Two Minutes

Walking among a large group of zombies in suits and business attire, Tim was absorbed in himself completely. All was silent except for the dull thrum of traffic passing the workers by, and the sound produced by his earbuds. He was listening to one of his favorite talk shows discussing the mechanics and specs of today’s hottest sports cars. Tim knew that he would never be able to afford one, but who can stop a man from dreaming?

Time was precious to this young man. During his childhood, Tim’s father had reinforced over and over the importance of time. “Time is money,” he would say. “If you have time to complain then you should get another job.” Tim’s father taught him to follow those words to the letter from the young age of four years old, it seemed that eventually those words had worn off on him as he now worked a full time job that was beginning to cut in on his family time.

Tim’s time was, in fact, so important that he ate breakfast every morning while he was on the way to work rather than with his wife. There was a small hot breakfast shop on his way to work that sold an egg and cheese breakfast burrito that he simply adored.

“You’re early today, Tim!” The staff at the shop knew and recognized him every morning. “Big day?”

“Hey Robert. Yes sir, very big day. I have a meeting for a possible promotion today.”

“Hey congratulations! Well today it’s on the house then! Just the usual I assume?”

“Ah you don’t have to do that, thanks Rob.”

“Hey, after four years of coming here you deserve it. And a possible promotion! If only Beth would give those out.” They shared a smile as Robert winked. 

“I heard that!” Beth yelled from the back. The two men chuckled. “Congratulations Tim, and best of luck! I hope this goes well for you. I know you’ve been waiting for a long time.”

“Thanks Beth, I hope so too. If all goes well I’ll bring you all something.”

“Oh you don’t have to do that, Tim,” Beth said as she handed him his food and iced coffee. She was a sweet older woman who reminded Tim of his grandmother.

“Aww Beth come on… ow! What was that for?” Rob was smiling as Beth pinched his cheek, Tim chuckled.

“You know what that was for, Robert.”

“Ooo you are in trouble now! She used your full name!” The three of them shared a laugh. “Thank you,” Tim yelled as he was leaving, “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Wait! You forgot this!” Tim turned back to look at what Beth had. She was holding up a straw for his coffee.

“Ah thank you so much! I would have missed that very quickly,” Tim came back in from the threshold of the door and got his straw before leaving again.

This morning, Tim was running late. Of course, today was one of the few days that mattered if he was late or early. It always worked out that way. There was a very important meeting happening this morning, and if he presented himself well, good things might start to happen.

Since he ate breakfast while walking this morning, Tim saved three minutes and twenty seven seconds. He could use that time one of two ways. The first was to take his time for the remainder of his commute. The positives of this approach would be arriving exactly on time, appearing composed, neat, and orderly. The second was to continue on his current trajectory, arrive out of breath, early, and quite possibly unsure of himself. 

It was obvious which thought process was the most rational. However, on days like this, rational and realistic are very different words. As Tim came around the corner of Clay and Barns, a jogger ran right into him, forcing both of them to the ground.

“Hey, watch where you're going! You know other people exist, right?” Tim yelled as he got up onto his knees. He gathered his briefcase and suit jacket up, brushing off some dirt in the left sleeve.

When Tim looked up, he saw that the jogger was already jogging off, without saying so much as a word of apology. Tim cursed the jogger under his breath. He reached back down and put his earbuds back into his pocket. 

“Need a hand?”

Tim looked up and saw a young man standing in front of him with a hand extended towards him. He reached out and took the hand as it pulled him up. “Thanks,” Tim replied. He checked his watch to see how much time he had before he needed to arrive. He saw a large crack in the glass across the top, but could thankfully still read it. Two minutes and fifty-six seconds.

“Sure thing. That guy runs into someone almost every morning.” Now that Tim was standing he could see that the young man was slightly taller than himself. He wore a thin gold necklace that went underneath his dress shirt, something very uncommon in this area of the city. “My name’s Brian. Nice to meet you…” he stuck out his hand and inclined his head, giving pause as he waited for a reply.

“Tim. My name is Tim,” he reached out and shook Brian’s hand.

“Nice to meet you Tim. You look a bit shaken up. Anything I can do for you?” Tim could already tell that Brian was a very talkative young man, and this wasn’t going to work well for him, especially not today.

“I don’t think so. Thanks for the help. I have to get…”

“I insist! It was my pleasure! Name your price, I’m feeling generous today.” Brian smiled. His teeth were in perfect condition. Pearly white and straight. This man had it all, it seemed.

Tim groaned inwardly and remembered that he had about two minutes to talk to Brian. Two minutes Brian, two minutes, that’s all you get. “You’re the one who helped me, I don’t need anything. I would feel bad.”

