most of these-”

            “I know who you are,” the man interrupted.  “There’s no need to bloat.”  He finally looked up.  His hair was parted from one side, combed over to the other, and though he looked young, his eyes seemed ancient.  “My name is Epimetheus, and I happen to know just how highly you think of yourself.  Well, I’d like to inform you that what you have accomplished is absolutely NOTHING in comparison with what I have.  And, let me make it perfectly clear that what I have created has allowed me to accomplish things so much higher than anything you could have ever dreamed of!”  Jacob’s legs became stiff in their place from the shock of what he was hearing.

            “And, um…” the man could immediately hear the worry in his voice, and Jacob knew it.  “What might that be?”  The man grinned, and turned to face him.

            “I know how content you feel, Mr. Straw, with attaining what you’ve convinced yourself to be the perfect life.”  He motioned quotes with his fingers as he said the word “perfect”.  “Oh, sure, you make interesting designs for popular watches used across Europe, but you see, I…” Jacob drew in his face in a flush of anticipation.  “I have created a watch that functions unlike any you have ever seen.”

            “What do you mean?” Jacob asked confusedly.

            “Normal watches function to tell us the time.  Its cogs are adjusted to follow time.  My watch, however, doesn’t tell the time-”

            “That’s a useless watch, then!” Jacob laughed.

            “My watch commands time.  When its cogs are adjusted, it is time that follows it.  In essence, Mr. Straw, I have created a watch that allows its owner to travel through the incomprehensible fabrics of time itself!” Jacob watched as the man pulled out what appeared to be a common and old pocket watch out of his pant pocket, and display it in his palm for Jacob to see.  It was about the same size and color as his father’s watch.  Jacob didn’t know what to think of it all.  His reasoning told him that it wasn’t true�"couldn’t be done, and such a thing simply wasn’t physically possible.  Another part of him, however, was telling him otherwise.  “All that I have to do,” the man said. “Is set the time to the period of my destination, and I will be in that time instantly�"before I can even blink.”

            Jacob decided to listen to his reasoning, and let out a laugh.  “What a load of rubbish! As if anyone has the knowledge to create such an impossible contraption!  You’re wasting my time.”  As he said this, another man appeared directly in front of him, out of thin air�"it was himself, a duplicate, holding the man’s watch.

            “Mr. Straw, I would like you to meet Mr. Straw,” the man said in discrete excitement.  Both Jacobs were in shock.  “Mr. Straw, here, switch places with yourself.  Now…You, Jacob who has not yet traveled, take my watch.  I want you to set it to exactly one minute back from the time it currently shows.” Jacob absentmindedly did as he was instructed.  As the man said, before he could even blink, he found himself looking at his own face�"as though through a mirror, only it didn’t imitate his movement�"saying “…wasting my time.”

            “Mr. Straw, I would like you to meet Mr. Straw,” the man said again (but actually for the first time).  Jacob was in complete shock, just as he was a minute ago.  After the man sent the other Jacob back with the watch he held, and Jacob was the only Jacob present, he pulled out his own father’s watch from his own pocket, and compared the two.  His only showed the hour of the day.  The other, however, not only showed the hour, it showed the day of the month, the month itself, and year.

            “Well, Mr. Straw, I would love to ask your opinion.”

            “What did you say your name was?”

            “Forget it.  But, do tell me, now that you have seen my contraption, do you still think you have accomplished all that you can in your life?  Or do you now feel that there is still more that you can do, more you can obtain, more you can accomplish?”  Jacob didn’t respond to his question, but in that lack of response he answered.  He felt numb in the mind.  “Mr. Straw, may I have my watch back?”  Jacob handed him the watch, and as the man put it in his pocket, Jacob did the same with his father’s, which until that point he clenched tightly with embarrassment in his hand.  “I bid you farewell, Mr. Straw, and I wish you the best in that mediocre life that you call ‘perfect’.”

