Watched

“This watch is the most unique item we’ve sold. I’ve never seen a pocket watch quite like it.” The man at the estate sale gushed as he handed the watch to me. The brushed silver surface had a beautifully aged patina. I loved the face of the watch, which was visible through the front as the cover was just a ring of etched roses.

I clicked it open, because of course I would. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just followed all the signs, all the messages. There was but one course of action left for me to fulfill a lifetime of mystery: wind the clock.

It all started when I was a mere lad growing up outside Stillwater, Oklahoma. I know you might imagine a grand story should be set in the foggy moors of England, the sprawling deserts of Africa, or even on a courageous ship navigating the Atlantic. No, Stillwater is where this all began. A college town that was nestled one hour west of Tulsa, and One hour north of Oklahoma City.

It was a dark and stormy night. No, this isn’t a murder mystery or some scary ghost story. In Oklahoma, most of springtime is like that. Storms are a way of life in Oklahoma. The weather is so commonly bad that even when it is dark and stormy; we go about our lives disinterested. Until the sirens tell us to be worried. I loved to read. My brother, he played baseball, but I liked books. I had picked up a new book from the Library, one about spaceships and strange aliens on a distant world. When I opened it, a note fell out.

“Dear Jo William, you don’t know who I am, but you will one day. You are in grave danger. Don’t go to the school tonight. - Me.”

I showed the letter to my mom, who was preparing to take me back to school for a talent show that I wanted to watch. She got worried, not about some foreboding prophesied disaster, but that someone was stalking me. We stayed home, and she called the police.

Then it happened. Sirens, winds, lightening and thunder, and a tornado. It ripped through town starting in the southwest part of town, tore through an entire apartment complex, part of the University, and then took out half of my elementary school. Had I been there, I wouldn’t be telling you this story.

Mom said it was a coincidence. She still worried someone was threatening me. I believed there was some reality to this.

Nothing happened for years. No more messages. We chalked that up to coincidence and some weirdo trying to freak me out. I still believed it was real, but I couldn’t explain it.

Just before I finished High School, the whole family uprooted and moved to East Tennessee. Now this was a culture shock. Mountains instead of plains, hillbillies instead of cowboys, happy springs instead of dark and stormy ones. I didn’t like it at first, but it grew on me quickly.

My first actual job out of High School was at a video store. I loved entertainment. Got into theater and wanted to be an actor. So, working at a video store fed that dream just a little. To be honest, it was mostly chasing down late fees and restocking movies over and over. And, of course, finding that one movie with the blue cover with that funny guy in it for the customer who remembers exactly nothing else about it.

I was kind of longer. Never made too many friends and certainly struggled with dating. But, I was determined. A coworker was nice, and I liked her. She seemed interested in me. One night, I was going to just ask her out, nothing special. My first date. However, I picked up a movie out of the drop-bin and a letter dropped out of it.

“Dear Jo William, it’s me again. I’m glad you didn’t get taken by that tornado. Now, I am going to tell you something important. Your life matters. But it matters in such a way that you cannot have other people in it who will miss you. A time will come when you understand this. For now, don’t ask her out tonight. -Me.”

Who in the heck is ‘me’? I kept asking myself. And just who does ‘me’ think he is to tell me not to ask a girl out? I fought with myself that night until she was off her shift and my opportunity that day was gone. As I thought about it, I realized I still believed the first letter protected me. That means I must believe this will protect me as well. I have to believe it.

Nothing spectacular happened to prove this was the right choice. The girl I liked married another guy and had a baby girl. I stayed single.

My parents both passed in a car accident and I left Tennessee for California. I studied theater extensively and played any part I could. It was my goal to be the best actor I could be. If I was going to stay single, I had to use my time to focus on my career. I did pretty well in local stuff. Then, out of the blue, I got a scholarship to Julliard, and it changed everything. I was touring with a Broadway company, then the first movie deal lead to another. Life was good.

It was just before my fortieth birthday that I got a strange message. My contract with my agent was over and the movie deals were all canceled. My best friend in Hollywood said that a big Hollywood executive had blacklisted me. I did nothing wrong.

Broke and sad, I had nowhere to go. No wife or family left. I was just forty and everything fell apart. I spent the rest of my money moving away from California. I was going to apply for a job teaching acting at a college. Strange thing about that, I got the offer just days after losing everything, and it was to a college in Michigan. I have never been there, other than stopping a few times with the company to put a show on at the Fox Theater in Detroit. However, it was a job offer, and I was desperate.

I had just moved into an apartment in Troy, outside of Detroit, when I had the letter that changed everything. It arrived at my apartment the first day I was there. It was a large envelope with money a letter, and a sealed envelope.

"Dear Jo William, this is the next to last letter. First, do not open the other letter yet. I will explain. First, take this money and go to Sarah's Estate Sale in Plymouth, Michigan, 11133 Doore Avenue. There, you will find a very special pocket watch. Buy it with this money. Wind it and start it. Once it starts telling time normally, you may open the last letter. -Me"

With all the crazy stuff that’s happened in my life, this seemed normal. Of course it was weird and I didn’t fully understand, but it also didn’t seem dangerous or something like that. I can't say that I didn't consider not doing this. But, every letter has made a difference in my life and none have really ever done me any harm. If this is the last of it, then I should follow through.

I went to Plymouth, almost an hour away from my apartment. The estate sale had just started, and I went in. Never been to these things before. Going to somebody’s home and buying their stuff, odd. But there it was, a nice pocket watch. The guy behind the case of valuables showed it to me.

