Time.
Time is my biggest enemy. And, it has been for as long as I can remember. One would think after 16 or so years of dealing with this same issue, I would have developed some type of method to cope with it. And yet, here I am, still being the victim of an inescapable and uncontrollable force. I wish I had the power to slow down time or speed it up. I could only imagine what my life would be like…

I awoke to a hoard of gongs piercing my ears. The floor and walls around me were physically shaking. I sat up from having been found lying sprawled out on a hardwood floor. I had no idea where I was.

I turned my head from side to side, hearing the cracks of the bones as I did so. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t as impressed as I had hoped I would be. I was sitting in the middle of a pretty much empty, circular room. Besides the actual walls, all I saw was a small door at the far back and a ladder located directly opposite of it. Having nowhere else to go, I instinctively gravitated towards the ladder.

Grasping the ladder, I glanced upwards into a void of darkness. Going against my conscious, I placed my two hands on the railings, stepped one foot onto the first peg, and heaved myself onto it. Before I knew it, I was climbing, having no clue where I would end up.

I climbed for what was probably 20 seconds or so. Before I knew it, I was poking my head out of a small whole, being blinded from what was probably the sunlight. When my vision returned, I noticed I was in a circular room just like the first floor, but this time there was so much more to it. There were various wires and gears all strategically placed, leading up to what looked like hundreds of cables. And, directly in front of me, there was a clock, but not just any clock. It was most likely the most magnificent clock I’d ever seen. It reminded me of the clock from Hugo. The hour hand itself could’ve easily been 30 feet long. I was so close, I could hear each click! the second hand made as it traveled around. I could see the intricate detail of each material that made up the face. I didn’t know why, but I was in a clock, being forced to watch time pass right by me.

“Oh, thank god. I was waiting for you downstairs wondering if you ended up in the wrong place or something.” I turned around, startled to see a stout, little man standing only a few feet behind me, wearing a child’s smile.

“Well, I see you already found your way up, so good for you. I was going to make this room a big ‘ol surprise and such, but I suppose I shall just get right to it then.” He nodded for my reassurance, but I just stared back at him blankly. He must have realized my confusion, as He proceeded to talk nonsense further.

“Oh, where are my manners. Hello, nice to meet you, even though I already know who you are.” He stuck out his hand, urging me to shake it. I did not. “Okay, well um…that’s okay. So I’ve generously given you two days and if you could reframe from using it for minor dilemmas, I’d really appreciate it. And, here you go. Congratulations!” He then reached for some sort of necklace He was wearing. As He took it off, I was captured by its beauty. It appeared to be a watch, but it was encompassed in a gold casing with beautiful and intricate designs. The lid on top of the perfectly polished glass was the outline of a man in portrait pose, which I later realized was the man standing in front of me. 

“And there you are. I shall see you in two days from right now, which is…11:23 and 17 seconds in the morning. Any questions?” Normally, I would’ve burst out into a rant about how I had no conception of what was going on, but the way the man was so persuasive and confident in His task, it made me do otherwise. Instead, I managed a slight grin, took the watch from His hands, placed it around my neck, and left for the ladder.

Now that I knew where the ladder led up to, the only other place to go was through the door opposite of it. I was soon making my way through a tunnel lit only by torches. Eventually, I reached a replica of the door and feeling claustrophobic, pushed it as hard as I could. Immediately, I found myself on the street in front of my house. I turned around and the door I had just come out of vanished. As of right now, I just looked like a typical teenager about to enter her house, wearing an oversized gold watch around her neck. But I knew, I was so much more than that now.

I expected to walk into my house and have everything be completely different. Unfortunately, nothing was. In fact, it looked even more normal and bland than usual. I inched my way towards the kitchen and was affronted by my mother rambling around the cabinets, attempting to get dinner together. Trying to figure out what I was supposed to do now, I spoke as natural as I could. “Um, good evening.”

