Member-only story
Living in One World, Imagining Another
Liam McShane and Max Goldman contemplate their circumstances
Liam and Max were sitting soberly across from each other at the Indian restaurant down the block from Liam’s apartment. Liam seemed distracted and Max was fidgeting with a button on his left sleeve which had come loose.
“We’ve got to find something else to do with our lives,” Liam lamented.
“What time is it?” Max asked him.
“It’s twelve fifteen according to the clock on the wall.”
Liam hesitated a moment.
“That doesn’t look right.”
He pulled an old mechanical pocket watch from his pocket, and he opened it. On the outside face there was an engraving of a sailboat and on the back was an engraving of the Rock of Gibraltar.
“Where did you get that old watch?” Max asked.
“It belonged to my father and to his father before that,” Liam answered. “My electric watch stopped working so I’ve been carrying this one around with me, it’s a kind of an experiment.”
“So, tell me about it.”
“There’s not much to tell really. I’ve just been testing this mechanical watch against the electronic clocks we see all around us.”
