Wrist Watch

[kevjohn]

Jake is struggling through a Grand Central Station, in New York City with two huge and obviously heavy suitcases when a stranger walks up to him and asks, "Have you got the time?"

He signs, puts down the suitcases and glances at his wrist. "It's a quarter to six," he said.

"Hey, that's a pretty fancy watch!" exclaims the stranger. Jake brightens a little. "Yeah, it's not bad. Check this out," and he shows the stranger a time zone display, and not just the time zone for the every zone of the world, but the time zones for the 86 largest communities in the world.

He hits a few buttons and from somewhere inside the watch a voice say, "The time is eleven zero six, and the voice is in a West Texas accent. A few more buttons and the voice says something, this time in Japanese." Jake continue, "I've put in regional accents for each day."

The display is unbelievably high quality and the voice is simply astounding. The stranger is truck dumb with admiration. That's not all," says Jake, and he pushed a few more buttons and a tiny but very high-resolution map of New York City appears on the display. "The flashing shows our location by satellite positioning," explains Jake.

"View recede ten," Jake says, and the display changes to show the eastern portion of the city.

"I want to buy this watch!" says the stranger.

"Oh no, it's not for ready for sale yet. I'm still working out the bugs," says Jake, indicating he is the inventor of the watch. "But look at this," he said, proceeding to demonstrate that the watch is also a very creditable little FM radio receiver with a digital tuner, a sonar device that can measure distances up to 125 meters, a pager with thermal paper printout, and most impressive of all, the capacity for voice recording of up to 300 standard-size books. "...though I only have 32 of my favourite in there so far."

"I've got to have that watch," says the stranger.

"No! You don't understand, it's not ready....

"I'll give you $1000 for it," said the stranger reaching for his wallet.

"Oh no," said Jake, shaking his head. "I've already spent more than that on this."

"I'll give you $5000," said the stranger, pulling five paper bills from his wallet.

"But it's just not..."

"Okay," said the stranger, "I'll give you $15,000 for it!" as he pushed his wallet back into his coat pocket and pulled out his check book.

Jake stops cold. He knows he only has about $8500 into the material and development, and with the $15000 he can make another one and have it ready for merchandising in only six months.

The stranger finishes writing the check, and waves it in front of Jake. "Here it is, signed and ready to go. $15,000, take it or leave it."

Jake abruptly makes his decision, and peels the watch off his arm, and the man excitedly gives him the check and grabs at the watch. He turns and walks away from Jake. As he moves away, Jake calls out, "Hey, wait a minute."

The stranger stops, turns and looks warily back. Jake point to the two suitcases he'd been struggling to carry through the station, "Don't forget your batteries."