Stan's Magical Watch

17th August

“The bloody thing’s stopped.” Stan moaned as he unhooked his brand new Rolex from his hairy, 46 year old wrist that had a tendency to swell in the heat. It had already left a red mark. He pulled his pair of reading glasses out from the mirrored vanity (his wife’s buy) that stood opposite the bottom of the bed next to the door and examined it closer. “When did I get it? A week ago? Bloody thing.” He fiddled with the dial but the hands refused to move. “The date’s wrong too, I’m certain I set it right. Isn’t it funny, Darling?” “Hm?” His wife replied, she was busying herself slapping handfuls of pink coloured lotion onto her thighs and hadn’t heard a word Stan had said. “I said this watch is broke.” “But you only got it, what, a week ago?” “Maybe the batteries dead. The hands aren’t moving, isn’t that strange?” “Mm.” Karen had moved onto her chest and shoulders. Stan could smell the thick cream and held back a gag, he also held back a sarcastic comment concerning just how much lotion she was using. “Aren’t you finished with that yet?” He asked, fastening his old wrist watch much to his disappointment, he had planned on showing it off at the dinner party. “We’ll be late if you don’t hurry up.” “I only have to get dressed, that reminds me.” She pulled out three dresses, all black, all identical and laid them out on the gold and beige bed sheets which during the day time were always immaculately neat. “Which one?” “That one.” Stan barely looked up as he re-tied his neck tie for the third time, Karen didn’t seem to notice. “Are you sure about this one?” “Yeah, it’s lovely, Honey.” He kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll go make sure Ben is getting ready for bed.” “Do you think he’ll be safe on his own?” “He’s ten years old, Moonie left me alone at five.” “It was a different time then, there weren’t so many things that could set on fire.” Stan smiled, the way you do when you look at a puppy or a child clumsily eating an ice cream cone, and went into Ben’s room. The mass of toys, figures and posters always surprising him, it was like they multiplied by themselves. Ben was sat on the floor playing with a battle ship or navy vessel, some over-priced bit of junk they had bought him one Christmas. “Time for bed now Ben, mummy and daddy won’t be long.” “Why can’t I come with you?” He asked, dressing into his pale blue pyjamas printed with Star Wars characters. “Only for grownups.” Stan winked, he went to tuck him in but reminded himself that he was growing up now, he didn’t need him as much anymore.” “Have a nice night dad.” “Cheers, son. I’ll see you in the morning.” “See ya.”

