The Pocket Watch (2 page)

The old woman nodded approvingly.

“But by May, Mom’s condition worsened. The treatments were hard on her. She had to be hospitalized several times because of infections and to make matters worse, she wasn’t responding to the chemo.”

“Ah, poor lass. I expect I know what happened next. Ye decided not to go away to university.”

Maggie nodded. “I postponed it for a while. I knew I wasn’t going to have much time left with her.”

“And yer dream of being a nurse?”

“I enrolled at the local community college. I only took a few courses that fall. I didn’t want to over extend myself with my mom so ill.”

“And yer young man? Did he still come home to help ye?”

“Some, but not as much. He said his course load was heavier and I’m sure it was.”

The old woman’s eyes narrowed. “I suppose.”

“He came home at Christmas of course and was still here when my mother passed away that January. Paige was distraught. Dad was…was…adrift. I couldn’t have gotten through it without Elliott. I guess I was so caught up in my own grief I didn’t notice the change in him.”

“I’m so sorry, lass.”

Maggie nodded again, swallowing against the lump rising in her throat. She had cried enough for one day. When she regained her control she continued. “With mom gone, I poured myself into school. It was a welcome distraction. I guess in that I was a bit like my dad.”

“And Elliott?”

“He came home at spring break. I had the vague sense that something was amiss but I didn’t try to figure it out. When summer came, Elliott finally told me he had fallen in love with someone else and had been dating her since the fall.”

The old woman’s brows drew together and she pursed her lips in obvious disapproval.

Maggie gave her a wry smile. “I know, right? He hadn’t wanted to tell me when things were so bad with Mom.” She shook her head, “He said, ‘Mags, you know I’ll always love you, it’s just different with Amanda. But you’ll always be my best friend.’”

“Och, lass…”

Maggie shrugged, “I didn’t understand how he could believe that. I still don’t.”

“Sweetling, it was the way he kept himself from feeling like the total arse he was.”

Maggie smiled at the old woman. “No one has ever said that. I have heard everything from, ‘high school crushes seldom last’ to ‘well it’s good you can stay friends.’”

“Bah—ye’ve been talking to the wrong people. I expect yer mama would have called an arse an arse.”

Tears welled in Maggie’s eyes. “You know, I’ve never thought about it, but you’re right—she would have.”

“So did you finally go to university in the fall?”

“No. Dad and Paige still needed me. She was only a junior in high school and he remained buried in multiverse theory. But I finished the nursing program at the community college. In Paige’s senior year I took a job at a local hospital. Then when I took Paige on college visits, I found a great program at Villanova for registered nurses who want to get a bachelor’s degree. It’s not so far away, so I would have been around some for Dad. They don’t take many students but I got into it.”

“Well done. And was Paige going to Villanova too?”

Maggie chuckled. “No. She went to Salisbury University in Maryland last fall. She said she was tired of Catholic schools. But the truth is, she was totally committed to going there as soon as she learned she could take glass blowing.” Maggie rolled her eyes.

“Glass blowing? Ye aren’t serious.”

Maggie laughed. “She is a bit of a brat and just to goad Dad, she kept telling him she wanted to major in art.”

“Oh my.”

“Some kids rebel by drinking or staying out late but not my sister. Art is her vice. Frankly I think Dad could have handled underage drinking much better. But in the end she admitted that she wanted to major in finance…and perhaps art too.” Maggie grinned.

“So she went to Salisbury and you went to Villanova?”

Maggie sobered. “No.”

“Och, not again. What happened?”

Maggie sighed. “One evening in April I found Dad sitting at the picnic table in the back yard, crying.”

The old woman frowned. “Why?”

“There wasn’t enough money. Money had never been an issue before. We had always been very comfortable but apparently when Mom had been ill things got bad. She no longer had an income and most of their savings went to pay medical bills. He said he didn’t have enough money to send both of us. He had apparently been trying to get loans but was denied. Mom had always handled the finances and Dad hadn’t been particularly good at paying the bills on time after she died. His credit rating tanked.”

“Oh dear.”

