Today he woke up like any other day, but it wasn’t just
any other day. He looked at his
sleeping wife, and rolled back over consciously not defining the date.
She would wake up in another ten minutes and hit the
shower while he made coffee.
Then she would make breakfast while he showered. He would kiss her goodbye, and she
would slip his father’s watch in his pocket. He would think about telling her not to, but then he would
hurry off to the firm to prepare for the latest deposition.
She thought she was being cute always remembering the
watch that would have otherwise stayed in the drawer. She never picked up on the weight
that was attached to the object.
About six months after they started dating, she had asked him about the
watch, why he hadn’t had it fixed.
He couldn’t tell her; he masked his feelings as the woman who stopped
it was so good at doing.
That same night, he went out with Weiss, got shit-faced,
and decided that he couldn’t keep it up. He couldn’t keep up the waiting. He wouldn’t allow the current woman who shared his life to
be stuck in limbo too. It was
time to move on however painful it was.
Some days he could go the whole day without remembering
her smile, her laugh. But other
days, well, those days he just didn’t want to get out of bed. The story was always unfinished. What happened to her? The coroner said there was too much
blood lost, that he doubted she could have survived. But there was no body, and too many
other players in the sinister game they played hadn’t been seen since. Too many questions. No leads. At first, he let it
drive him crazy. Until it landed
him in the hospital for a month with exhaustion.
And there he met her. She was a nurse, and she nursed him back to health. She knew he had lost someone, and she
wouldn’t give up on him. He
remembers when he had been in the same position, helping another grieve her
fiancé.
He quit the government. He couldn’t stand looking down the hallways, past the
flirting corners, at the briefing rooms, without memories screaming at
him. He joined a practice and
started life as a lawyer again.
He knew many people thought he was a coward. He thought he was one too for leaving. But how else could he move on?
He married the nurse. Imagine his horror when she decided to surprise him on
their wedding day – she had his father’s watch fixed. He couldn’t tell her how much it hurt
on the day that was supposed to have nothing to do with their past lives.
So he goes into work, smiles at his secretary, and sorts
through the piles of paper on his desk.
His secretary comes in after thirty minutes to debrief him on his
schedule. She reminds him of his
11:30. He says that he thought
it was tomorrow. She gently
explains that it is today, the first of the month. His brow wrinkles.
He thought October 1st was tomorrow. He had hoped not to remember the date
until it was already come and gone.
He gets out the watch.
It’s obligatory now, a duty.
He must confront the date.
And that’s when he notices it. His father’s watch has
stopped.
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