*This story was written as a personal email. The author gave permission for it to be published as a work of creative writing. The decision to maintain the email details is to have the reader contextualize the narrator’s voice.
From: Preston E. Hall <p…com>
To: “mkawasi” <m…com>
Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011 5:48 AM
Subject: I am amazing
You know, I am quite an amazing guy! I been thinking, when I go to work, I go into the world of the unknown. I have things to fix. Now when things don’t work, someone eventually admits that they don’t know what’s wrong or simply “how it works”. That’s the story of my life. I to know “how it works”.
When I was 6, my father gave me a watch. It was a silver watch with a black leather band. Now that watch was way too big for my arm, but I wore it proudly. Oh how important I felt wearing that watch, dangling on my arm as I rode my tricycle around the house.
My father loved to see me wearing that watch. I wound that watch everyday, whether it needed it or not, but I always felt like it needed it. Oh how I checked that watch and made sure that it was in tip-top condition.
Then one day, which could not have been more than three days mind you, I noticed that the second hand was not matching the second hand of the master clock in the kitchen. Now something is amiss! I could not have that second hand of my watch not match the kitchen clock.
Now, somehow I knew that it needed adjusting, maybe because I noticed our table clock had a +/- adjustment on the back. You have to understand that I didn’t miss a thing, if it was in my house, I thoroughly checked it out.
Anyway I had to fix my watch. I was not interested in asking anyone for help in fixing that watch. That Task was for me. It was so natural for me to take the responsibly of fixing that problem, even though I knew it wasn’t really broken. It was my job to know and learn how it works!
Well I figure out how to get the back off of the watch. You know, that later became a natural talent of mine, I could open up anything, nothing was child-proof to me.
Wow! What a treasure inside that watch, that round disk spinning back and forth with that tiny spiral spring getting tight and loose, tight and loose, tight and loose. Wow!
I remember seeing a tiny jewel in the center of the spring, which I later learned was a ruby. You see rubies were used for bearings in watches, wow, so cool. I was in my world. I saw the +/- adjuster level around the spring and moved it.
I had tools. I had paper clips, needles and pins since my mom was a seamstress, she had a box of neat stuff for me to use. Wow, now I had a job. It was to get that second hand in step with the kitchen clock.
Hmm… Now, I’ve got to tell you that I never stopped adjusting that watch.
Then one day, which I don’t think could have been more than a week, I tinkered with that spring again. Cool! I knew it was fragile, but I just had to touch it. I done did it now! I pulled it too hard and it didn’t want to go back. “Damn”, or whatever a 6 year old kid would say. No need in fooling around. I put the back back on that watch and continue to wear it as proudly as day one.
Then I started to worry. My dad really hoped that I would take care of that watch. One day he noticed that it had the wrong time. It wasn’t ticking. It was broken! He was pissed! He said he would never give me another watch, which I don’t think he did.
Well it was a fine watch, but it was a machine to me. Sometimes I wonder if he knew how much I love to get into stuff. Strange, I remember my mom telling me what my 1st grade teacher, Ms. Gordon, told her, “he has the mind of a scientist”. I can’t figure out how she knew, when we were just playing with crayons and water paint… and then there was the telephone…
So Baby, I am amazing. I am not done. I am a natural. I fix things. I know how things work.
And so do you, and I love you.
Look out for us!!!
