The vanity of telling time

(609 words)



The jeweler squinted through his eye piece magnifying glass and made an off-hand pronouncement.



“This,” he said, “is a very expensive watch.”



Or is it?



Two weeks earlier, this same jeweler had appraised my wife’s companion watch and declared hers junk.



I wish she’d never asked.



Because I enjoyed the watch more when I was certain it was expensive. Believing I was