Watch

 The Watch by 55555

It was a thing of beauty, and a joy to behold. The faceplate and back were scrolled and engraved in elaborate patterns. It kept perfect time, ticking steadily away, hour after hour, year after year, as long as there was a hand to wind it. The inner workings were as decorated and polished as the exterior, the shining gears moved in perfect harmony.

And it is, alas, no more.

"Son, take care of this watch. There is more to it than meets the eye. Not only does it keep perfect time, but it keeps time perfect."

Then again, my dad is not entirely sane. How could this object ticking in my hand have something to do with the great mechanisms of the universe? And what did he mean anyway?

Nevertheless I resolved to keep is as safe as I feasibly could. I kept it well, winding it every morning, stowing it in a drawer at night, keeping it in my pocket by day.

But youth does not keep such resolutions well. I went swimming with some friends of mine in the river, and left it on the bank. I was swimming around, not too far out, when suddenly something changed.

It was as though the even beat of time passing had suddenly become slightly irregular. As though instead of a pendulum swinging rhythmically from left to right, second ticking after second, some person had started counting them off, judging the time himself.

One second would seem slow, the next too fast. I swam to the bank, knowing already what I would find there.

The watch lay in pieces, it's shining mechanisms scattered in the dirt, it's lens shattered.

Since that day time has flowed irregularly, this hour seeming long, this hour short. A world without a watch, the universe is late and early.

Kakaru's:

 http://supergoggles.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/security/

Evan's:

http://ashardofdream.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/pocketwatch/