The Story Of A Classic Swiss Pocket Watch

Principal Father Percy Pereira was shouting at a kid non-stop.

“Why are doing homework in the class.” Don’t you have time at home? Call your parents tomorrow. I need to talk to them. If they are too busy to come, you too stay at home. Don’t come to school tomorrow. You are an unnecessary problem in the class.”

Father Pereira droned on and on. No he didn’t use a cane. His verbal assault was equivalent to a cane.

Another father friend, who was in close proximity, heard Father Pereira going mad at the boy.

Father Sam Walters, his friend, confronted him during the recess hours.“How could you yell so much, at such a lil’ thing, gosh dang it.” 

“I know I had overdone it. Sorry, if I had disturbed your class. But, don’t you think kids these days are too much to handle. By the way, I inherited this explosive behavior from my granddad from my father’s side,” saying this Father Pereira held the photo out.

My grandpa, Mr. Collins was known for two things a] explosive nature. B] love for his goddam golden dial Swiss pocket watch. 

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One fine day, the decrepit man had roared in his loudest voice.  “Who the hell, touched my watch?”

Though his shouting was not utterly out of character, the maid of our house, crouched and cowered behind the bedroom wall.

“Oh! Stop it Dad! Stop it! hollered my father condescendingly from the other end of the living room. She had simply stroked the golden dialed antique pocket watch, clean.”

My parents, had often witnessed my granddad’s eccentric behavior, but had simply failed to see how dusting an old watch could make him go so freaking wild.

Mr.Collin had taken a huge offense to it, although. And to punish us, though for no fault of ours, he would stage psychotic attacks and would bring the entire house down. (Couldn’t be otherwise, what with this vain gloriousness.)  

The antique watch was off-limits for the household members, much less the maid. The unwritten contract between Mr. Collins and the family members read: No one, in fact, no one should touch his super sacred watch, much less clean it. Awfully, the maid being new, was unaware of this dictum.

“The fault lies at dad’s end, “my father reiterated.  

But my granddad gave two hoots to what my dad said and yelled at the maximum decimal point possible by him. “Keep that hideous, grim reaper of a maid out-of-my-sight and out-of-my-room. I don’t want to see her anymore.”

Since the death of his wife, Mr.Collins had allowed the maid to take care of all his personal chores. From washing his clothes and ironing them, to cleaning his room, and preparing breakfast, and lunch and dinner for him…anything and everything that made his earthly existence a little easier. In return for her services, the maid was paid a handsome sum. However, he had failed to inform her about the most treasured aspect of his life: the love for his holy watch and the sacrosanctity associated with it. 

The beautiful antique chain watch was his father’s gift to him on his 15^th birthday. So, you see, it was pretty old, and he had precious memories attached to it.

Now with 60^st birthday looming round the corner, he knew it was that time of the year when every mean and the most mannered people in the family would flood the house to wish him. But most of all, he was dying to see his 1-year-old grandson Percy. Both Percy and Mr.Collin shared the same birthday date, August 28th, so they would, in all probability, share the stage together as well.

Now, what would he gift his lovely grandson on his birthday, was the big question, hovering on his mind.

Toys…a mind-blogging number he possessed.

What Next?

Dresses…uncountable numbers.

What Next?

Shoes…infinite

What Next?

Games…his cupboard was almost overflowing with those.

What Next?

Watch…but what kinds? The cartoon ones?

In re, I had been staring at his pocket watch quite often. And, fortunately or unfortunately, my grandpa had caught sight of that.

So, he made up his mind: to gift his precious watch to his loving grandson. “He deserves it more than anyone else in my family and he’d take it care it, like he takes care of his superhero toys,” he bellowed.

So, my grandpa made a big announcement on the day of his birthday about parting away with his watch. The new owner would be his grandson.  There were oohs- ahhs all over the place. Many had set their eyes on the watch. But the watch, from that day belonged to me alone, the little Percy Pereira. (His children who always saw Hitler in their father, failed to understand his unadulterated love for me, his grandson)

I, in my cute ba-ba-ba-ba-ba style took hold of the watch. And within next few seconds, I banged it on the floor. The dial sliced into several pieces. The old man didn’t know how to react. He simply stood there stunned. My father stood aghast, waiting for all hell to break lose.

Then out of the blue grandpa pronounced:

“Huzzah! Percy Huzzah!!! You’ve done the inevitable.

Then he came towards me and took me in his arms lovingly and said.

“Oh My God! Oh My God! What a strong boy you are growing up to be. You broke my watch.”

“Can you imagine? He broke my watch. He actually broke my watch. Can’t believe it though.” He spoke cloyingly to the people present.

Saying this, he took me in full embrace.