“I told him I might be able to manage without his help. I had been saving my wages and I figured I could stay working and get student loans.” Maggie looked away for a moment before continuing. “But as it turns out, our finances were even worse than he had let on. When he said he didn’t have the money to send
both
of us, what he meant was he didn’t have the money to send
either
of us.”

“Ah, I see. Ye gave up on yer dream so Paige could go to university and ye could help yer da financially.”

“I didn’t exactly give up on my dream…”

“But ye helped Paige go to university.”

“It seemed like the right thing to do. I am already a nurse and I’ll get my bachelor’s degree someday. I remembered how excited I had been about going away to college before Mom got sick and I wanted Paige to have that. I wanted things to feel normal for her.”

The old woman took Maggie’s hand in hers patting it. “Ye’re a good lass.”

They sat in silence for a moment before the old woman said. “Now ye’ve told me the story. But it seems all of this happened some time ago. Something happened to open the wounds again. Why were ye crying today?”

Maggie’s chin began to tremble and in spite of her valiant attempts not to, she started crying again. “Today I w-went to Elliott’s w-wedding.”

The woman clucked and gathered Maggie into her arms, allowing her to cry. “Attending the wedding of an old flame is hard at the best of times. It’s doubly hard when ye have never stopped loving him, and I know ye haven’t.”

“No, I haven’t, and it hurts so much.”

“I’m sure it does, pet.”

“I’m tired of hurting and even though I know I made the right choices, it was at the expense of all of my dreams. Sometimes…”

“What lass?”

“Nothing. I feel selfish saying it.”

“Please tell me.”

Maggie hesitated before saying, “Sometimes I wish I could have someone else’s life—just for a while. I wonder what it would feel like just to be away from the rubble of broken dreams.”

The old woman cocked her head. “Whose life would ye choose?”

Maggie sniffed. “Amanda’s.”

The old woman chuckled. “Ye don’t want her life, lass. She married an idiot.”

Maggie gave a little laugh and wiped the tears from her eyes.

The old woman looked at her pointedly. “What would ye say if I told ye I could give ye that.”

“What?” Maggie was confused.

“Someone else’s life.” She cocked her head and furrowed her brow. “If I could give ye someone else’s life for a while, what would ye do?”

Maggie supposed the woman was trying to make a point about everyone having troubles. Still someone else’s troubles might be a relief for a while. “It isn’t possible, but I guess I would try it if I could.”

“Och, but it is possible.”

Maggie smiled. “No it isn’t.”

“That’s a very closed-minded opinion for a lass whose father researches multiverse theory.”

“Do you truly believe you have the ability to temporarily give me a different life?”

“Well I don’t personally, but I have something that does.”

The nurse inside Maggie tugged at her,
this poor dear lady is ill
. But the theoretical physicist’s daughter asked, “How does it work?”

The woman pulled what looked like a small gold pocket watch on a chain from her purse. She opened the cover and handed it to Maggie. It was a plain, rather ordinary looking timepiece except there was only one long, slender hand, which pointed at twelve and didn’t appear to be moving. “What am I supposed to do with it?”

“When ye go to bed tonight, put it around yer neck or even in the pocket of yer pajamas. When ye wake ye will be…elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere?”

“Aye. It will pull ye into someone else’s body, someone else’s life.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Oh, I am. It is called soul exchange.”

“Soul exchange? So whoever’s body I get, her soul comes to my body?”

“Briefly, aye. But the person whose body ye assume will be about to die. Ye will do something immediately which will change that.”

“I’ll save her life?”

“Not precisely, but I’ll explain that in a minute. When ye wake in that person’s body, ye will find the watch still around yer neck or in a pocket. If ye open it, ye will notice that the hand will advance one second for each day ye’re there. Ye must come back before the hand reaches twelve again.”

“How very Cinderella-like. So…I would have sixty days in another life.”

“Aye, more or less.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means ye can come back at any time. Ye will only have to say one word. Ye don’t even have to have the watch with ye for it to work. The watch always manages to be where it’s needed.”

“What’s the word?”

“Ye decide and tell the watch before ye put it ‘round yer neck.”

Yes, this poor dear was delusional. “I tell the watch?”

If the old woman recognized her skepticism she ignored it. “Aye, and it has to be something that ye would have no reason to say accidentally. We’ll make the word…cellphone.”