            Awkwardly, Jacob turned around and began to walk home.  A lump began to form at the front of his throat, and he fought�"hard�"to keep tears from flowing.

 

            Jacob Straw was a miserable man.  Life was terrible for him�"he had dreams that were only mediocre, from a simpleton earth-bound job to a confinement of a two-story condominium complex.  He was tied down to a plain fiancée, to whom he is now forced to spend the rest of his mediocre life with, and expect nothing more.  Watch designing was nothing in comparison to the ability of time travel.  The poor man became obsessed with the idea of it.

            Upon reaching home, he sat gloomily behind his desk.  Imelda was asleep, and so Jacob felt alone.  In the moment of disgust with himself, Jacob reached for his father’s watch, quite instinctively.  When it opened, he took note that it showed not only the hour of day, it showed the day of the month, the month and year.  “Oh dear God!” he shouted. “I took that man’s watch!”  With any other accidentally stolen object, Jacob would have felt terrible, and look to have it returned immediately; however, this was no ordinary object.  Jacob Straw jumped in ecstasy at the sight of the watch he knew controls time.  I must’ve given him my father’s watch, he reasoned.  Wow, what a steal! Immediately he began to imagine�"even plan�"the places that he will go.  He’ll travel through the past, the future, see things no man alive has ever dreamed possible!  And why not start immediately?  With his new possession, he had all the time in the world!  Oh, the possibilities were endless!  But where to begin?  In the corner of his eye he saw a yellowed slip of paper flutter to the floor.  It was trimmed to a circle, and fit perfectly inside the front cover of the watch.  On the note was printed a warning. “CAUTION: Never stop me.  It has never been done before.”  The only form of signature on the paper was a sketch of cogs below the note.  When squinting Jacob saw that there was fine print within the cog sketch.  Pulling out a magnifying glass, he was able to make out the words “Gift for Pandora”.  This made no more sense to him than the concept of time travel itself.  After moment’s thought, he decided that the print had no significance relevant to the watch.  But, why would the note warn him against stopping it?

            “Because it’s never been done before…” he began to reason.  “It only means it doesn’t know what will happen.  And, that means I’ll be the first to discover what does happen when the watch that controls time is stopped.  What an accomplishment it would be if I were the first man to ever pause time!”  His sense of accomplishment was poured back into him as quickly as it was drained out.  “That’s it.  The first thing I’m going to do is pause time.”  With that intention in mind, Jacob already began to imagine walking around with his surroundings frozen.  He could what he liked from the store with no one trying to stop them�"hell, no one would even take notice.

            His heart began to race, and he placed his thumb and forefinger onto the watch’s knob.  Pulling it would cause the hands of the watch to cease movement, and thus stop the watch.  He tightened his grip on the knob, and tugged.  Cli-… The knob began the sound of a click, then paused.  Time seemed to stop in its tracks.  His wife was mid-snore, and froze as she was.  The Big Ben was in the process of clicking to 8:07 pm and it stopped moving between the two lines that divide the minute.  The people of the city stayed where they were, now motionless.  The air around them, and the particles in the air, stopped moving.  They stayed in place.  The world was now paused in one moment.  Jacob Straw’s fast-beating heart was mid-pump, and froze.    His excited smile stayed unmoving on his face, and the excitement in his eyes stayed where it was.  The bit of paper that read CAUTION was over an inch above the carpet, and didn’t move.

            Jacob Straw successfully paused time, but he failed to realize he was a part of it.  His now motionless body stayed where it was, along with the rest of the universe which paused in its tracks.   Time was now stopped, but there was no one to resume it.  His fingers were still pulling on the knob, and no longer able to press it back down.  Everything was at a standstill, neither progressing nor regressing.  It would be unfair to say the world remained as it was for an amount of time, or for eternity, because it implies an impossible time span, and time was frozen.  Life neither ended nor does it continue.  It simply froze, and was unable to be resumed again. 

Author's Note

This story came to me when on a metro train ride home, so I had to write it down. Tell me what you think.