The Watch – Part 138:

We walked and walked and walked, without a care in the world for where we were going. Today wasn’t as sunny or warm as yesterday, but that didn’t matter. Our talking distracted us from the cool breeze that hugged us every step of the way. We naturally fell into a well-timed rhythm, each footfall in perfect sync. Our sentences, blending in with one another, bouncing backwards and forwards as if it was a well-oiled machine, and each time we changed the subject, it was subtle, nothing too drastic, always moving from one to another the moment we’ve exhausted all that we need to say, never stretching it out until it gets boring or we run out of things to say and end up dropping into silence.

Then the inevitable unfortunately came; that annoying game of trying to figure out what to say next. It was a moment that we didn’t care how long it went on for, not bothering about how far we’ve walked, or whether we’ve been going around in circles this entire time. The fresh air poured through our heads, tearing out all the unnecessary gunk that has piled up over the past few days, allowing us to think clearer than we’ve done in ages, resetting our bodies to take on whatever comes our way once we’ve stopped walking. It was a magical moment, filled with memories, experiences, wishes, dislikes, and changes. We laughed, we thought, and we characterised.

Then we moved on to how the world works, how we see it differently when we look out of our window every morning, asking impossible questions: Do we see the same colours as everyone else? What if the Earth stopped spinning? How did everything begin and how will it end? Impossible questions that no one can answer except with widely accepted theories, but not knowing the truth, not seeing, feeling, experiencing the answers for themselves, because we cannot. Not because we won’t, but because we just simply cannot. We do not have the technology to answer any of the gigantic questions we are asking today. We might be able to one day, but when? Where? How? Surely, to get a foot through the door, we need there to be a door in the first place. So far, we are staring at a brick wall with only a small carving knife at hand. We need a bulldozer.

‘Have you thought any more about where the watch came from?’ Amy asked.

‘I haven’t, no,’ I admitted. ‘I haven’t been in able to lately.’

‘True,’ Amy tilted her head to acknowledge that I had a point. ‘It does seem strange, though, that it appeared out of nowhere. I mean, you mentioned it was in your living room when you got home from college, as if it just, well, teleported in.’

‘That’s an idea, unless someone teleported in with it and left it there. Who?’ I shrugged, ‘I don’t know.’

‘What made you put the watch on your wrist?’

‘It was a combination of: I didn’t know that it was going to attach to my body and grant me basically unlimited power, and indecisiveness,’ I said as if I was ticking some imaginative checklist. ‘I opened the box, and I saw this inside, and I picked it up, and I questioned where it came from, who gave it to me because there was no information on the note, but it had something about it, you know. It felt as if it was giving off some energy field of some sort, as if it was subtly tempting me to put the watch on my wrist, but my strong indecisiveness kept me from doing so until I gave up being unable to make a decision and I put it on my wrist. How was I supposed to know what would happen next?’ I asked rhetorically.

‘If someone teleported in and left it, that could mean one of two things. Either, they knew who they were giving it to, which means they know who you are, or they just left it at random for some reason,’ Amy explained. ‘Those are the only two reasons I can think of, but it obviously feels as if there are more out there. Well, it would be weird if I had just announced the only two reasons, wouldn’t it?’

‘Maybe it teleported it by itself, for various reasons,’ I suggested.

‘Thank you,’ Amy sighed.

‘However, if you are correct, that begs the question: Who had ownership of the watch before me, and if there was an owner, what did they do with it, and what could on Earth could have possibly happened to make them give up the watch and give it to someone else,’ I chuckled at my very next thought, ‘you could say they wanted to hide it from someone,’ then my chuckle stopped and my smile faded. ‘Magician!’

‘You think the previous owner of the watch wanted to give it up because Magician was searching for it and he didn’t want the watch to fall in the wrong hands,’ Amy read my mind before adding rationally, ‘even though you’ve just defeated him with the watch, which means the previous owner could have just as easily defeated Magician with the watch… and please don’t say that there’s a possibility that they couldn’t have done because of this reason, or that reason, or whatever reason,’ Amy ran her hands through her hair to loosen up any tangled strands due to the wind blowing it in all directions.

‘It hurts your head, doesn’t it,’ I said. Amy nodded.

‘It’s intriguing, though,’ she continued, ‘to think that there could be someone out there, who had the watch on their wrist. Someone, somewhere, in the vast multiverse, walking around now, knowing that someone, somewhere is now wearing the watch they used to own and use. It would be awesome to meet them, talk to them, and hear what they have to say, wouldn’t?’

‘We have to be fully expecting some heavy stories, especially the one which ended with him having to give up the watch.’

‘Yeah, that’s understandable, but isn’t that a small price to pay considering you would have so many answers explained.’

‘It would be nice to have some, if not, all the answers, but if that means being told something that I don’t want to be told, then that’s going to be hard to digest.’

‘Well, none of that has happened yet, and probably won’t for a very long time, so maybe you can prepare yourself for when that time comes, or anything. In the meantime, why not have some fun. Why not go exploring the universe, the multiverse, everywhere in time and space. Just think, our imaginations are a mystery all on their own; we can think whatever we want, and create physical representations of what we think – but it doesn’t matter how crazy one particular thought is, how weird, or how utterly and completely impossible that thought is, there is a universe containing that thought, essentially making our imaginations a reality. Would it be awesome to walk around in a world that you previously thought of before?

‘And I’ve only now realised how incredibly philosophical I’ve become. I mean, wow, I’ve never had those deep thoughts before.’ She shook her head. ‘Wow.’

‘You’re right, though,’ I smiled. ‘Do you think there’s another watch out there?’ I asked.

‘Now that’s just making things even more confusing,’ she said.

‘You’re right, there is an infinite of everything everywhere,’ I began, ‘and so it does seem only logical that there would be more than one watch out there. It would seem weird if this watch was the only one in all of existence. Literally.’

‘Do you think there’s a chance that you two, or more of you, could meet, then?’ Amy asked.

‘There’s always that possibility, but considering there is infinite universes out there… ah, no… actually…’ A sudden thought struck me.

‘What is it?’

‘Remember what Interface said earlier, about the watch, when we discovered that my past-self didn’t have the watch?’

Amy thought back and her eyes widened. ‘There can only be one watch in the universe,’ she said excitedly.

‘So, unfortunately, that must mean I won’t be able to meet another person with their watch.’

‘Ah, that sucks,’ Amy said, disappointed, before casually suggesting. ‘Unless that rule applies to that watch only, and not the other one.’

‘Did you have to?’ I said.

‘Yes,’ she said, before laughing. ‘I think we’ve had enough for today, don’t you?’

‘I think we have,’ I rubbed my hands through my hair to freshen myself up as much as I can.

‘Hey,’ Amy said suddenly, breaking our train of thought.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘We’ve come full circle,’ she said.

‘Really?’ I looked around and noticed that we were standing right outside my front garden. ‘Huh,’ I said, ‘I wonder if we’ve been walking around and around or in one giant loop?’ I asked.

‘Probably one big circle, considering I’ve only just noticed that we were right back where we started,’ she said.

‘Yeah, probably,’ I said whilst scratching my head.

‘Anyway, what were we talking about?’ Amy said.

‘I can’t remember where we left off,’ I admitted. ‘Was it important?’

‘I don’t know,’ she accepted.

Our conversation was interrupted by a fire engine put its sirens on as it flew past, making both of us jump.

‘I wonder where that’s going,’ Amy said.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)