I Will Keep You Alive

Not a day goes by that I don't wear it, otherwise I would feel incomplete and lost. First of all, who wouldn't be lost without a watch? Our entire world depends on time, but most of all, it's because this watch is even more precious than time. It belonged to my grandmother, may her soul rest in peace.

After I shower, it wraps itself back around my wrist, a mutual attachment was created since the first day it touched my skin. It fit in perfectly. Since my sweet grandmother locked it around my wrist, I feel her touch through it everytime I put it on, and it reminds me of the day she lay on her bed, sick as can be, but more beautiful than anyone I will ever see. Her closed hand reached out to me and as it opened, a bright golden light caught my eyes and later on caught my heart forever. She held the golden watch that became, from that moment, my memory of sixteen years of love and tendreness that she offered me.

The ticks resonated like her heartbeats when she affectionately patted my head lying on her chest. I would stare at this piece of art, watch the seconds go by through its shiny screen, and wish I could have stoped them the last time she smiled at me. The beads on the face of my priceless watch sparkle like crystals when I move my arm and the sound of their twinkling familiarly echoes in my head like the heavenly laugh of the most joyful person I have ever known.

Sometimes the old lock breaks and the golden watch falls off my wrist, and the sound of it landing brutally the floor, the fear of it breaking and the sudden emptiness that invades me entirely send me back to the gloomiest day of my life: the day we lost her. Never will I give up on that lock, as she never gave up on me; therefore, fixing it is my only hope to keep her as close to me as I can.

I make sure to keep it away from water, just like I always tried to keep tears away from that angelical face that, the last time I saw, still looked divinely beautiful.

"You might be gone, but I carry you...