The Golden Wristwatch

November 2019 - a chapter excerpt from an uncompleted book. Sci-fi.

A small sharp object thwacked Shinobu on the head.

He cried out and stumbled. His palms scraped the cement as his books spilled out onto the sidewalk.

The pain felt like a sumo wrestler leaning his sharp elbow on Shinobu’s skull. He looked around for the culprit of the small sharp object, but no one was within punching range. It must have been thrown.

“Who threw that?” he shouted, putting his hand to his head; there was a swelling lump, but no blood. He gathered his books together and put on his glasses.

A golden glint caught his eye.

Underneath the flowers lining the school front was a golden wristwatch, imbedded in the dirt like a meteorite. It was small enough and sharp enough to have been what hit Shinobu.

He picked it up. The metal was yellow and richly textured, almost too rich to be gold; it seemed to swirl with depth as he gazed upon it yet did not hold his reflection. There was a small button on the watch face’s side.

The watch face had no numbers and only one red second-hand frozen at what would be 12 o’clock. He flipped it around. On the back, a message was engraved such that it sparkled like a rainbow in the sunlight:

Imperator Temporum

Nunquam In Ignoratio Fatum Facies

Shinobu slipped the watch around his wrist. The bell for first period startled him. He accidentally pressed the watch’s button, causing the red second-hand to start ticking.

Glad he had got it working, he sprinted off to class.

The hallway passed by in a blur. Not a second too soon, he threw open the classroom door.

He smiled at Mr Ira as the late bell rang and he walked to his desk. Taking off his backpack —

He coughed. The oddest sensation had just occurred. One moment he was breathing in heavily like he had been running, and the next moment he was suddenly fine and breathing in the other direction. It was like having your breath taken away, but the opposite.

Then he realized he was no longer in Mr Ira’s room. He was standing outside the school, his finger poised over the watch’s button, the red hand again frozen at upright. The same students he had seen a minute ago were walking in their same position, and the first period bell was ringing again.

Shinobu blinked. He patted himself down. Since he was still solid, he was probably not a ghost.

After a moment, he walked back to class with a dazed expression. The halls emptied and the late bell rang. At last he tentatively opened the door to Mr Ira’s room.

“There you are”, the ruddy man said.

“But…” Shinobu said. He wanted to say, “I was just in here. Don’t you remember?”

He went to his seat and class started like normal. Shinobu looked around at his fellow students. None of them seemed surprised that he had disappeared.

“Wasn’t I just in here?” Shinobu asked the kid behind him.

“What?” she said.

“Wasn’t I… oh, forgot it.”

He looked at the watch. The word “temporum” looked kind of like the word “tempo” from music class, so did it have something to do with speed? After he had pressed the button, he had run pretty fast, but that was his normal running pace.

Mr Ira had them take out their vocab books. Shinobu continued to stare at the watch’s strange inscription. There was such a thing as a “temp” agency, but he couldn’t think of a connection there.

Mr Ira stood over Shinobu. The latter hurriedly unzipped his backpack and the former continued his lecture.

Shinobu flipped to the back of the vocab book and looked through the list of words. In the “T” section, he found what he was looking for. “Temporal” meant “time”.

Shinobu gazed at the golden surface of the watch. Was he holding in his hands a time machine? He pressed the button and the red second-hand sprung into action. No interdimensional holes or magical force fields appeared.

“What do you have there that is so interesting, Mr Planter?”

Mr Ira stood over Shinobu, this time with a no-nonsense face.

“It’s just a watch”, Shinobu said guiltily.

“I think you mean to say it’s a distraction”, Mr Ira said, taking it from his hands. “But a rather beautiful distraction. You may have it back after class.”

Shinobu sat helplessly as his discovery was locked in a drawer. The watch would travel back without him and be lost! Unless it stayed in the drawer when it went back, in which case it wouldn’t have been in Shinobu’s possession to be taken away? Or maybe the watch would cause the desk to jump back, and Mr Ira’s possessions would all clatter to the floor.

Shinobu picked up his pencil and looked at his assignment. It was no longer there; instead, his thumb was poised above the watch’s button and Mr Ira was walking towards him.

It was then that Shinobu realized the power of the golden wristwatch.

“What do you have there that is so interesting, Mr Planter?”

Mr Ira stood over Shinobu, this time with a no-nonsense face.

“It’s a distraction”, Shinobu said.

Mr Ira smiled smugly. “At least you have the audacity to admit that. But it is a rather beautiful distraction. Do you think you can handle having it the rest of class?”

“Yes sir”, Shinobu said confidently, taking out his vocab packet and getting straight to work. He usually goofed off during class; there was no time to waste when it came to wasting time. But he had all the time in the world now.