A Watch in Time – Chapter 12, Part 1

A WATCH IN TIME

A Full Length Short Story by Golden Keyes Parsons


2-7-06 022 Chapter Twelve – Part 1


Click here to start with Chapter One


Afraid to open her eyes, Lily Kate put her hands in front of her face and looked through her fingers. A naked light bulb flickered overhead. She sat in front of a trunk, the album on the dusty wood floor at her feet. She heard rustling on the stair case. “David, is that you?”


He pushed the door open and peered in. “Yep. What are you doing up here?”album2


“I … I, uh … I’m packing this album away … once and for all.” She scrambled to her feet, leaving the book on the floor, leery of touching it.


David stepped in and bending over, picked up the album.


“No! Don’t touch it!”


“Don’t be so jumpy, Sis. I’m not going to hurt it.” He leafed through the pages. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

Her fingers trembling, Lily Kate re-fastened her hair in a plastic clip and sat down in a nearby rickety wooden chair. “More than I bargained for.”


“What d’ya mean?” He closed the album and placed it in the trunk. “Are you still insisting that you visited 1861 Waco, and watched me march off to the Civil War?”


file0001731376547Lily Kate stared at her brother. All the events she had experienced swirled through her mind. Had everything been a crazy hallucinating dream? Did David not recall any of it? She felt around the neckline of her tee shirt. No watch on a chain hanging there. She stood, and leaned over the trunk, searching the lining. Not there either. Goose bumps rose on her arms—her voice barely a whisper, “It was real. We were there, David. Not only during the Civil War, but at the opening of the Cotton Palace, and I met our ancestor.” She clutched his shoulders. “I found out why our heritage was such a mystery, and what mother meant when she said, ‘Watch,’ on her deathbed. The watch held the answer to the secret.”


“What watch? You’re not making any sense.”


She sighed, and returned to her seat, motioning to the chair beside her. “Sit down. I have quite a story to tell.” AntiqueLadiesWatch2She began the unbelievable account with finding the watch in the trunk which revealed clues to their ancestor, Ivy, a prostitute in Waco’s red light district of the day, The Reservation. How the woman brought the baby to the Monroes to be adopted.


How during World War I Lily Kate worked as a nurse at the Red Cross in Waco, met Ivy and was able to help the distraught woman understand God’s forgiveness; about falling in love with the dashing fighter pilot, Clay Cole, and her desire to remain in that century. But how she was catapulted to 1946 into the midst of the Baylor student revival—and surrendered her life to God.


“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait just a minute. You’re telling me that you were really in these different time periods and that I was with you?”


Lily Kate looked at David and shook her head slowly. “I know it sounds crazy, but I swear I was there. It was as real as you are sitting in front of me at this very moment.”


“Sis, no way this could be true. It’s impossible. You simply had an on-going dream that seemed real. I’ve been right here in the 21st century. Haven’t gone anywhere, except to class and rehearsals. Look, I’ll prove it.” He reached into the trunk, and pulled the album out again. “See. No magical vortex back in time.”


Lily Kate held her breath, but sure enough, nothing happened as her brother thumbed through the pages. He stopped at a nurseWW1picture of a young woman in a nurse’s uniform working at the Red Cross headquarters during World War I. He looked closer at it and pointed. “Dang! She looks just like you!”


“I’ve been trying to tell you—”


He shook his head. “—No way! No way!” He swore, and jumped up, sending the chair dancing backwards across the floor.

“You needn’t be angry with me. I can’t explain it.” A sob erupted from her throat, and she buried her face in her hands. “But I know I was there.”


“Aw, don’t cry, Sis. I didn’t mean to upset you.” He awkwardly draped an arm over her shoulders and squeezed. “Whatever happened is real to you, I guess.” He pulled a white handkerchief with a monogrammed “M” on it out of his jeans back pocket and handed to her. “Here, seems you need this more than I do.”


She gasped, and grabbed the hankie. “Where did you get this? You’ve never carried a handkerchief before. This is the same one you handed to me in 1946.”


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Join us next Friday for part 2 of chapter 12.


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Published on July 24, 2015 09:32
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