Time takes a toll everyday. Gotta remember to post... For now, here's the latest...
A few days ago, amidst a beer by the sea with some friends, one of them starts telling of what happened to him just before he came to Mozambique.
In one of his last family reunions, his father stars speaking of all the preconceived notions of what is africa. My friend recalls dismissing the remarks, but when his father suddenly slams his hand hard on the table, he got his attention. He says "Son, i wanna see you take this with you and bring it back. It's been with our family since your great grandfather. Try not to lose it."
As he lifts his hand, a beautifull pocket watch stands alone in the table, gathering everybody's attention. The light reflects its antiquity and details. Nothing so perfect ever seemed like this one watch...
His father breaks in tears. The second time his son ever saw him do that.
"Better not take it with me" he later thought. Well, he did brought it. He keeps it in his room here in Maputo. From time to time he looks at it and remembers his family. Who says chains are bad?
A few days ago, amidst a beer by the sea with some friends, one of them starts telling of what happened to him just before he came to Mozambique.
In one of his last family reunions, his father stars speaking of all the preconceived notions of what is africa. My friend recalls dismissing the remarks, but when his father suddenly slams his hand hard on the table, he got his attention. He says "Son, i wanna see you take this with you and bring it back. It's been with our family since your great grandfather. Try not to lose it."
As he lifts his hand, a beautifull pocket watch stands alone in the table, gathering everybody's attention. The light reflects its antiquity and details. Nothing so perfect ever seemed like this one watch...
His father breaks in tears. The second time his son ever saw him do that.
"Better not take it with me" he later thought. Well, he did brought it. He keeps it in his room here in Maputo. From time to time he looks at it and remembers his family. Who says chains are bad?
JC
1 comment:
Hello, little man. Boy, I sure heard a bunch about you. See, I was a good friend of your Daddy's. We were in that Hanoi pit-of-hell over five years together. Hopefully, you'll never have to experience this yourself, but when two men are in a situation like me and your Daddy were, for as long as we were, you take on certain responsibilities of the other. If it had been me, who had not made it, Major Coolidge would be talkin' right now to my son, Jim. But the way it worked out is I'm talkin' to you, Butch. I got somethin' for you.
This watch I got here was first purchased by your great-granddaddy. It was bought during the First World War in a little general store in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was bought by Private Erine Coolidge the day he set sail for Paris. It was your great-granddaddy's war watch, made by the first company to ever make wristwatches. You see, up until then, people just carried pocketwatches. Your great-granddaddy wore that watch every day he was in the war. Then when he had done his duty, he went home to your great-grandmother, took the watch off his wrist and put it an ol' coffee can. And in that can it stayed 'til your grandfather Dane Coolidge was called upon by his country to go overseas and fight again, this time against the Japanese.
This time they called it World War Two. Your great-granddaddy gave it to your granddad for good luck. Unfortunately, Dane's luck wasn't as good as his dad's. Your granddad was a Marine and he was killed at the battle of Wake Island. Your granddad was facing death and he knew it. None of those boys had any illusions about ever leavin' that island alive. So three days before the Japanese took the island, your 22-year-old grandfather asked a crewman on an Air Corps transport plane named Winocki, a man he had never met before in his life, to deliver to his infant son, who he had never seen in the flesh, his gold watch. Three days later, your grandfather was dead. But Winocki kept his word. After the war was over, he paid a visit to your grandmother, delivering to your infant father, his Dad's gold watch. This watch.
This watch was on your Daddy's wrist when his plane was shot down over Hanoi. He was captured and put in a North Vietnamese prison camp. Now he knew if the gooks ever saw the watch it'd be confiscated. Taken away. The way your Daddy looked at it, this watch was your birthright. He'd be damned if any slopeheads were gonna put their greasy yella hands on his boy's birthright. So he hid it, in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass. Five long years he wore this watch, up his ass. Then, just before he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable hunk of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.
Post a Comment