The Time Keepers

Chapter 39

CHAPTER 39

J UST WHEN J ACK HAD FINALLY BEGUN TO SOFTEN AT THE END OF those two weeks home, just as he was getting used to taking a cold beer out of a refrigerator and listening to records with Becky after they made love between her classes, and after he let her paint a picture of what their life would be like when he got home—“I’ll finish up my teacher’s degree, we’ll get married, then, in a couple years, we’ll start having kids”—he knew he’d soon be thrown back to that living hell, digging fighting holes and wondering if he’d survive the war.

The last two days with Becky had been the hardest. Over the weekend, she helped him pack up his childhood home. The landlord hadn’t been as sympathetic as Jack hoped, and he was forced to spend his last days of leave clearing the whole place out. What he couldn’t box away and put into storage, they lined up in the yard and sold for a few dollars.

The most difficult thing was going through his mother’s belongings. She had never been a spendthrift, and her closet was filled with only two cotton dresses, a few blouses, a couple pairs of pants, and, of course, her waitress uniforms. But on the top shelf, he found several photographs from when he was little and trinkets she must have felt attached to. A Mickey Mouse hat, his cherished Evel Knievel doll, and a few paper cards he made for her when he was in grade school.

Two weeks earlier, when he first went to the funeral home, the manager had given him an envelope containing her watch and earrings.

“I thought you’d want these,” he said, offering the items to Jack.

Jack didn’t recognize the silver clip earrings, but the watch was special. He had bought it—a simple Timex watch with a thin leather strap and white dial for her thirty-fifth birthday—using the money he had saved from his modest allowance and what he had earned shoveling the neighbors’ driveways when it snowed. Given that his mother was always running late to pick him up or when they were trying to get out the door, he had thought it would be a fitting gift for her special birthday that year.

She never took it off after that. It made her so proud that he had bought her something with his own money. She showed it off at the diner to all her customers, beaming with pride.

“I raised a good boy,” she said as she hugged him. He was fifteen years old then, already significantly taller than his mother.

“No more running late, Ma,” he joked with her.

Now, when he fingered the worn leather band, her smile flashed in his memory. He looked at the dial and saw it was still keeping good time. “Thank you,” he said softly. “I appreciate your returning it to me.”

That last night, after Becky and he arrived at her apartment and she put on her favorite Joni Mitchell record, he gave her his mother’s watch. They had just finished eating a dinner she had made for his last night, a grilled steak he knew she had probably saved up to buy just for the occasion and creamed spinach, his favorite.

He took it out of the white envelope and held it for a moment between his fingers. It wasn’t worth a lot of money, but at that moment, it seemed like the most priceless thing he had in his possession.

“Keep it safe for me,” he whispered as he leaned in to kiss her. He wrapped it around her wrist and buckled it. “I bought it for my mom when I was just a kid. There’s something special knowing it’s still being worn by someone I love.”