As the man set down his teacup, a small smile crept over his face. While the workshop was not warm, it did not have the blistering autumn winds that howled down the outdoor market alley, funneled and focused by the concentration of booths on either side. And the tea was good, soothing, comforting.<\/p>\n
The watchmaker was still bent over the timepiece, his hands making adjustments that resulted in tiny movements at the ends of his calipers and tweezers and other small instruments of the trade.<\/p>\n
The man looked down at his cup, nearly empty, and gazed at the pattern of leaves on the bottom.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like you might be mistaken. I may require another cup.\u201d The man\u2019s voice was chiding, not aggressive, and the watchmaker looked up amused. His eyes twinkled for a second before he trust his head down onto the timepiece, finding its voice, its song.<\/p>\n
From this position, he spoke plainly to the man. \u201cI am not often mistaken, and it\u2019ll take a trickier watch than this.\u201d He lifted his head and, in a final triumphant move, snapped the back onto the watch.<\/p>\n
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.<\/p>\n
The ticking still seemed irregular but it was undoubtedly louder.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you hear it?\u201d the watchmaker asked. The two men sat in silence for a half minute or so, the watchmaker looking eagerly at the larger man who\u2019s face was crinkled in concentration. Finally, the man shook his head. No, he didn\u2019t hear it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAh, well, it\u2019s a bit archaic. Not used much anymore because it takes such a long time to say anything. But it\u2019s telling me right now that your name is Leonard Kinsman. And that I\u2019m to give you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The watchmaker trailed off, his face turning to confusion. He looked down at the watch, then back at the man. \u201cThat can\u2019t be right,\u201d he blurted. He immediately looked ashamed at having said it, as if he had stepped outside the bounds of his purpose in this exchange.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know why you came to me?\u201d he finally asked, after an awkward silence. The other man was glad to have a question to answer, glad that he had not needed to provide words to fill the silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. I was just told that I had to deliver this watch to you, and only you. And that you would tell me what to do next.\u201d Even this brief sentence exhausted the man, and a look of fear began to enter his face. He had so little knowledge and so little experience in these matters \u2013 or in most matters, for that matter \u2013 that he had felt lost every step of the way.<\/p>\n
He had trouble finding the market alley, even though it was one of the busiest streets in the city. He had not wanted to attract attention by asking other shopkeepers about the watchmaker, so he had wandered around aimlessly, looking for the telltale sign hanging above the workshop window. He had been told that time \u2013 expecting that which the watch he carried told \u2013 was unimportant, but he was now worried that he had come too late, too early, too on-time.<\/p>\n
The watchmaker, with more experience than he wanted, understood the man\u2019s fear and said, \u201cThere\u2019s no need to worry. It\u2019s just that\u2026\u201d He trailed off again and thought. \u201cIt\u2019s just that you\u2019ve become a very important man.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the man set down his teacup, a small smile crept over his face. While the workshop was not warm, it did not have the blistering autumn winds that howled down the outdoor market alley, funneled and focused by the concentration of booths on either side. And the tea was good, soothing, comforting. The watchmaker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-year26","tag-fiction","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}