I do not even know if anybody will ever even read this, but I feel like I need to get it all down.

It started when I was 25. I had just gotten home from work, and I got a call from my mom. It seems her brother Bill was dying, and she thought I should know. Bill had long been my favorite uncle, even though I had two others. He was single, never married, and never had kids. But of all his nephews and nieces, I think I was his favorite.

And I did not even hesitate to go. I called my boss at home, and told him I was taking some time off work. He understood when I told him why, and he said to take as much time as I needed. I packed everything up and went to bed for an early start the next morning.

It was an eight-hour drive to where he lived, and I thought of our camping and fishing trips on the way up. Now Uncle Bill was a bit strange, but loved the outdoors just as I did. One summer he even took me to Alaska, where we spent three weeks camping and fishing. The amount of salmon we caught blew my mind, and we were eating it for months afterward.

I drove straight to the hospital, and he looked like hell. He was only 55, but he looked like he was at least 70. Thin, wasted, but he smiled when I came in. It seems he had a rapid onset of pancreatic cancer, and it would not be long. We talked into the evening, and when I said I had to go and get a hotel for the night, he insisted I stay at his house.

“Go ahead, Jack. It’s going to be yours soon anyways. I left it and all the contents to you, so you might as well start thinking about it. Oh, and before you come back tomorrow, open the middle drawer of the jewelry box on the dresser. Bring what you find inside with you, and we will talk about it when you get here.”

I finally let him talk me into staying there, and with the keys in hand I drove to his house. And it was about what you would expect from a physics professor. One of the three bedrooms had been turned into a large office. The walls covered with whiteboards, formula scribbled on all of them. And a computer on the desk, still waiting for him to return and pick up where he left off.

I cooked a frozen dinner, then looked through the house some more. The second bedroom was a library, with everything from Stephen Hawking to Tolkien on the shelves. And Bullfinch’s Mythology as well as five different versions of the Bible, and the Asimov commentary on them.

I went ahead and stripped and remade the bed, but before I crawled in I went to his dresser. Inside the middle drawer of the jewelry box was a watch. It was a railroad watch, something I only knew because of Uncle Bill. He was fascinated with time, as well as watches. And I had already looked at the framed watches that seem to fill the house.

His one real passion, watches. And the first time I remember calling one a pocket watch, he quickly corrected me. “No, Jack. That is a Hunter-case watch. A railroad watch was almost always open face, like that one next to it. Now some old movies incorrectly show conductors using a watch with a cover like that, and they are even called ‘Railroad Watches’ sometimes, but that is incorrect. It gets the name from fox hunting back in England.”

And over the years, I would see his collection grow each time I visited. And he would proudly show me his latest additions. Once we were out and passed an estate sale, so we went inside. And in the bedroom, there was a box with four watches inside, and he dismissed them almost immediately.

“No, those are all modern reproductions. See how the hinge is at the bottom at 6 o’clock? That is how they are made now, real ones almost always have the hinge at 9 o’clock.” He then picked one up and shook his head. “Also, no fobs. And the case does not open at the bezel or crystal. Real old ones you have to open and use a key to wind them, the key is usually on the fob. These are stem-winding, no more than 100 years old at the most.”

Now this one I knew was authentic, and a Hunter-case watch. I saw it was still running, so I carefully opened the back and wound it. And the time was dead on, as I would expect. I carefully put it back, and after a drink went to bed.

The next morning I had breakfast, and with the watch in my pocket I headed back to the hospital. He smiled when I handed him the watch, and he nodded when I told him I had wound it the night before. “Good, this is a 48-hour chronograph, so remember to wind it every two days at the minimum. And no matter what, never ever let it run down.”

And then, he started to tell me something I found impossible to believe. He said that I should also never try to tamper with the inner workings, no matter what. Something about molecular shielding and chronometric energy that a business major like me could never hope to understand. And as his voice got weaker, he told me that it was a time watch.

“Now the stem is not just for turning the hands. Pull it once, and you will be able to do that just fine. But pull it once, pause, then pull it again and you will see something miraculous happen. But notice how old I am, I will just say that in the last 10 years I likely have aged 20 years. I already wiped my computer, but on the desktop you will find a text file that will explain anything else you need to know.”

And as he talked, he seemed to be winding down, like an old watch. And with a shaky breath, he softly said “I give it to you Jack, that is my ultimate legacy to you.” And with a soft sigh, Uncle Bill was gone.

Well, he apparently had a DNR, because after the alarm went off on the heart monitor the doctor and nurse came running in. They just checked his heart with a stethoscope, turned off the monitor, and pronounced him dead. I had to do some paperwork, as he had also named me as his next of kin, and executor of his estate. Cremation, and his remains scattered in his favorite river which I would do in another week when I got the urn.

I drove back to his (my) house and made all the expected calls. Then, I poured myself another drink and went to his computer. And even though the computer was very new, he had it hooked up to a huge 20-inch monitor. I had not seen one like that in a decade or more, but Uncle Bill always had been a bit eccentric. And after setting the watch on the desk, I started to read the only document on it.

And it had to be a joke, a time watch? In it was quite a description of how it worked, and things to be careful of when using it. He tried to explain how he had made it, but it made no sense to me, not being a physicist.

But the rules seemed fairly straightforward. Never ever let it run down, and never open the case past the crystal or bezel. Pull the stem twice, and all time would freeze in place. I could interact with people and things, but they would not be aware of it unless I made a drastic change. Also, I could not wind up the watch when things were frozen.

It must be a giant joke! I looked at the watch and pulled the stem. I hit the stop, and with a little more tugging it popped out again. And, things seemed to get really quiet. I looked around, and things were normal, just quiet. I looked at the computer screen, what the fuck?

The top half of the screen was bright, as expected. But halfway down there it just stopped, and below was a dim display, that got brighter as I looked down the screen. I pushed in the stem, and suddenly it was normal again. And I could hear the dog next door barking. I pulled the stem once again, and this time the screen was mostly bright, the line almost at the bottom, and from the top down it went from dim to bright.

Just like a photograph of an old tube TV set. I got up and walked around, and saw that all the clocks had stopped. I tried to turn on the TV in the living room, nothing. I opened the front door, and I felt like I had entered the Twilight Zone.

I saw a bird that was coming in for a landing in the front yard, just frozen in the air. And a hundred meters down the road a car approaching, also frozen in place. The light breeze that had been going on was dead, and it was unnaturally quiet. I pushed the stem, and the bird landed, and the car was moving down the road again.

I repeated this three more times, and I’ll be damned if it was not the same every time. Somehow, Uncle Bill really had made a watch that stopped time. I went back in and read the document more carefully. And especially the cautions and warnings at the end.

- Never get it wet. - Never let it wind down. - Feel free to eat in stopped time, or drink. - I would be unable to operate anything electronic in stop time, and mechanical things could be manipulated, but would not change until normal time resumed. - Physics worked as usual. -

Under the last, he said I could still be affected by things like falling, so to not try jumping off of a building. I then remembered the three months that he took up skydiving, and now it made sense why he would take that up at his age. He described stopping a dive, and while he remained suspended in the air, he could do nothing. Something about physics and laws of motion. If he was moving through the air when activated he stayed in place. But if frozen he could make changes.

Like when after popping the parachute once he stopped time, and froze in place. But his motions started to affect the parachute and he looked up and saw it was collapsing. He started time again and it cully collapsed. He was barely able to get rid of it and use his reserve before he landed. And it was not a thing he ever wanted to repeat.