StopWatch

Chapter 1

 

It was four o’clock in the evening.  25 year old Brian is at the top of the 19th century apartment building that he resided in.  His chest was a bloody mess, with a bullet piercing his lung.  As he leaned against the ledge gasping for air, he took out the pocket watch and clicked the button on top.  In an instant he was standing again in front of his window, staring out at the industrial revolution.  This time it was three o’clock in the evening.  Down below he sees the dozens of police cars blocking the street with their lights flashing.  Brian takes a deep breath and says to himself, “Let’s see if I can do it differently this time.” 

One year ago precisely, Brian is in a 19th century café.  A man, perhaps of age 30, sits at a table across the room, and he looks around anxiously.  The man’s eyes are bloodshot and he seems to be shaking as his eyes scan the room.  Whenever someone makes a sudden move in the busy café, he flinches in apprehension.  His clammy hands caress a golden pocket watch that seems to have more gears on it than is needed.  In a moment’s notice, he shoves the pocket watch into his expensive white suit coat pocket and his face turns a shade less colorful.  Three big men show up at his table all wearing the same black suits and flat hats.  They all turn to the man who seems to be frightened.  They ask the man something and he shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders.  Meanwhile, he slowly pulls the pocket watch from his pocket, and attempts to nonchalantly put it into his long socks under the table.

Brian is completely engaged on this situation across the café.  It was his lunch break from his factory job, and so he had nothing else to interest him except this.  As he watched all this play out from his left, a waiter came over to him, and asked him if he wanted more coffee.  As he turned to answer her, he heard a gunshot.  To his left, the man with the pocket watch was shot through his chest.  All of a sudden, everyone in the café started to scream and bolt out.  Brian got a quick glimpse of the three men in the same suits, but they too were bolting out.  Being the good man that he was, Brian ran over to the wounded man and knelt by him on the floor on which the man fell to.  The man was breathing fast and quick and he seemed to be losing life quick.  He was saying something, but Brian could not hear him, so he leaned in. 

“In my sock, get the watch!”

Brian quickly searched the man’s socks and found the pocket watch.  He looked readily into the dying man’s eyes waiting for more instruction, but the man had already stopped breathing.  Brian slowly stood up, then examined the watched.  It’s face looked normal but the watch appeared wrong, for the time was an hour off.  

He slipped the watch into his own jacket pocket, and finally took in the reality of the scene.  Feeling nauseated, he burst into the bathroom, and threw up all in the sink. After wiping his mouth, he stared at himself for a good minute in the mirror, before he could recollect himself.  Even after feeling nauseated, tears started forming in his eyes, and he was in much shock.   He heard the door open and it was a police man who wanted questioning. 

Brian answered all the questions of the police guard as honestly as he could but left of the part about the pocket watch.  The policeman thanked Brian, and because the waiter explained she was helping Brian during the scene of the accident, the police officer let him go with no charges against him.   

Almost an hour after the scene, Brian was headed back to the factory where he worked.  He knew he would not get applause from his boss from being late, even if a murder did just happen.  On his way back he pulled the pocket watched out to study it some more.  It read the time, back it was an hour before the standard time.  He thought this quite odd as he rubbed the glass front with his thumb.  Turning it over, more glass encompassed the back, making the gears visible.  The front and back of the watch were separated by a gold ring.  The gears on the back were most intricate!  He himself, worked with some watches on his spear time, but never before had he seen one so complex.  As he grabbed the watch with both hands he began to rotate it to study the golden ring around it.  There was tiny writing on it on which he needed a magnifying glass to read, but he also noticed a small button lay on top .  With much curiosity, Brian pressed the button.