Tim looked at the watch, wondering what he did wrong when the hands still pointed to 12. He turned around to reenter the shop, but couldn't see it. He hadn't gone more than a block since leaving, he was pretty sure, but maybe he needed to find a compass too. And the watch still wasn't set right.
"Maybe it needs a fresh battery?"
Tim figured he could look into that at his other job, working nights at the local convenience store. It wasn't quite as stressful as the restaurant, but the owner really insisted he never be a minute late or look at all distracted. He decided to head in early and have a look around for a watch battery, off the clock.
When he arrived, he was shocked to see the same old man from the antique store standing behind the counter, wearing the store uniform. "Wait, what are you doing here?" he asked.
The old man glared back. "What do you mean, what am I doing here? I'm still on shift until you start at 7. How have you been working here this long and still not worked out your schedule?"
Tim scratched his head. He could have sworn his sworn Mr. Patel was running things himself this time of day, and this guy didn't look like he needed two jobs. He shrugged, looking for the watch batteries. Before checking out with them, he realized he should check if they were the right size. So he flipped over the watch looking for a battery cover... and didn't find one. The back was totally smooth. Confused, he looked around for someone who might be able to help. There was an older man at the back checking out magazines who seemed to have a pretty nice watch, so he asked him.
"No son, that's digital watches. This is a proper watch, you just need to wind it."
Sheepishly, Tim nodded, fiddling again with it, and once again he managed to press the swap button.
"Figure it out yet?" asked a familiar voice.
Tim looked up in surprise to see Mr. Patel, standing right where the man he'd asked for help had been, and wearing the same outfit. Wait... had the watch done something? Keeping his eye on Mr. Patel, he hit the button again, and saw the customer suddenly take his place. Blinking, he pressed it a couple more times to be sure, and sure enough, he flipped back and forth between the customer and Mr. Patel.
Mr. Patel shook his head at the confused looking Tim, paid for his magazine, and left.
Tim considered what this meant. If the watch swapped people around like that, was that why the old man from the store was acting like Mr. Patel? And Mr. Patel was acting like that customer. Wait, did they trade everything in their lives? Mr. Patel was married, right? So was this old guy from the antique store just going to go home to Mrs. Patel? How was she going to react to that? And what determined who it was that changed? He glanced in one of the security mirrors to make sure he was still himself. Nothing weird there. He hit the button one more time hoping that would fix things.
Suddenly, Tim was in a grocery store, pushing a grocery cart. He looked around in shock, and noticed he didn't have the watch anymore. And for some reason he was wearing some kind of dress?