“Time” by Rebeca Mae
My father wears time the same way he wears his religion: wrapped around his vocal cords prepared for any opportunity to let anyone know the truth. We have this joke, my family and I, about how my father is the keeper of all time. The sun does not set unless his watch says so. The watch was a present from my mother when they had their first child, so he could keep track of how fast things would start to fly by him now. But he was always counting up to something or down to something, and you can’t rush an elephant on a tightrope. You can’t blame him either though he used to say there’s no need for Imagination when the world is already so big. And by the time I was old enough to refute this, he started saying things like, “Let’s start thinking about your future” “Gotta get ready for tomorrow before it’s too late.” and I never understood where the deadline was. Never understood what the hurry was for. It always seemed such a waste of time, to keep track of the time. Although he never missed a birthday, never missed one of those second thought holidays, never missed sunday sacrament, never missed a beautiful day. You see we had this joke my family and I about how my father was the keeper of all time, which is why I laughed when the doctor said six months. See this doctor obviously did not understand that the watch decides when it’s time to go and nothing can change this. See if I set the watch two minutes, everything else would fall apart. The moon would stay right two minutes, the birds would fly south two minutes too late. Simultaneously, death would grow behind schedule. I set his watch back seven hundred and eighty times, to make more of him. Eleven fifteen a.m. He’s pushing Gabby on a swingset. He is trying to teach her how to push and it’s a beautiful day. I am not helping my father to the car again. I am not driving him to the hospital again. And I am not watching him read his bible again and again to make more. Three forty two p.m. We’re talking about how old I’m getting. He’s mentioning my new tattoo. I notice there is something stuck in his tooth. Goddamn. It’s a beautiful day. I’m not sitting beside my father’s death bed watching god commit slow murder. I am not questioning the amount of times my father praised each day. There is more than a enough evidence to prove god is a felon. I gave my father one hundred and eighty days back the watch became his crucifix. Started saying things like “Dad, It’s May fourth remember?” We are not here right now. We’re home in our beds, and you still have six whole months left. Goddamn. It’s a beautiful day.









