“No man is good enough to be another’s master”

-William Morris

    The sun rose as it always does and soft light streamed through the cracks in the curtains. Tommy arose and wiped the sleep from his eyes. The digital clock next to his bed said 7:30 AM which confused him since Lisa was already out of bed. Tommy felt something constricting his wrist. To his surprise a fancy digital watch was wrapped around it.

    “I wonder how that got there,” he chuckled

He knew it was Lisa’s surprise for his birthday. Tommy looked at the watch again. It was silver with one button at the top. The numbers within the screen flashed in intervals like a beating heart. The watch seemed to be stuck on countdown mode since it was counting down from 4 hours. He pushed the top button only to find out that the top button made it glow for visibility in the dark.

    Tommy looked quizzically at the watch, “Huh, I’ll have to ask her for the manual later.”

Opening the door Tommy was greeted by a waft of the smell of “cooking”, which was actually the smell of burning but he knew better than to say that. He sneaked into the kitchen to see what he was going to experience. Lisa had made her signature “burnt pancake alla tons of maple syrup”. Lisa had just finished the second pancake and was setting up the table with a glass of orange juice when he stepped in.

    “Happy birthday!” Lisa sang with a grin as she embraced him.

    “Aw babe, thank you, you’re the best.”

    “Yeah, I know. Well eat up! Ya gotta go to work soon and I didn’t slave away over this hot stove all morning for you to not eat,” she said still smiling.

   Tommy sat down and dug in his first bite as Lisa watched intensely. He knew Lisa was assessing her cooking via his face so he made sure to control his movements carefully.

    “So, is it good?”

    Tommy took another bite and swallowed. “It’s better than last time you made pancakes.”

    “I was hoping you’d say that! I added an egg to the batter this time. Makes them fluffier.”

Tommy finished his orange juice and started to clean up.

    “No no no, I got this. You go to work. You’ll be late if you don’t.” Lisa said interrupting his washing.

    “Ok ok, thanks hun, have a good day.”

    Tommy opened the door halfway then stopped. “Oh and thanks for the watch.”

    “Oh haha” Lisa said rolling her eyes.

Tommy exited the house and walked to his car. The morning air carried the scent of newly dewed grass. He knew Lisa had a scented candle named “Morning Dew”, but it couldn’t hold a light to the real thing. The candle was too strong in Tommy’s opinion. Opening the Subaru, he was hit with the stench of uneaten pizza. It wasn’t particularly bad because he liked the smell of pizza, and the night was cold enough to partially refrigerate it, so nothing undesirable had grown. Tommy got in the car and drove to work. The Port Townsend Marine Science Center wasn’t too far from his house. If Tommy wanted to walk there he could, but usually he didn’t. Tommy parked the car in a parking lot near a boat ramp and headed off to the pier. The cracks in the pier were so uneven that a sign had to be put there to warn travelers to watch their step. Tommy clearly remembered the time he chipped his tooth by running on this pier as a child, he never ran on it again. Tommy finally reached the side door to the Marine Science Center.

    “Damnit, why did my birthday have to be on a Monday of all days.”

Tommy sighed and opened the door. Inside was the rehabilitative tanks, the food storage area, and a young adult. The boy, no more than 17 years old was sitting on a chair reading a Motocross Action magazine.

    “Did you clean the touch tanks,” Tommy asked, already guessing the answer.

    “I mopped.”

After a brief pause of Tommy thinking about how much a lazy piece of shit this kid was he angrily announced, “Well I guess I have to do it myself then.”

    “I can-“

    “No no no its ok, you just sit there and enjoy the magazine.”

It wasn’t Tommy’s job to clean the touch tanks in the next room, but if he was going to open soon he would have to get it done fast. The Port Townsend Marine Science Center was run by volunteers with different duties and positions. Tommy was the director of the marine exhibit, while Peter is supposedly a cleaner and feeder. Supposedly. For lack of better words, Peter was a fucking loser. Tommy had to constantly watch Peter throughout the day to make sure he worked during his volunteer hours. And to make sure he didn’t steal an octopus or some shit like that. The only reason why Tommy allowed Peter to continue volunteering was because the PTMSC got paid by the state through a work program to allow Peter to work. Which is also why Peter put the minimal effort does into his work, because he got paid by the hour by the state to “volunteer”.

    Tommy looked at his watch “oh right it’s still on countdown mode.”

Tommy looked up at the clock above the visitor entrance. He had 45 minutes to clean the tanks and feed the various biota before the visitors were allowed in. His watch said was currently counting down from 25 minutes and 16 seconds. Tommy decided to try to beat that time in cleaning. He grabbed a long clear tube and put it in the first touch tank. He walked to a hole in the floor that lead to the water and dropped down to his knees next to it. Sucking on the tube to siphon the water he finally got enough of a flow to sustain itself. The put the other end of the tube in the hole. Starting with the Seastar Tank he siphoned all the detritus from the tank and proceeded to the next tank. Tommy cleaned all the touch tanks with 1 minute to spare on his wrist watch. Going to the first of non-touch tanks, a 20-gallon tank full of Grunt Sculpins, Tommy began to clean. A sharp electric pain shot from his wrist to his heart, gaining a momentum of agony on the way. Tommy shrieked and grabbed his wrist.

    “It’s the watch. It’s that fucking watch!”

Tommy tried to rip the watch off but it just clung his skin. He was in so much torment he could barely speak except for in a crying yell. He began to bang his wrist against anything he could find trying to break the device.

   “Peter! Help me!” he cried.

The watch was counting down from 34 seconds at this point. Peter entered the room with a lazy walk. Upon seeing Tommy writhing on the floor his stride became quicker.

    “Dude what happened?”

    “Peter, get the watch off me, please for gods sake!”

27 seconds.

Peter turned Tommy over and looked around.

    “I don’t see it man!”

20 seconds.

Tommy managed to lift his right hand with the watch on it.

    “Take it off!” he yelled hysterically.

15 seconds.

Peter looked stunned.

    “Dude there’s nothing there!” frantically Peter yelled back.

11 seconds.

    Outranged at this point Tommy screamed “You worthless piece of shit, you can’t even take a god damn watch off me! No wonder your dad left you, you useless sack of human refuse!”

Peter, obviously offended, with tears in his eyes, left Tommy.

    Tommy stood up and yelled “Good riddance!”

At this point he realized the pain had stopped completely.

24 hours 2 seconds.