Pieces of Time Read online

Pieces of Time

  Timothy Paterson

  Copyright 2011

  The cover image for this book has been provided royalty free by ©Pavel44 at Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

  As Michelle Browning walked through downtown Boston, She stumbled upon a quaint little antique shop. She had walked right past it before she realized what it was. “Maybe, I can find something for Grandpa, here,” she thought. “He likes old things, and since he attended Harvard almost sixty years ago, maybe I can find some memorabilia from his college days.”

  Michelle was a sophomore at Harvard University, majoring in Business. She was the third generation in her family to attend Harvard. Her grandfather graduated from there in 1952, and her father graduated in 1982. Her father and grandfather were partners in an accounting firm in Denver, Colorado, where Michelle planned to return to after graduation.

  As Michelle slowly walked around the shop, all of the antiques fascinated her. She saw many old and beautiful items, but nothing that would be right for her grandfather. As she was about to exit the store, she glimpsed something out of the corner of her eye. It was hiding in the shadows in the back of a small glass case.

  “Could I please see that pocket watch?” she asked the proprietor. The gentleman unlocked the case and carefully picked up the old pocket watch. As he handed it to Michelle, he told her that the watch had been hand crafted in Europe in the 19th century.

  The price was a little steep, but Michelle knew that her grandfather would love it, so she purchased it. The shop owner carefully wrapped the watch in a soft cloth, then in a sheet of tissue paper, before placing it in a bag.

  Michelle took the watch back to her dorm room, and placed it in a drawer for safekeeping, before going to the library to meet some friends for a study session.

  Michelle forgot all about the watch until a few weeks later. It was a cold rainy day, and Michelle was bored sitting around her dorm room. As she began to straighten he things, she found the bag with the pocket watch. She carefully unwrapped the watch, and sat at her desk, to examine the watch more closely under the light. It was silver in color, though slightly tarnished with age. There was fancy design on the cover of the watch. On the back, she noticed the initials; JPS etched into the watch, though she could barely make them out, since the lettering was fairly worn.

  “I wonder if it still keeps time?” thought Michelle, as she set it to the correct time. Then, she began to wind it. As the second hand began to move, something strange happened, something very strange indeed. Michelle heard a man’s voice speaking. The voice startled her and she dropped the watch on the bed. As soon as the watch fell from Michelle’s hand, the voice stopped speaking. Michelle was a little freaked out, but she was also very curious. She slowly picked the watch back up, and she immediately heard the voice again. The voice was that of an older man with a thick Irish accent. Michelle spoke to the voice, but the voice did not respond to her voice.

  As Michelle began to listen, she learned that the voice belonged to a man named John Patrick Sullivan. It seemed to Michelle, that the watch had recorded John’s thoughts and words. As she continued listening, Michelle learned that the man had never learned to read and write as a child and he wanted to record his life story for his granddaughter. He knew that his time on earth was coming to a close, and he might even die before she reached adulthood.

  Acting on impulse, Michelle grabbed a spiral notebook and a pen and began writing down everything that she heard the voice say. At first, the voice told about his early years and about his life in Ireland. Then, beginning with the birth of his granddaughter, Michelle found herself writing journal entries, beginning in 1929.

  Michelle discovered that when she put the watch down on the desk, the voice stopped and when she picked it back up, the voice continued from where he stopped before. Michelle realized that she was the only person who could hear the voice. She told no one, because she did not want people to think that she was crazy. Over the next several months, whenever Michelle had some free time, she continued writing in the notebooks. By the time the voice stopped, Michelle had filled over forty notebooks with John’s thoughts feelings, and his love for his granddaughter. Michelle was fascinated by John’s life story.

  John’s Story

  John Patrick Sullivan was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1855. He was the third of nine children. His family was very poor and he realized that there was nothing for him in Ireland. He decided to go to America, to seek his fortune. Therefore, in 1870, at the age of fifteen, he traveled across the ocean to the United States. He arrived in Boston Harbor with all of his possessions fitting into one burlap bag. Besides a few articles of clothing, the only items he possessed were an old family bible that his mother gave to him and a pocket watch that had belonged to his father.

  John began working as a servant for a wealthy family. He began saving as much of his meager wages as he could. By the age of twenty-five, he had saved enough money to go into business for himself. He opened a small hardware store. He worked hard, and his business gradually flourished.

  In 1900, when John was forty-five years old, he met a young lady named Sarah Travers, who had just arrived from Ireland. She was twenty years younger than John was, but they soon fell passionately in love with each other. They married in 1902, and in 1904, they were blessed with a daughter, their only child, whom they named Sophie. Sophie grew up to be a beautiful young woman.

  In 1927, Sophie met a young man named Daniel Wolfe, the son of a wealthy banker in Boston. Sophie and Daniel fell in love, and in late 1928, they were married. Daniel was vice president in his father’s bank, and he made a nice home for his new bride. Three months after the wedding, Sophie gave him the good news that she was expecting a baby.

  John and Sarah were overjoyed when they were given the news that a grandchild was on the way. The baby was due in December of 1929.

  John, however, was soon stricken with tragedy. In May of 1929, his wife Sarah died, at the age of fifty-three, cause unknown. His luck kept getting worse. In October of 1929, the Stock Market crashed. Daniel had invested many of the bank’s assets in the Stock market. When the bank collapsed, Daniel and his family lost a fortune. Daniel personally lost over one hundred thousand dollars, leaving him bankrupt. His father was so furious with Daniel, that he disowned him.

  Daniel became so despondent that he went home and decided to end his life. He blew out the pilot light from the stove, turned the gas on full blast, and put his head in the oven. He inhaled deeply until he passed out.

  When Sophie returned home, she found her husband’s lifeless body. She became so distraught, that she went into premature labor. A neighbor heard the commotion at her house, and after turning off the gas, he called the police and then drove Sophie to the hospital.

  Two hours later, Sophie gave birth to a baby girl. She was so tiny, but she was a fighter and survived. Sophie, however, was not as lucky. She soon died from internal bleeding. With both of the infant’s parents deceased, the hospital tried to locate other relatives of the baby girl. Daniel’s family was ashamed at how Daniel had ruined them financially, and then took his own life. They wanted nothing to do with a baby who would constantly remind them of Daniel.

  John was still grieving over the loss of wife, and now he was devastated over the loss of his only daughter. The only family he had left was his infant granddaughter. Even though John was seventy-four years old, he took on the responsibility of raising his granddaughter, whom he named Sophie after her mother.

  Luckily, for John, he had never trusted banks, and kept his money hidden in a secret room in his basement. Almost all of Joh
n’s money was in the form of silver and gold coins, which he stored in fruit canning jars. By watching his expenses, John and Sophie survived the Great Depression. John’s biggest concern was that his finances might not last long enough to see Sophie to adulthood. It was a struggle at times, but John and Sophie’s love for each other kept them going strong.

  When Sophie was fifteen, she fell in love with a college student named Charles Hunter. When she turned seventeen, she and Charles announced their engagement. They planned to be married when Sophie turned eighteen, but John’s health began to deteriorate rapidly. John suggested that Charles and Sophie get married as soon as possible, so that he could die peacefully, knowing that Sophie would be taken care of, after he was gone. Charles and Sophie agreed and they were married two months before Sophie’s eighteenth birthday. John died two weeks later, at the age of ninety-two.

  After Michelle finished putting John’s thoughts down on paper, she felt like she knew him quite well. She felt sad, as she had become extremely close to the old man. In October of 2011, Michelle wrote down the last of John’s thoughts. The last entry was a letter to Sophie from her grandfather, telling her