“A gift fro.”
“A gif.”
“A gift from heaven. Quit doing that!” Malcolm’s eyes were wide as he reached for the zipper on his back. “Crafted by God.”
Dangling the watch like a cat with a rat, Jack responded, “Heaven? So you’re talking about a cloud city, and a magic man who makes clocks? Probably a prototype developed by the CIA.”
“Yea,” I scoffed, “a billion-dollar prototype that happens to be at the bottom of the Atlantic. Hooray for homeland security! Your tax money at work.”
“Shut, the fuck, up!” he yelled back at me, muffled by his scuba mask, “maybe this is how the government is able to fool millions.”
Malcolm looked at me, rolling his eyes. “O jeez, here we go again.”
“The real question,” I asked, “is, why do we have this?”
“Luck.”
“Fate.”
Pausing for a second, the three of us started shouting.
“Maybe stop them from boarding the planes!”
“Invest in Apple!”
“Tell Dad we loved him.”
I laughed out loud, but began thinking. The things you could accomplish, the power, the possibilities…all running through my head as I looked at this little golden circle. Watching Jack and Malcolm I knew what was also flowing through their heads.
“Damnit” I whispered
Clenched in a fist, I hurled the abomination back to the ocean.
We heard a plop, the boat turned, and we went home.
By John Accarino
“A gif.”
“A gift from heaven. Quit doing that!” Malcolm’s eyes were wide as he reached for the zipper on his back. “Crafted by God.”
Dangling the watch like a cat with a rat, Jack responded, “Heaven? So you’re talking about a cloud city, and a magic man who makes clocks? Probably a prototype developed by the CIA.”
“Yea,” I scoffed, “a billion-dollar prototype that happens to be at the bottom of the Atlantic. Hooray for homeland security! Your tax money at work.”
“Shut, the fuck, up!” he yelled back at me, muffled by his scuba mask, “maybe this is how the government is able to fool millions.”
Malcolm looked at me, rolling his eyes. “O jeez, here we go again.”
“The real question,” I asked, “is, why do we have this?”
“Luck.”
“Fate.”
Pausing for a second, the three of us started shouting.
“Maybe stop them from boarding the planes!”
“Invest in Apple!”
“Tell Dad we loved him.”
I laughed out loud, but began thinking. The things you could accomplish, the power, the possibilities…all running through my head as I looked at this little golden circle. Watching Jack and Malcolm I knew what was also flowing through their heads.
“Damnit” I whispered
Clenched in a fist, I hurled the abomination back to the ocean.
We heard a plop, the boat turned, and we went home.
By John Accarino
2 comments:
It took me a couple of read-throughs to work out what the deal was with the watch. It's an interesting concept though. My main suggestion would be that the thinking behind why the watch gets thrown back into the sea could be fleshed out more. There's a shed-load of moral and philosophical angst that could be milked from the situation!
Re: mark clarke's point, the brevity definitely makes it intriguing but yes, it's a little hard to figure out what's going on when you first read it. Maybe if you could offer us a little more in terms of exposition. But I did like the wit and economy - it made me smile in less than 250 words!
Personally, I'd have kept the watch and slept soundly...
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