It was a sunny afternoon and the beautiful Victorian sitting room was silent. Thin white curtains fluttered in the gentle summer breeze and caused the light to dance elegantly on the hardwood floors. One small girl sat hunched in the corner over a small table scrutinizing over something in her tiny hands.
“What are you working on Bernadette?”
Hunched over the small table, Bernadette grunted, “Don’t worry about it Richard.”
“Fine. I wasn’t that interested in what you were doing anyway," Richard retorted. Richard, Bernadette’s younger brother, was always trying to intrude on her alone time. No matter how explicitly she told him not to bother her he always did.
Glancing quickly at Richard over her shoulder, Bernadette soon resumed working on the task at hand. Her small, eight year old hands fumbled their way around the small wristwatch caught between her fingertips.
Bernadette, focused intently on the small leather banded wristwatch, didn’t even notice that Richard was now peering over her shoulder watching her work. The small tabletop was littered with many of their father’s tools, which, if he knew she was using, Bernadette would most certainly find herself in trouble.
“What are you doing?!” Richard said incredulously. “Why do you have Dad’s wristwatch? I don’t think you’re allowed to take the watch apart like that.”
“Richard. Go away. I know what I’m doing,” Bernadette replied, sounding noticeably irritated.
“I don’t have to go away, Mom said you could play with me.” Richard said innocently. “Why do you have Dad’s watch?”
“I’m fixing it.”
“It wasn’t broken! Dad was just wearing it this morning.”
“It is broken, Richard! Please just leave me alone!”
Richard turned to go, but as he was about to leave the room he heard Bernadette give a long sigh. Looking over his shoulder, Richard noticed she was slumped over and had her face buried in her tiny hands. Apprehensively, he turned all-the-way around and faced Bernadette. Richard puffed out his chest and stepped into the sitting room determined to help his sister in her time of need.
“Are you okay?” Richard asked as he put his tiny arm around her.
“I’m okay Richard. Thank you.”
Just then both children turned to see their mom in the doorway. “What are you two doing in here?” She asked.
Richard stammered, “Bernadette was crying…and I wanted to help her.”
“Okay, well that explains why you’re here. What about you? She said pointing to Bernadette.
Lowering her head, Bernadette said “No reason. I just had to work on some stuff.”
“Interesting. What exactly did you have to work on that was so important? You know that you two are supposed to be practicing your spelling right now.”
Bernadette turned around and slowly grabbed her father’s watch.
“Ohh, so you had your father’s watch. Why does it look broken?”
“It’s not broken, I fixed it.”
“It looks pretty broken to me. Look here,” she said pointing to the second hand, “it’s not even moving anymore.”
“Yupp. I was fixing it.”
“Now, what would make you think that is any way to fix a watch.”
Looking up at her mother, Bernadette said quietly, “Well… I heard you and Dad talking last night and I was afraid. I know how sick Dad is and you told him that he needs to get better soon because ‘time is running out.’ Bernadette paused. “I stopped time for a little while so that Dad could get better. I fixed it, Momma.”
Bernadette’s mother looked down at her young daughter with tears in her eyes. It was true, their father didn’t have much time left to live. This final treatment was their last hope.
“Bernadette, time can’t stop. We can’t stop time, we can only measure it as it passes by. Not one second of time is our own. That was sweet to try and help your father like that, but I know how you can help him even more.”
“Really?” Both Bernadette and Richard exclaimed. “What can we do!?”
“Go into our bedroom and wake him up with a great big hug. Tell your father how much you love him.”
“Okay!” Both children raced out of the room to wake up their father in a tidal wave of love.
Now it was their mother who sat silently in the sitting room wishing for the same things as her daughter as she held the broken wristwatch in her hands.