“So, did you set it or wind it?” I asked him.

He shook his head, “No. The jeweler said that it was strange. He couldn’t get the back off or the hands to move. I think it’s broken. Makes a nice ornament to wear. I mean, we all have cell phones these days. Who needs a pocket watch?” Good thing he already had my money. That was a terrible salesman line.

I opened it with my thumb, looked at the frozen hands, and saw the second hand shiver as if waking up. It wasn’t like I rattled it or something. This was moving again. I reached up and wound it.

“Hey, wow, how’d you do that?” The guy asked, stunned by my winding of the watch. “We all tried to move that. It was completely frozen,” the guy said.

I had just looked up to him to say that it was easy when I saw him slow down and then stop. Everyone did. The entire room was like living statues.

“What’s going on?” I took a step back and bumped into a woman, but she was like a stone.

I walked out of the house to see if the rest of the world was in the same state. Everything from the birds to leaves falling were all completely still.

“It can’t be.” I looked down at the watch and saw that second hand shivering, then it clicked backward once, then twice and then moved much faster than it should in either direction. The birds flew backwards, leaves returned to the trees, cars sped along in reverse. People at the sale zipped out. I watched myself moving and getting back into the car and driving away, backward.

Then the clouds and sun moved backward. The sun was a blur across the heavens, as was the moon, since nights and days were now rushing by.

I was the only element in all this that wasn’t moving in the wrong direction. I walked down the sidewalk, unaffected by this. In fact, a few people walked right through me. One kid on a bike zipped through me. I wasn’t really there. The hands on the watch were spinning as if attached to the wheel of a car. Snow fell, fall leaves appeared, flowers unbloomed, seasons changed again and again. Years now flew by.

Then it all came to a slow stop. I carefully looked around at cars that were decades out of date. Empty lots where homes had been moments ago. The world froze again, this time in the wrong era.

I looked down at the watch. I also saw that only the little second hand quivered on the frozen watch. Then it clicked once and then again and again.

“HEY, WATCHIT MISTER!” A boy on a skateboard nearly ran into me as he buzzed down the street.

“What in the name of...” I saw the world return to a normal pace. Life was on track. The only problem, I was not supposed to be here. Or was I? I grabbed a woman walking by with her stroller. “Ma’am, I’m sorry to startle you, but I need the time.”

She looked at me as if I had asked to take a bite out of her kid, “It’s around noon, sir.” She hurried away.

“I know that,” I muttered.

A boy bumped into me on his little plastic three-wheel. “Sorry.”

I smiled. This was a better person to ask this. Little kids are less likely to be confused by silly questions. “No problem. Hey, do you know what day it is?”

“I know the days of the week!” he announced proudly.

“So, what day is it?”

“Saturday!”

“Great!” I needed more. “How about the date? You know that?”

“Sure thing. It’s June first!”

“Perfect, you must get gold stars! That’s my birthday.” I was hoping the next question would be 2025. “Hey, how about the year? You know that?”

“Yeah, sure know that, its 1985.” He grinned with one missing tooth.

A cold sweat broke across my body and I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t in front of a little kid. “Good work. Now, go play, have a fun day.”

“Radical!” He bellowed and wheeled on.

Once he was gone, I walked over to a tree and held the side of it to keep from falling over. “What the hell!” I yelled and stirred a nearby dog to bark at me.

“Sir, are you okay?” A woman asked as she jogged by.

“I’m fine. Just a little upset.”

“Oh, okay.” She jogged on.

Her clothes, the cars, the kids without cell phones actually playing outside. This was not 2025. It had to be a dream. Just had to be a dream.

“The letter!” While trying to convince myself I would wake up in a bed of a box-filled apartment, I reached into my pocket for that letter, and it was right where I left it.

“Dear Me. Yes, I am you. I am Jo Williams. By now, you should have a very special pocket watch in your possession. This watch can control time for one person, but only in one direction. It took me a lifetime of research to learn that, the first time I made this mistake... or really, we made it. Someone in our past was a wizard of some kind. I know you think magic isn’t real. Well, sorry, it is. This watch only reacts to us. It is extremely dangerous. I found this watch once, in almost the same path you followed, from childhood to this moment. However, the first time I tried to break history and not let my younger self find the watch, so this would never happen. When June 1st, 2025, came and my younger self didn’t get the watch, everything went crazy. The world started breaking apart. Time, you see, is something no one should meddle with. I was already part of events, and if my younger self didn't get the watch, then time was in flux. So, I sifted through the chaos and found the watch again and turned time back to when I was a small child. I, then, made absolutely certain that you would follow the correct path the second time around. Now, it is your turn. Leave the notes, guide yourself, but never make contact until the very last day. Only on that day will it be safe. Once you do that, you can live on, as I will, and time will finally only move in one direction. You won't start aging until 2025 arrives, so enjoy forty years of being forty, it is surprisingly useful. Oh, and take a nice, happy trip to Hawaii soon. I hear the volcanoes are spectacular. They also are about the only thing on this planet that can destroy a magical relic. Destroy the watch. One last thing, try not to interfere with big events, no matter how hard you want to. Don’t tamper with time. I did when I stopped you from going to school that night. I suggest you get a job as a scriptwriter for Bonniefide Studios. Trust me, it will turn out the best choice of your life. Good luck. -Me.”