A Pocket Watch

FICTION A Pocket Watch Huang Chun-ming In the second month after the end of World War II, LittleMing's father, who had been drafted by the Japanese army, came back having survived the fighting in Southeast Asia. He looked just like a beggar; besides fleas and bedbugs he had an old sterling silver pocket watch, which he gave to Grandpa as a present, for itwas the only thing he had. Grandpa was overjoyed. Not only did he love thewatch, but he considered it especially precious: itwas a treasure his son risked his lifetobring back from thehorrificbattlefield faraway. The truth wasn't far from it.The watch was found on the corpse of a young British soldier by a Japanese corporal afterhis squad landed on Singapore. When Little Ming's fatherwas engaged in street combat, he leta Chinese-Singaporean family who also spoke Hoklo escape with their possessions. To repay him, theygave him a ten-pound bill,with which he bought the pocket watch. Itwas the only foreign-made pocket watch in his hometown. The pocket watch had a lid.When closed, it was the size of a smallmoon cake but not as thick. The entire case was engraved with an arabesque of vines, making it look like a valuable antique. When you opened the disk-shaped lid, on the concave back were three lines ofmonogrammed English. The larger,more legible letters spelled the name Simpson. They found that out when they showed it to an English-language teacher in town. What intrigued LittleMing most about the pocket watch was the tinysecond hand. When it went tick-tock,itlooked likeamarching soldier in high spirits inamilitary review. It was even better when he pressed it tohis ear: a soldiermarching in riding boots polished to a high shine. Better still,when he listened with the lid closed, the ticking sounded more remote, reminding him of an entire formationof soldiersmarching in riding boots?shuashuashua! LittleMing often closed the lid and pressed thepocket watch to the earwhile his other armmoved up and down, imitating the marching soldiers. At the beginning LittleMing never tired of listening to thepocket watch. When he asked for it, Grandpa would make a deal with him: he could listen to thepocket watch if he behaved. What did itmean to behave? Of course, itmeant minding Grandpa's words. To put itmore concretely, it meant removing earwax from Grandpa's ears. Grandpa had this bad habit of having his ears cleaned. After Grandma died there was no one to do it.One day when LittleMing was eight years old, Grandpa couldn't stand the itchinganymore, so he took a chance on the boy, asking him to gently remove the earwax. Little Ming thought it would be fun and gave ita try with great care. Pleasantly surprised,Grandpa complimented him on his skilled hands and gave him some change to rent comic books. Since then the job of removing Grandpa's earwax had fallen on Little Ming. The more Little Ming did it, the better a handle he got on the job. He was such a smart worker. During theday he did itoutdoors. In the evening, under the lamp,Grandpa sat on a chair while LittleMing stood on a footstoolbehind him. Grandpa's head was at LittleMing's command: tilt thisway, bend thatway. Itwouldn't do to bend too low or toohigh; it wouldn't do to tilttoo far either. Little Ming nudged Grandpa's head thisway and that,even toldGrandpa, towhom everyone in the family looked up in awe, tohold still the way a barber talked to a young boy. Little Ming derived the greatest sense of accomplish ment fromGrandpa's absolute obedience to his words, frombeginning toend.With amagnifying glass inhis righthand, he would pull Grandpa's ear tightly with his left.Shining the light as far down as possible, hewould use a tinystick, which 281World Literature Today ^SSl^lV^jl^^^^B^S^jl^^^^^^^v^^ special ^^^^^ section Grandpa called "earwax broom," followed by a cotton swab to clean the ear canal. During the process Grandpa always whis pered softly,begging him to go harder or faster with a groan. He was completely at LittleMing's mercy. Once an amateur photographer in

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