| Watch | |
April 20, 2016
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| When he was browsing in an antique shop where he entered for the first time, he saw an old pocket watch. It was a normal wind-up watch, not a rare type; but, it somehow attracted him. Soon the owner of the shop came over and said, "Are you interested in this watch?" He said, "I'm just wondering why this watch is moving because the other same type of watches here aren't moving. I know wind-up watches stop if you don't wind them up every day. Did you wind it up a day or two ago?" The owner said, "I'm too busy to wind them up every day. I only wind them up every six months or so for maintenance, it was a couple months ago." The man said, "In that case, maybe one of the customers wound this up as a try, right?" The owner replied, "I don't think so. You are the only customer who has been in here for a few days." He became skeptical, "So do you want to say this is a magical watch or something?
The guy laughed, "A time traveling watch? No kidding. If this is so precious, why has nobody bought it before?" The owner said, "Because the owner of this watch can travel back in time only once. So after using it, they would come back here to sell it back." "Bcbut, I think, in that case, the person who experienced time traveling would want to sell this watch to others. Anybody would want this for example c " He thought for a second and said, "How about bank robbers. They would really want this watch to escape from the police into the past, right?" The owner cleared his throat and explained, "I thought the same thing, doing a bank robbery by myself. But, if you did a bank robbery and returned to the past, you would be just a guy who didn't have any money, you can't take anything to the past with you but just this watch. I read this manual." He showed him an old hand-written paper. He didn't know if what he said made sense or not but said nothing. The owner continued, "And one more thing. This watch can return you to only 11 hours and 59 minutes in the past, because of the hands on this watch. You pull this release and set the time you want to return, and then return the release. You can go to the time you set, only one time though." The guy asked, "So you think I'll pay money for this watch which gives me a one time time-travel, only to go to the past within the last 12 hours." The owner nodded, "I've sold and re-sold this watch many times." The owner didn't look like a bad person. If the owner bought it back, it wouldn't be expensive. It was hard for him to think that the owner would deceive him. After thinking about it, he paid the money and received the watch, although he didn't have any ideas how he would use it. That night, he went on a date with his girlfriend. In the restaurant, he showed her the watch. His girlfriend didn't believe what he had said at all, and said he was just kidding her. At this point, he realized that he couldn't prove about the watch because if he used it, he would waste his only chance to surprise his girlfriend. But, come to think of it, if he retuned ten minutes ago, he might just be sitting with her and explaining to her about this watch. "In that case, would she go to the past with me? Or would I go to the past alone? In that case, would my body disappear or remain?" He had no idea. He felt tired and stopped thinking about it. The next day was Sunday. He woke up late. He thought it was a dream what had happened yesterday. But there was the watch on the table. It showed five to nine. He thought that if he pulled the release of the watch now and set it to nine, he could return to 9 o'clock last night in the restaurant, maybe. He had a strong urge to pull the release but managed to stop the urge. He needed to use it more efficiently. He turned on the TV and started to make his breakfast. While cutting vegetables, he thought, "How about eating a very expensive meal and enjoying a vintage wine, and then return afterwards? This way seems to be worth the money that I paid." But he had a second thought that it was a cheap idea. He thought about meeting a female singer he loved very much and kissing her and escaping before being punched. Thinking about the risk the watch wouldn't work, he gave up this idea. On the TV, an announcer was reporting about a new act of terrorism. He was disgusted that a lot of terrorism had happened recently. He thought, "How about killing my boss, and retuning to the past. At least, I could feel refreshed even for a short time." When he came to think about this, an idea occurred to him. He jumped to his PC and started to search for something. His face was serious. He checked when the terrorism of the news had happened. His heart was ponding. When he learned that the terrorism happened about 13 hours ago, he sighed deeply. He felt tired and lost his appetite. He just made coffee. While drinking coffee, he thought, "If the terrorism occurred within 12 hours, for example, 6 hours, I would have another 6 hours before the incident. I could tell about it to the police. I don't know if they believe it or not though. They would ask me how I could know, even if I used an anonymous call. Even though, I would be at risk that they might record my voice. Maybe I could use an Internet caf?. Butc even in this case, if the terrorism occurred actually, the authority must start investigating the person who predicted it. They would think that the person would be involved with the terrorist group. It might become an international investigation." He became pale. On the TV, some of the victims' families, girlfriends, boyfriends, and other loved ones expressed their sorrow. He was disgusted that he thought about only himself, and not the victims. In the afternoon, he was in the antique shop. The shop owner soon noticed him and his twitching face. In his hand, there was the watch. The owner said, "You don't need to feel embarrassed. To tell you the truth, everybody who bought this watch sold it back soon. Some of them said that they used it but the others said they didn't. I think the latter are honest, and I refunded all the money to them who didn't use the watch. Returning to the past is tougher than we think, I suppose." The owner extended his hand for the watch. His face was somehow kind. The guy was staring at the owner's hand for a while. Then, he shook his head, and said smiling weakly, "Maybe I need more time to think about this watch's value." He left the shop. He thought that he might need a support-group who could advise users of this watch, like a relay race team. He might need some advice about protection from the authorities or bad people. He might need to move fast before something bad happened next time. He might need to c |
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