Gold watch Blues

Horror Flash Fiction

Shaun stared at the gold watch that lay in the palm of his wrinkled, arthritic hand. The sound of half-hearted applause echoing around the small office, smells of BO and stale coffee lingering in the still air.

His boss smiles but the smile doesn’t reach his eyes as he looks down at Shaun, clamping a large hand on his frail shoulder.

Fifty years of service, the best years of his life, condensed into this gold plated watch.

He had worked late most nights. Worked weekends to get the work done and missed close family events, while his boss played golf.

He had had so many arguments with his wife, he’d lost count.

In time the fighting stopped as his wife ran away with the next door neighbor.

‘You were never at home,’ she said, slamming the front door behind her.

Now he was retiring, pushed out rather than going of his own free will. His old bones replaced by a shiny new computer and AI system who could do it 10 x faster with zero personality.

Looking from the blank face of the watch into the equally blank faces of his soon to be ex colleagues, Shaun realised all those years were for nought and all he had to show for his blood and sweat was this gold watch, that looked like it had come from Temu and knowing his boss probably had.

Shaun knew it was too late to turn back the clock and he smiled grimly, gripping the watch tightly, ignoring the pain in his hand and heart.

Jason Duck 2026.

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