Bobby almost didn't see the watch as he poked through the junk on the table. It was almost completely hidden in a heavy tangle of cheap plastic jewelry and junky chains - only the chance glimpse of the outer metal case caught his eye.
As he pulled at the clump of necklaces, the flea market vendor shouted over. "You can have the whole box for $2." Bobby started to explain that he was just looking, but just then most of the watch became visible. What the devil? He frowned at it. Old and worn, but it also looked expensive. The woman must have thought he was unhappy with the price, for she waved a hand. "$1, then. I just want to get rid of this junk. There's gotta be something in there worth a dollar to you."
Well, for a dollar, he could hardly go wrong. Fishing out his wallet, Bobby pulled a worn bill out and handed it over. Then he picked up the box and wandered over to a bench so he could finish freeing the curious object.
Yeah, some sort of pocket watch. Very solid, as it accounted for most of the weight. It wasn't working - the hands were not moving. The images on the dial were strange. A horse's lifetime, and then the whole species' evolution. Someone had put a lot of work into this. He blinked - damn, the figures seemed to move - what were they made of?
There didn't seem to be any way to wind the thing. Examining it more closely, he found a couple of buttons on the outer edge. At first, nothing happened when he pressed them. But then the hands suddenly spun around the dial quickly, stopping almost exactly back where they had been before - the image of an adult horse at the 6 position, midway around the lifetime dial images. He chuckled. Pretty close to his own position in life - at 43, he was about mid-point of what he could expect. As he stared, the larger hand made a very tiny movement - backwards. That was different. He didn;t hear any ticking. Maybe it had a battery.
Shrugging, he slipped the pocket watch into his jeans and continued down the flea market isles, leaving the junk jewelry behind. He had spent the better part of two hours looking for anything interesting when he spotted the sign for someone who bought and sold watches. Maybe the guy could tell him something about the odd timepiece.
Bobby headed for the table, fishing in his jeans to pull out the heavy metal object. As he waited for the man to finish talking to a woman ahead of him, Bobby flipped the cover open. The watch was definitely running backwards - the hand that went around the chronology ring was now between the four and the five areas.
"Whatcha got there, young man?" The vendor looked curiously at the pocket watch. Bobby thought 'young man' was going a bit far - the guy couldn't be more than 5 years old than he was.
"Something I picked up at one of the tables - it looks like it's running backwards."
"Backwards?" The man looked disbelieving. "Never saw a watch run backwards. Pocket watch, though. You know, I like stuff like that. I'll swap you a nice wristwatch for it. Got a fancy diver's rig here that would impress the girls - young stud like you shouldn;t be hauling around a grampa watch."
Multiple alarms went off in Bobby's head. "Uh, no thanks. I sorta like this one." He walked off quickly. To lay it on that thick, this watch must be worth a good bit. He grinned, feeling rather pleased with himself. The smug satisfaction lasted for almost another half hour, right up to the point a little boy looked up at him and said "Mommy! Lookit the ugly kid!"
Any retort he might have had died when the mother turned around to scold the boy and did a double-take. "Oh! Uh, Danny, that's very rude!" She looked very flustered. "I'm so sorry, young man. I, uh.." Grabbing Danny's hand, she scurried off with the boy staring back at him with obvious fascination.
Bobby was bewildered by the exchange, but then noticed he was getting curious looks from a lot of people. Granted, he wasn't a movie star, but he wasn't bad looking, either. His clothes felt sorta odd. Loose and twisted in places. He tugged at his pants, and had them slip suddenly. How the Hell had they gotten so loose? He grabbed them before they dropped too far and stumbled over to the concrete restroom building.
He fumbled with his belt a moment before the reflection in the mirror across from him caught his eye. Huh? Bobby blinked and stared, forgetting about the drooping jeans.
That wasn't him! The young man reflected back was maybe 20 years old, with a protruding face, large, wide-set eyes, and a low forehead. He also had a dark stubble all over, even around the eyes. He'd heard of horse-faced people, but this took it to extremes. Problem was, this was a mirror. Instead of showing his average-looking 43 year-old reflection, he was seeing a kid who was.. ugly.
This was crazy. He rubbed at his eyes, only to wince at the unfamiliar hardness of his fingers. They looked dirty and thick, and his wrists were swollen. Was this some sort of allergy reaction? Whatever it was, it had started sometime after... Fumbling awkwardly, he pulled out the watch.
The hand was now pointing towards the 3 position. A young, healthy horse, the equivalent of a 20 year old youth. Like the freakish young man in the mirror. He looked back at himself and realized his ears were high and pointed, and his hair had a mane-like growth in the middle. He was getting younger and turning into a horse?
Bobby stared at the watch face, knowing this was not possible, that he had to be losing his mind. But he also realized that the hand had moved back a quarter way in just the few hours since he bought the watch. If it went back the same rate... a colt was at the 2 position, a newborn foal at 1, and if it got back to the 12? A pregnant mare? In 3 hours he'd be some unborn baby horse?