“Oh honey. You scared me to death. Dinner should be ready any minute now. Why don’t you set the table?” Not knowing what else to do, I did as I was told. Once the silverware had been set and the drinks were ready, I took my seat at my normal spot and waited for my mother to serve her usual, chicken rice and corn. But, as she was walking towards me, with my dinner in her hand, she tripped over my backpack. I watched as my dinner plunged onto the hardwood floors. “Oh no! I’m so sorry dear! I’m such a klutz. With my luck, the only way to stop me from tripping on everything would be to go back in time or something. Am I right?”

“Haha, yea totally.” I was about to lean forwards to help her clean up her mess when it struck me. “Um, can I be excused for a second? I…uh… need to go to the bathroom.” And with a shake of assurance, I raced up to my bedroom.

Once I was in, I closed the door as quietly as I could and locked it just to be safe. Then, I took that gold necklace-watch off my neck and for the first time, actually examined it closely. It looked like a normal watch for the most part. There were the two hands and numbers lining the perimeter. However, instead of there being the hours around the perimeter, they went by 10s. What should’ve been the 1 was a 10 and the 2 was a 20 and so on. That being said, the 12 was a 120. At first I thought I had gotten a children’s watch or something, but then it dawned on me that they were representing intervals of 10 minutes. Going with my instincts, I turned the dial at the side of the watch to the 10 and watched as both the hour and the minute hand shifted.

I was back standing in the hallway to my kitchen, with the watch once again hanging around my neck. Having a guess of what had just happened, I walked into the kitchen like before. My mother was back rummaging around the cabinets resembling a cook from Masterchef. “Hey Mom!”

“Oh honey. You scared me to death. Dinner should be ready any minute now. Why don’t you set the table?” Once again, I did as I was told. But, before doing so, I took it upon myself to move my backpack to the living room first. When it was safely out of tripping way, I set the table like I did before and waited for my dinner to be served.

“And here were are, the usual: chicken, rice and corn. Bon apetit!” But, I couldn’t eat. I was too excited, realizing the power I now possessed. That man at the top of the clock tower must’ve been Father Time, I thought to myself. Of course, I didn’t know why Father Time or whoever He was gave me a watch that could turn back time, but I wasn’t complaining. This is what I had always wanted to be able to do, to stop myself from making mistakes. Now, I was ready to take it to the next level.

Once dinner had been cleaned up, I took my backpack up to my room to brainstorm. After contemplating ideas for my new accessory, I decided to start by going to school tomorrow. Most likely in my case, any mistakes I would make there would involve socializing. 

The next morning I hopped out of bed like a dog would. I had never been more excited to go to school. I ate breakfast in less than five minutes, kissed my mom good-bye, and raced out the door. Today will be different, I told myself as I skipped down the sidewalk to my high school.

Periods one to five were nothing special. I normally didn’t participate during any of those classes, and I chose to stick with the norm as I was too tired to try. But, sixth period was lunch, so I knew I would be doing at least some talking then. When I sat down with my lunch, my opportunity struck. “Hey! Missed you at practice on Tuesday. Where were you?” My friend Michelle had just taken a seat next to me, reminding me I must’ve been in the clock tower during practice. “Oh, I wasn’t feeling too well. But, I’m better now.” A vague excuse, but she didn’t ask any questions. Instead, she brought up the topic that we always found ourselves discussing no matter how hard we tried to avoid the unnecessary drama: boys.
“So listen. I hear Will is going to ask you to the winter ball.”
“What, are you serious?”

“Swear on my life. I heard some of his friends talking about it in gym today.”

“But why would he ever want to---”

“Excuse me. Mind if I steal Brie for a sec.” Unbeknownst to me, Will had snuck up on us. I was about to pee in my pants. This was it. Giving a slight nod and wink towards Michelle, I followed Will to the aisle between the garbage can and the wall. Not the most romantic, but I’ll take what I can get.

“So, um…Sorry, I’m not really good at this.”

