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.”

I held out my hand. As soon as I had possession again I said... “Broken it’s worth eighteen thousand seven hundred seventy seven dollars. I have no idea what it’s worth working.”

“Gawd! I’m glad I wasn’t drinking anything.” He said, “I’d have blown chunks for sure.

“Now,” he said, “What about the flicker?”

“What flicker?”

“Just as you were setting Mr. Babcock on his ass, you flickered.”

<That’s a problem the watches have.>

“There’s more than one?” That was a question to “THEM.” But daddy missed the inflection at the end.

So ... I explained where ... as far as I knew ... the watch took me. Daddy looked perturbed.

Me too.

“You squeezed it?” He asked, “and it started working?” That wasn’t really a question ... but yeah.

“How did you get back?”

“Squeezed it again.”

<Oh really?> The voices said, <May we see it?>

“Daddy? It’s going to get weird. Trust me on this.”

I held it out in the palm of my hand ... it disappeared.

Then it was back.

<Not one of ours.>

“Conferring with the Voices, Daddy.” I said, “Don’t pay any any attention...” Yeah ... like that was going to work ... Daddy ... remember. Daddy’s are like that.

So ... I asked... “Not one of yours?” No sense keeping it silent ... Daddy would cross-examine.

<Nope.>

There was a communal buzz.

“How do you know?”

<Well ... first off ... it’s not a Breguet. It’s a copy ... and it’s Russian. Very well made. But it’s a fake. The consensus is it’s a Vlad. He had the skill.>

I’m nodding my head and conveying the voices to Daddy.

“How did I get it?”

<Remember the airport?>