Sigmund Deaves: Timepiece

Chapter 5: Above Average Temporal Flexibility

As he walked back to his wife Henry somehow managed to maintain his false calm expression, but on the inside he was screeching whatever offensive words he could lay his imaginary hands on. This was possibly the worst thing that could have happened in any one day. Henry might have been able to deal with one of these events happening at once but three was just a little too much.

First on the list of inconvenient events was the death of John Deaves, the Deaves family time traveler. John probably had the most experience of any of the four holders of time travel. He had been on more than a hundred missions and for him to just kick the bucket like that! And his grandson! Nothing like his grandfather! Henry, when he was first told about all this time travel business (which only happened after he had married Mary), was told that his wife would be the one to inherit the Timepiece. But no, this kid randomly picked it up, opened it, and was suddenly granted permission to use the most powerful artifact ever invented by humans.

Even worse than the first terrible event of the day was the fact that his brother-in- law would inherit the Timepiece and effectively become his boss. Henry wondered whether there was anything more embarrassing than having to work for your brother-in-law. Having to work for his wife, sure, Henry could deal with that. He wasn't so chauvinistic that something like that would put him off. Oh yeah, I just thought of something that might be a bit more embarrassing than working for your brother-in-law. Working for your brother-in-law, who's younger than you, might be just a little more embarrassing.

Third on the list of horrible things to happen to Henry was probably the worst. As if the first two on the list weren't bad enough, he would have to inform his wife that her now deceased grandfather somehow wrote her out of his will before he died. I had always had an inkling that he didn't like me because of my skin color, or maybe just because I was married to his granddaughter, but I didn't think he hated me that much. I just never brought it up out of respect and because he was old. But now he's put me in a position like this. Damn that old man! God rest his soul, but damn him!

Henry had no trouble retaining a sufficiently somber expression when he walked up to his tear-strewn wife. Mary had washed her mascara off her face a while ago but lines of black were still visible (Henry, like many people, was completely impartial towards make-up, but Mary liked wearing it for some reason). The black lines on her face matched her jet-black hair and almost all of her attire. After spending more time than he ever would like to with Sigmund, Henry was suddenly struck by how similar the two looked. Everything from the black hair to the tendency to wear faded clothing could be seen in both Mary and Sigmund. Well, they're certainly related. But their personalities couldn't be more different. Sigmund was logical and couldn't muster up an emotion if he tried and Mary actually cared about people. This is probably why I married her, well, at least one of the reasons.

When Mary said, "Hello, sorry for pulling you into all this; is there anything you need to talk about with me?" Henry barely managed to suppress a cringe. He was very tempted to just say, "No, not at all," and not tell her, but that would just lead to problems later.

"Yes, there's something I need to talk to you about," Henry said, and immediately regretted it, "alone."

Mary was a very social person, in fact she was probably the most social person of everyone she knew, and she knew a lot of people. Her parents always remarked that she was the exact opposite of Sigmund's introverted nature, so Henry was almost expecting it when she said, "Come on Henry, it can be so important that you can't say it in front of my parents."

Little statements like this helped Henry's relationship with his parents-in-law, but at that moment it proved to be very inconvenient. However, Henry quickly thought of a way around it. "Alright, you know that little pocket watch John had?" he said, "it's about that."