I couldn’t help but grin. His awkwardness made him look more appealing as a normal person, rather than the obnoxious varsity football player his reputation held. “It’s fine. You’re doing great.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard that I was planning on asking you to the winter ball. I kind of wanted it to be a surprise, but oh well. What can a guy do? So, what do you say?”

I wanted to say yes, but just before I had time to respond, a freshman was trying to pass by, but instead of being discrete, she ended up tripping over Will’s shoe, falling face first right in front of us. Just my luck! And, of course Will bent down to help her and even took her to the nurse just in case. “I’ll get back to you,” he yelled when he was walking out the door.

I stood there stunned for at least a minute. What had just happened? I could feel a slight hint of frustration rising, until I realized the whole reason I had come to school in the first place. With no hesitation, I left for the bathroom, as I knew that would be the quietest area of the school. As soon as I walked in, I took the watch off and turned the dial once to the right. Just like before, the hands turned counterclockwise and before I knew it, I was sitting at my lunch table with Michelle.

“So listen. I hear Will is going to ask you to the winter ball.”

“Ha, no way? Seriously?”

“Swear on my life. I heard some of his friends talking about it in gym today.”

I waited and right on time I listened as I heard Will’s footsteps growing louder and louder. “Excuse me. Mind if I steal Brie for a sec.” I nodded like before, but instead of following him to the aisle I inched towards an empty table and he unconsciously followed me.
“So, um…Sorry, I’m not really good at this.”

“It’s fine. You’re doing great.” And the conversation played out like before, but without the distraction of a freshman plummeting to the ground.

That night, I was lying in bed staring at the watch. I still had no clue why I had it, but I knew I wanted to keep it. And then it dawned on me: He told me he’d see me in two days, being tomorrow.

It’s no surprise that I didn’t want to give it back. I liked knowing I could redo any mistakes I made whenever I wanted to. Ironically, having that heavyweight watch hang around neck made it feel as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was no longer limited to that stupid “Try, Try Again” nonsense I had always been told. I didn’t need to try again because I would always succeed on my “first” try. Of course, all goods thing had to come to an end, whether I liked it or not. 

I felt a serious sense of Déjà vu. The clock tower was exactly as I had seen it the first time I was there. I climbed up the ladder just like before, and lo and behold there He was, standing dead center of the giant clock, still wearing his child-like smile. 

“Right on time. It appears my gift has granted you with the power to be punctual,” He chuckled. “Right then, let’s get down to business. I assume you have completed all your fulfillments within the given amount of time?”

I hesitated. In my mind, I was nowhere near what I wanted to achieve with the watch, considering I had no clue I was to receive it in the first place. But, I didn’t want to seem disrespectful, so I mustered up a slight nod towards His direction. “Great! Well, I’m glad you’re happy with---”

“Wait, I’m sorry. Look, I had no clue you were gonna give this watch thingy to me until you did, so I didn’t really have time to…pre-plan. Could I just keep it for like a few more days?”
He looked at me with a strange sense of endearment, like how a mother would look at her first-born child. “I know how you must feel Brie. But, you can’t play Father Time for your entire life. Where’s the fun in life if you don’t take the first time seriously?”
“But, it would be so much easier.”

“True, but unfortunately that’s not how life works.”

“Then why did you give---” I didn’t have to finish my question because I already knew the answer. I had always known, I just didn’t want to admit it. Time was---

There was an intense sound of screeching coming from down the hall, perhaps a teakettle letting off steam. I awoke with a sudden jolt, immediately sitting up with a sort of headache. I was completely turned around. But, then I realized what had happened. And, more importantly, what the purpose was for it.

Time.

Time is my biggest enemy. And, will be for the rest of my life. One would think after 16 or so years of dealing with this same issue, I would have developed some type of method to cope with it. And yet, here I am, still being the victim of an inescapable and uncontrollable force. I used to wish I had the power to slow down time or speed it up. But, I once imagined what my life would be like, and I decided it would be best left alone.