18th August

“Thank you for calling, I’ll see you on Monday.” “Who was that?” Karen asked tentatively as she could see on Stan’s face it wasn’t good news. “Rich.” “You’re brother?” “Dad’s died.” “I’m so sorry, Stan.” She threw her arms around him. “How?” “Age, really. He was unwell for a while, apparently.” Karen withdrew a little, there was a lot she didn’t know about Stan even after thirteen years of marriage, but in that time she had only met his father twice. “You know, I really wish Rich had kept me in the loop more.” He continued. “I didn’t even know he was ill.” “Well, these things happen, Love. I’m sure he wanted to but just didn’t know what to say, you haven’t spoken in so long.” She could never understand how someone could abandon their family like Stan had having lost both parents at a young age, although abandon isn’t the best word; disregard, ignore, ‘drift apart’ there’s no truly accurate word for it but it happened to lots of families. “He died in the early hours this morning.” Stan instinctively checked his watch. “That reminds me, I’ll have a look at the Rolex, think we’ve got some batteries lying about somewhere.” He jogged up the stairs and retrieved the watch before rooting about in the kitchen draws. He found a couple of watch batteries lying around and took them all over to the dining table which had the best light. Stan lifted the face to his eye and frowned. The time had stopped at 4:14 AM and the date was 08.18.14, he motioned to his wife to come and have a look. “Isn’t this funny?” He asked before explaining. “Dad died on this day, August 18th and at around this time.” “Ooh, spooky. It’s like the watch foretold it.” She laughed. “Yeah, that is pretty funny.” He smiled up at her then turned the watch over to take the battery out. As he was about to flip the back off it suddenly made a loud clicking noise followed by the typical ‘tick tick tick tick’ He flipped it back over, it was running smoothly again. “It’s started again.” He called into the living room where his wife had scuttled off to. “It must have been stuck.” He set about readjusting the date and time.
19th August
Stan slipped his Rolex from his wrist and washed his greasy hands in the sink, he’d just topped up the oil in his car ready for the long drive over to Portland for his dad’s funeral. When he went to put it back on he lifted to his ear. It was silent. He checked it. Wrong date, wrong time. “Karen?” He called out; she couldn’t hear him from the kitchen. He stepped onto the landing. “Karen, it’s stopped again.” “What has?” “The bloody watch.” “For Pete’s sake, again? You’ll have to get it looked at.” “I’ll take it to the shop tomorrow.” He walked back into the bedroom and over to the window where he could see it better. “20th August?” He said to himself. “How in God’s name did it do that?” Stan hopped it down into the kitchen and handed it to his wife. She looked at it, then looked up, confused. “Weird, huh?” “Yeah…” “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” “1AM. Exactly. We’re going to be twitching at midnight.” She joked. “But, do you really think…” Stan pushed. “…that… maybe…” “No. Of course I don’t. Do you?” “I don’t know. Do you have any sick or old relatives?” “No, only me and my brother.” “Me either.” Stan and Karen were quiet for a while. Then Stan thought of something. “My Moonie, she’s been in remission for bowel cancer for years. You don’t think it might have come back?” “Stan, it’s a watch. It doesn’t know when someone is going to die.” “I know, you’re right, it’s stupid, but I do feel like we should visit, maybe it’s the watch’s way of telling us to spend more time with family.” “That is the lamest thing I ever heard.” She threw her head back laughing so all her teeth were on show, including several black fillings. “But sure, we can bring her back here for the funeral, although, I wonder if she would even want to come to your dad’s funeral?” she asked. “Yeah, I think she would, he may have been a cheat but she loved him.” “Where is she living now?” “Edmonton.” “Canada?” “’Fraid so. How about it Ben?” Stan asked as Ben waddled into the kitchen. “Wanna go see Gramma?” “OK.” He smiled and rinsed his cup under the tap. Stan had expected a little more than that, his new, more adult attitude was taking some getting used to. Karen sighed. “Can we afford the plane tickets?” “Sure, I’ll get online, see when’s the earliest we can make it.” “Let me guess, you wanna be there by tomorrow, right? The date on the watch?” “I would feel better that way, but… don’t tell her, OK? I’d rather her think we just wanted to see her.” “Roger.” Stan flipped up the laptop lid and dragged it onto his bare thighs; he’d forgotten to put his sweat pants on after changing out of his overalls. He scrolled though numerous airline sites; Delta, US Airways, Air Canada had spare seats to Edmonton tonight. He booked them before consulting his wife just in case she refused. “I’m coming Moon Beam.” He muttered, thinking back to when his mother would call him Sun Beam and he’d call her Moon Beam, now it had shortened to ‘Moonie’ but he still wished to hear her call him Sun Beam again.
* * *
Night came. They were packed and ready to go. Karen had been understanding, she hated packing and unpacking bags but Ben was excited to be up so late and she loved him so much that that made her excited too. Besides, Stan looked genuinely concerned. He kept checking the Rolex, their flight left at 12:30AM and it would take a little over an hour to get there, they wouldn’t reach her in time. “Stop worrying.” Karen laid a hand on Stan’s shoulder, her voice, though usually comforting, was now piercing. Stan inadvertently shrugged her away. “We will be with her soon. Tomorrow we’ll bring her back and spend some family time together. Do you think she’ll be upset about your father?” “I don’t know. Probably not. I don’t think any of us will really miss him.” Karen supressed her instincts to disagree with him, she didn’t know enough about him to be sure that he wasn’t telling the truth, instead she wrapped her arms around him. “Oh I hear a car outside, that’s probably the taxi. Canada, hey? It will be the first time either of us has left America!” Stan laughed. “It’s not exactly exotic.” “Will you please put that damn watch down, it isn’t going to change.” “I’d rather take it.” “Suit yourself.” Stan took her bags and she took Ben’s bags which had to be packed twice since he obviously had no idea what the Canadian climate was like. They hauled it all into the airport taxi which came promptly and sat in vibrating excitement at such a spontaneous trip. They must have looked like the picture perfect American family sat all three in the back seat smiling toothily at each other. Stan leaned over and whispered in his wife’s ear. “Thank you.”
The aeroplane was a small one, only a hopper to take them about the country; it was pretty empty considering it was the school holidays. Stan wriggled on his seat worse than Ben and when Karen wasn’t looking he’d fiddle with the Rolex watch. He checked his working watch; it was 12:35AM. The pilot’s voice came through the speakers informing them that they were about to take off and to fasten their seat belts. Stan gripped Karen’s hand and she did the same with Ben’s. The plane started to rumble, then it started forward, slowly, but picking up speed. Within minutes they were high above the Earth. It was too dark to see below them except for the clusters of lights from the towns below.
* * *
Stan checked his watch again. They’d been in the air for twenty minutes, it was five minutes until the time. “How long, Honey?” “Hm?” “How long until one?” “Oh, five minutes.” “That soon?” she gripped his hand again and snuggled into his arm hoping it would make him feel better. “We’ll be sat with Moonie soon, we’ll laugh about this when we get home.” “You’re right. I’m sort of glad in a way, it’s been well over a year since Ben saw his gramma, she’ll be delighted.” “You did phone ahead, right Stan? She knows were coming?” “Of course. Ha-ha that would be funny if we just turned up on her doorstep.” “Yeah, I don’t think she’d even believe it was –” The plane ran into a bit of turbulence and nearly threw Karen off of her seat mid-sentance. “Woah!” “Are you OK?” Stan grabbed hold of her. “Yeah, that was scary!” “I thought you were a goner.” He laughed imagining his wife splatting like a dead bug on the floor. The plane dived again and the seat belt sign lit up but they didn’t need telling twice. The pilot’s voice came on the radio telling everybody that there were strong winds but nothing to worry about. Before he had chance to finish his calming message a loud bang like a car backfiring rang out from the side of the plane. There was a ripple of screams from further down the aisle. “Mummy, I’m scared.” Ben cried laying his head down on Karen’s lap. “Shhh, it’s OK.” She said to him stroking his hair. “Stan, what was that?” She whispered so Ben couldn’t hear. “Stan?” She looked over at him; he was staring silently out of the circular window. He was staring at the wing. The fire ball, the thick black smoke. Another loud bang echoed around the fuselage. The orange oxygen masks dropped down from above the seats. Stan glanced down at his working watch, 12:59AM then back out the window. Below them the ground came into view beneath the clouds, it was coming up to meet them, fast.
By 1AM they would be dead.