Short Stories

The Time Shop

This will be edited later. This is directly copied from my iPod. :)

***

A bell rang above the wooden, pockmarked door as it was shoved open. The old man's attention, diverted from the small watch he was tinkering with, refocused on the entrance to his small building. His eyebrows rose slightly as he took in the sight of the boy striding in to his antique watch shop.

"Hello, young sir," said the aged man pleasantly, as he gave the boy a shallow smile, "is there something you need?"

"Nope!" replied the young boy cheerfully.

He sauntered over to the small gumball machine in the corner as if he had all the time in the world. Which he probably did, mused the old man as a saddened expression showed on his face for a moment, betraying ages of tire and work. The boy glanced back at the man a second later, and seeing the kind smile on the old man's face gave him a pleading look.

"Excuse me, mister, but do you know how to get this thing to work?" The boy motioned towards the stained gumball machine.

The old man heaved a heavy sigh, then walked around his counter to the boy. He tried as hard as he could to ignore the painful creaking of every joint in his body as he roughly took the quarter from the outstretched hand and placed in in the machine's notch.

"Turn it," he said, then walked back behind his desk.

"Man," said the boy, as he watched the gumball roll down its fancy path, "I sure wish I was as old as you. Then I'd be able to know all this stuff!"

The old man kept his expression passive as his stared at the boy, but a hint of a more powerful emotion than sadness appeared behind his eyes.

"Well, we could always switch," said the man.

The boy glanced at him, confused, as he popped the gumball into his mouth. "How would that work?"

The man reached his hand into his pocket, a thirsty look that the naive boy ignored forming on his face. "What if I told you we could switch places?"

The boy's eyes lit up. "Really? Would that be possible?"

Taking a step forward, the man said, "Yes, of course. We could do that if you wanted."

The boy considered the option. "Nah," he said, "mom's making apple pie tonight. Maybe some other time." With that, he casually strolled out of the watch shop.

The man stepped back behind his counter as another customer walked in, glancing at a grandfather clock.

He stared at the old man, who quickly realized that he was glaring daggers at the new person. His expression quickly reverted to a smile and the customer shrugged his shoulders slightly.

The old man grimaced as the other man looked away, letting his hand slowly release its grip on the small vial which remained unused in his pocket.

Perhaps next time.