Wendy
Copyright© 2018 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 10
Ticking ... listen to it... Ticky ticky tock ... ity tock ... ity tock.
Watches don’t sound like that.
<Sure they do.>
You keep outta this.
“Outta where?” asked Daddy.
I have found ... through the 30 years that Daddy has been Daddy ... that truth is better medicine than laughter. It does not pay extra dividends to crack wise to mon père ... I am not fond of spankings.
So ... I said, “Just answering the voices in my head, Daddy.”
Rather than looking at me like I was nuts, Daddy said, “At least you’re polite.”
That response made it my turn. I looked at him like he was nuts.
“You speak when spoken to. That’s only polite, Wendy,” Daddy said. “Your mother would be proud.” He chuckled.
There was a long pause and then he said, “Tell me. What do they say?”
Instead of replying, I held the watch out, he took it and put it to his ear.
Ticky ticky tock ... ity tock ... ity tock ... tocky tock
“How about that ... Ragtime. That’s a very unusual watch, Wendy. Where did you get it?”
“Remember the meteorite incident?”
“Smashed your glass-topped table?”
“Yes.”
“I gave you my old one.”
“No, Daddy ... you SOLD me your old one.”
He looked at me like he used to when caught fibbing ... me fibbing ... not him. Daddy’s don’t fib ... the stories they tell are ‘for your own good.’
“I have the cancelled check, Daddy.”
“Okay.” He said, “What about it?”
“The watch was stuck in the awning hole.”
“So ... it’s my watch? It was my table.”
“That’s the reason I kept the cancelled check. I just knew you’d try and claim the table again,” I said, “A sale is a sale ... it’s my watch ... it was in the table.”
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