“Why? That’s a word I use a lot.”

“Aye, ye use it now. But ye will be going back in time and ye have to go back far enough so ye can’t have an impact on yer own life.”

“Like telling one of my parents the results of every super bowl for the last twenty years.”

“Sweetling, do ye know the results of every super bowl for the last twenty years?”

“Um…no.”

The old woman chuckled, “Well, I guess we don’t have to worry about that then. But aye, that’s the concept. What would ye do if ye arrived, say, twenty-five years ago?”

Without missing a beat Maggie answered, “I’d find my mother.”

The old woman gave her a sad smile. “And how do ye suppose yer mum would react?”

“I wouldn’t tell her who I was. She’d be about my age. I’d just make friends with her and spend a little more time with her.”

“And ye wouldn’t tell her to go see the doctor earlier than she did? Perhaps catch the cancer earlier?”

“Would that be so wrong?”

“Maggie, think about it. If ye told yer twenty-something mother she needed to make sure she sees a doctor thirty years later, what would happen? At best, she would forget it and at worst she would spend the next thirty years worrying about dying instead of living. Yer mother is at peace now. Her time was up and she is where she needs to be. Besides, ye wouldn’t be experiencing a different life. Ye would be trying desperately to regain the life ye had. Nay, ye will likely go back at least a hundred years, perhaps a good deal more.”

“A hundred years?” Maggie was incredulous.

“At least. So ye will have no need to say the word “cellphone” but if ye are in trouble or ye just want to come back, ye just say cellphone and ye’ll be back in an instant.”

“I just say ‘cellphone’ and come back instantly no matter where I am.”

“Aye, lass, ye
cellphone home
so’s to speak.” She laughed merrily at her own joke.

Maggie couldn’t help but smile. “And if I don’t
cellphone home
, if I stay the full sixty days, I just pop back into my own body when the time runs out?”

“Nay, lass. Ye have to decide to come back and say the word when ye’re ready.”

“What if I want to stay longer?” Even as she said it, Maggie could scarcely believe she was having this conversation. The woman was delusional.

“Ye can stay longer if ye wish, but after sixty days ye won’t be able to return. Ye will stay in the other life forever.”

“So I have the choice to return, but whoever assumes my body here is at my mercy. I’m not sure that’s terribly fair. What if she likes it better here?”

“She won’t have time to know. Ye see while sixty days pass for ye in the past, only sixty seconds will pass here.”

“Oh.” Maggie thought for a moment. “But, how will this work? My soul and consciousness will be in someone else’s body. I won’t know anyone. Her friends and family will think she’s lost her mind. Do I pretend to have amnesia or something?”

“Aye, that’s usually the best explanation, but it isn’t quite that cut and dried. Ye will have yer soul and consciousness as ye say, but ye will still be in her body, brain and all. Ye will have some bits of her memory from the start, language for example. If she speaks another language, ye will understand it and be able to speak it. It will feel no different to ye than English. Other memories may come to ye over time.”

Maggie knew she shouldn’t feed into the woman’s delusions but she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “How is that possible?”

The old woman smiled. “I have just told ye, ye can travel back in time. Ye are fully convinced that I am delusional, but ye have trouble believing this one detail?”

How could the woman possibly have known what Maggie was thinking? “I-I, well I don’t think…what I mean is…”

The old woman’s tinkling laughter bubbled up again. “Tis all right, lass. I know it’s all hard to believe and I’d worry if ye weren’t skeptical. But I assure ye, I am not delusional. And if ye truly want to see what another life would be like, ye’ll try it. The worst outcome is that ye wake up in the morning and nothing happened. I’ll meet ye here tomorrow at noon and ye can return my timepiece to me. Ye may have a fascinating tale to tell, but if nothing happened, feel free to bring the mental health care professional of yer choice. Truly, ye have nothing to lose and perhaps the opportunity to do a bit of good.”

Maggie looked at the odd timepiece in her hand. She really didn’t have anything to lose and if the old woman returned the next day, maybe Maggie could find some help for her. “I suppose you’re right, but let me make sure I understand. I put the chain around my neck and go to sleep as usual. When I wake up, I will have switched souls with someone from the past just in time to stop that person from dying.”