Williams Watch

William was a strange boy. He was very long and lean with a bald head and a dolls face. It was his 10th birthday and he came bounding downstairs for his present.
"Happy Birthday sunshine" sang his family. Mum, Dad and his sister Marie (who wasn't a nun) all greeted William and handed him his presents. "Wow" he shouted excitedly while tearing the paper away from each and every gift. He was so excited he never actually looked into what each present was, he just loved ripping the paper. The last gift was in a smallish box and contained a smallish watch. "WOW look at that, look at that, that's just ace" he squealed as he put the Casio T260 around his smallish wrist. "It fits perfect, look at it, I'm going to go out and show all my friends".
"What about the rest of your presents William" asked Mum. "Are you not going to look at them first?" she continued. William replied, "No, I love this smallish watch and I don't think I have seen anything betterer in my life". He skidded on his knees along the carpet towards the front door, looked at his watch and smiled, before leaving the house.
"Hey, look what I got for my birthday?" said William proudly to all his friends who were all playing football on the field. "That's ace, I want one" said Lloyd, his best friend. "I do too, I wish it was my birthday" said Anthony, Williams other mate, who looked like a girl. "Well it's mine, so ner" said William, showing them the stopwatch function and the built in light, along with the calculator and alarm clock. Not to mention the anti dandruff strap.
This watch was the most amazing thing that William had ever had. Can you imagine the bestest thing in the whole wide world? Go on, imagine it! Imagine one thing that makes you smile like you have never smiled before. One thing that gives you the happiest feeling and the one thing you could never imagine being without. Well this was Williams 'one thing'. He went to bed with the watch on, he did P.E with his watch on. There was nothing William did without his watch, and he just loved playing with it. He used to cheat in maths and use the calculator on it.
A few months had passed and William still loved his smallish watch just as much as the day he put it on his smallish wrist. He went to P.E class and discovered Mr. Johnson wasn't there to take the class. Instead, there was a replacement teacher called Mr. Duffy. Mr. Johnson was ill, just for the day. Mr. Duffy was a very tall man and towered over William. He leant down sticking his ugly (and I mean ugly) face right into Williams and shouted, "Your late boy! And do you usually wear jewellery in P.E you big girl? Take that watch off and put it in the changing rooms – NOW"
William scurried off to the changing room, almost tripping over his lip. As he took the smallish watch from his wrist, a tear welled in his eye. He went back to P.E class and never once looked nasty Mr. Duffy in the eye.
All the boys returned to the changing room and the first thing William did was run to his locker to get his watch. It was then that William felt like it was the end of the world. Someone had broken into his locker (which admittedly was rather old and easily breakinable) and taken his smallish watch. William sat on the bench in the changing room silently, which was very unusual, as he usually never shut up. He began to cry as he remembered all the good times he had with his Casio T260. He remembered the feeling he had when he first took it out the smallish box. He remembered his friends getting excited about it and how they all wanted one. He remembered how he used to use the light on it, when he was in bed at night reading his favourite book. He remembered cheating in maths by using the calculator, and he remembered watching the time to make sure he was never late for school – or bed. This was the worst day of Williams life. He didn't hear his friends around him asking if he was ok – he was numb and had no feelings.
He went home very sad without his watch and cried to his mum, "Mr. Duffy took P.E today and he made me take my watch off and put it in the changing room. I locked it in my locker I did, but a nasty person broke into it and took it" "Oh dear" said mum, "don't you worry William, I will get you another one and make sure you don't have to take it off again". She gave William a hug, but he still didn't feel even better, which is odd as his mums hugs were usually the best medicine of all.
The following day William returned from school, still sad, and was greeted by his smiling mum, who produced a smallish box. Williams eyes lit up as he opened it. There infront of him was a Casio Z240. William smiled, but he never got that same feeling that he had with the Casio T260. "Thanks Mum" he said, as he hugged his mum. She replied, "I'm sorry it's not the same as the last one son, but there wasn't any left. There were only 4 Casio T260s made in the whole world and you happened to have had the 4th one – I'm sorry".
The years went by and William still thought about his very first smallish watch – the Casio T260 that gave him so many fond memories. He wanted to get that feeling back so he used to spend his spare time looking for another watch, which could do just that.
By the age of 26 he had gone through approximately 600 watches, and had spent almost a staggering £52,000, but none had given him the same feeling as a Casio T260. William decided to come to the conclusion, after going bankrupt, that he may have to give up looking for it.
A few more years went by when William met Francis at a discothèque. He told her about his watch, the bankruptcy, and the feeling that he fears he will never ever get again.
The beautiful couple ended up living together in a Tudor style home with 3 cats and a dog with Alopecia, and one day as William was sat in the garden smoking a pipe, the postman turned up with a parcel.
"William Turnstile?" he asked. "That's me" William replied. "Parcel for you, can you sign here please?". William wasn't expecting anything but signed for the parcel. When he opened the bag, he pulled out a very familiar looking smallish box. He let out a broad smile before opening the box, to see there, right infront of his very eager, smiling eyes, a Casio T260.
"Francis!" William shouted, "Francis! Quick, come out here!". Francis came out of the house into the garden and was delighted to see William so happy. "Look what I've got here – it's the Casio T260. This is the smallish watch I had as a child. This is the one I lost, the one that gave me that feeling".
Francis smiled and hugged William. "I've been looking for this exact watch since we met, just so you could feel that happiness you did as a boy. My mum is actually the niece of a watch collector. Sadly he died recently from a pulled hamstring, but my mum found this in his home. When I told her your story she laughed at you and decided you could have this"
After all these years, William didn't think for one minute that he would get that feeling back. That night, when William and Francis were tucked up in bed, William read her a story in the dark, with the light from the smallish watch on. Because William was now a man, he no longer had smallish wrists so the watch no longer fitted, but he didn't mind, he wasn't going to let this one go. Not this time.

(If you enjoyed this story, you may also like Billys Wart & Silver Purse