The table had been reserved for two, although three menus were delivered. The waiter set them down without comment, a sign either of excellent training or prior experience. Across the darkening Gulf of Thailand, fishing boats began to appear as pinpricks of light. At the edge of the terrace, a ceiling fan clicked every fourth revolution.
Dr. Helen Waite arrived seven minutes early. Viktor was already seated. This told Helen almost everything she needed to know.
“You have a problem,” she said, before ordering.
“I have a watch.”
“Yes. That is usually how the problem begins.”
Academic matters
Helen carried a narrow leather portfolio with the embossed seal of Royal Pattaya Watch University. Viktor had been invited to speak at a symposium on mechanical time, human memory, and what the program tactfully referred to as “contemporary valuation practices.” He had delivered his lecture without notes. The official minutes recorded an unauthorized fifteen-minute digression about railway stations and the ethics of polishing brass.
His honorary diploma had been signed and stamped, but the university had sent it to an address in Vienna last occupied by a tax consultant. Helen was not amused. Viktor was delighted. “Now it has a journey,” he told her.
Royal Pattaya's most famous administrative innovation was its requirement that refund requests be directed to Dr. Waite personally. No committee had ever managed to improve upon this approach. Viktor admired the economy of the system. Helen considered the admiration unhelpful.
The watch on the table
Viktor removed a small mechanical wristwatch from a cloth pouch and placed it between them. Nothing about it was extraordinary. The seconds hand swept around with a slight unevenness common to movements overdue for attention, and the crystal had a shallow scratch near four o'clock.
“Why keep it?” Helen asked.
“Because someone did.”
“That is not a reason.”
“It is where reasons begin.”
They argued over dinner. He maintained that the value of a mechanical object is partly an agreement between strangers across time. She observed that agreements require invoices, terms, and frequently a signature. Both were correct, which meant neither could be satisfied.
At the end of the meal Helen returned the diploma to its folder. Viktor, for once, accepted it without a remark. They stood beneath the restaurant's amber lamps while a warm wind carried the smell of salt water and grilled fish through the terrace.
“Are you going back to Europe?” she asked.
“Eventually.”
“Delaware?”
“Possibly.”
“You could answer a single question normally.”
Viktor thought about this. “Yes,” he said.
Helen took the third, untouched menu home. It had several handwritten corrections in the margin and, on its reverse, an unfamiliar watch reference. She filed it under Outstanding Administrative Questions, where it remains.
This is an original fictional story set in the Barrel & Coil character universe. Royal Pattaya Watch University and its faculty are fictional.