“Consider it a gift! Here, I’ll buy you coffee since that clown spilled yours earlier.” Motioned for Tim to follow him as he began walking towards a coffee shop just up the street. Since there appeared to be no way out of this time trap, Tim followed along.

“So Tim, what do you do for work? I assume that’s where you were headed, am I right?” Brian gave a good friendly chuckle.

“I work as an ad analyst. It’s really just a glorified title for someone who goes into ads and updates the software to work with the ever changing internet.”

“Ahh exciting!”

“Not really,” Tim replied. “It’s actually very boring. I end up just copying and pasting a lot of code that I write and making changes as needed. Sometimes it’s my colleagues' code.”

“Did you get a college degree to do this job?”

“No. I actually wanted to do game scripting. Six years of college and a lot of debt to work a crappy job like this.”

“No way! You went to college to do game scripting?” Brian opened the door into the small shop for Tim, following through afterwards. There were only two people in line in front of them.

Tim gave a half hearted smile, “Yeah. See how far it got me? I got hired right out of college, and shortly afterwards that company went under. Since then I haven’t been able to find a company willing to hire me, at least not in this area.”

The barista motioned them forward. “What can I get for you two?” Her hair was dyed dark purple in a comb over. 

“I’ll take a caffè mocha with extra spice. Also, I love the hair!” Brian smiled. 

“Thank you. One large caffè mocha with extra spice, and for you sir?”

“I’ll just have a medium iced dark roast. No cream or sugar.”

“What?! I’m paying and you get something boring? Seriously. Order whatever you want. You want a danish with that or something?” Brian seemed insulted by his lack of taste for fancy flavors.

“Fine. And a lemon danish.” Tim seemed uneasy. That danish cost more than his whole breakfast.

The barista smiled. “That’s one caffè mocha with extra spice, one iced dark roast, and one lemon danish, will that be all?”

“Add on a cherry danish. I love those.” Brian pulled out his wallet to pay.

“And one cherry danish. Your total comes to twenty one dollars and thirty seven cents.”

Brian put his hands up, “You got me!” The two of them chuckled as he put his card in. Tim glanced at his watch and tried to calm his nerves. He was going to be late today. If he ran now, he would be able to get to work maybe a minute early.

“Well Tim, you may just be in luck. I know a guy who is looking for game coders to hire. And it’s local.”

“Really? That’s cool. I might want to check into that.” The thought of actually being able to use his college degree ten years after graduating was kind of entertaining. “I may be getting a promotion soon so I guess it may depend on that.”

Brian gave a knowing nod. “Promotions are good. I hope it works out for you.”

“Me too. I have to go before the board today for an audition.” He hoped that his subtle hint would help the young man to realize that he needed to get going. “That’s what we call it in our group because none of us like presenting for a group.” Tim chuckled at his own joke. 

“Clever! I like the way that you think, Tim. You’re a good guy. We should hang out sometime.”

Tim groaned inwardly. Brian didn’t get the hint. “That would be great. My wife would love to meet you,” Tim replied. “She loves talking to people when she goes out.”

“Ah a lovely lady to go with a lovely man!” The barista handed them their drinks and bag of danishes, exchanging the common pleasantries at the same time.

“Yes she is. I don’t know so much about myself,” Tim chuckled, “but if you say so.” He looked down at his watch. If he ran right now, he would be able to make it on time. “Well Brian, it’s been great….”

“Ah, your watch is broken! Here, have mine!” Brian took off his watch and gave it to Tim. 

Tim stared blankly at the watch in his hand. It was a very high end Rolex watch, probably costing as much as three months of Tim’s rent. “I, I can’t accept this Brian. It’s too much.”

“No no I insist! I was planning on selling it anyways. I just got this new one a week ago.” He pulled out a brand new Rolex watch from his pocket and put it on.

“Wow. Are you sure? I don’t know what to say.” Tim felt dread as he could no longer run to work. Especially not after receiving this watch.

“Absolutely! An honest business man needs a nice watch.” Brian smiled.

Tim looked at the time on the watch as he put in on. It read eight twenty six. Tim read it again. Still eight twenty six. He furrowed his eyebrow.

“What’s wrong? Want this one instead?”

“No, definitely not! That one's way too much for me. What time is it?” Tim replied.

“It is eight twenty six right now. Why?”

Tim looked at his old watch. Nine twenty six. Tim began laughing. “And today is the day after daylight savings time ended, isn’t it?”

Brian began laughing with Tim. “Today is indeed Monday, November fifth, my good friend! I think you’re an hour early for work, am I right?”