Spirits and Demons

Silver Pocketwatch

                                                                              Part Three

  The past year in James Michael's young life had been a traumatic whirlwind to say the least. Health declining and weak, he was far too young to relate to anyone exactly how he was feeling. Immediately following the accident that had put him in the school nurse's infirmary, his teachers were alerted to report any unusual signs they may observe. Playing with his schoolmates during recess, he was observed running far behind them, trying to keep up with their fast running pace yet he wasn't physically able to keep up. His teacher approached him, taking him directly to the office and the principal called his mother and the nurse in for a meeting about his condition. The principal asked James Michael if he was feeling pain anywhere in his body as to the reason he couldn't keep up pace with the other children. James Michael responded that his legs hurt him often, besides being short winded and out of breath when he'd run with the other children. Virginia related to the principal that James Michael would be taken out of school indefinitely since she'd made an appointment to take him to the Children's Heart Hospital in Dallas, Texas for an indefinite stay whilst the heart specialists would attempt to diagnose his condition.

  The following weekend everyone in the family came by to visit James Michael before he was to go to the Children's Heart Hospital on the upcoming Monday. His step granddad, Henry Richard Russ III gave his pocketwatch to James Michael. It was quite a treasure with the silver catch chain dangling from it. James Michael's eyes lit up bright since he'd never owned anything quite like it. After everyone had left, James Michael noticed the silver biscuit pocketwatch didn't keep perfect time so he pulled the stem and wound it tight. Still the pocketwatch would lose time, perhaps five minutes on the hour. Each hour he'd wind it tight again in hopes it would keep accurate time, but it kept losing time no matter how many times he wound it. Eventually it broke and wouldn't keep time anymore from being wound too tight. A dark mood came over James Michael since he treasured the unique, silver pocketwatch. He went into an uncontrollable rage, his face went from calm to a deep, dark red whilst he looked up and started blaspheming God. Goddamn you God! Fuck you God! You're no good God! You're not real! Over and over James Michael kept muttering these phrases, first silently then louder and louder until his brothers were afraid to enter the bedroom they shared with him. In tears he threw the silver pocketwatch against the wall hard as he could and beating on it with anything he could get his hands on until finally the crystal face cracked. In the meantime his brothers ran to tell their mother about his strange rage. Soon Virginia came to see what all the yelling was about and when she realized what was happening, she tried to hold and comfort James Michael. He didn't want to be comforted, he only wanted his silver pocketwatch to work. After a while his mother left him to himself once she saw he'd calmed down somewhat. His brothers were quite jealous since he'd received the rare silver pocketwatch and they'd received merely some money from their granddad. They didn't understand the unigue gift James Michael received was because no one knew if he'd live to even see next week. Ricky asked if he could hold the silver pocketwatch. James Michael told him he could have it if he wanted it but that it's broken.