Clark opened the magazine again, smirking at the “art” Sam had left behind for progeny, before flipping through the pages, eyes peeled for something new he didn’t recognize.

In the end he didn’t find anything unexpected, but he was glad of the one thing he did find. It was almost like Sam was still here in a way. Still leaving his mark on both things and people. Figuratively and… literally, in the case of his artistic legacy.

He was about to close the magazine as he paused on one of their last pages. A lump caught in his throat as he saw the partially filled crossword and his vision blurred again, before he wiped his eyes and looked through the parts that had been filled in.

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Sam finished writing the latest word down. "Next one's a 3 letter word for greeting a Caesar" Clark paused for a moment as he was about to take a sip of his tea, considering before answering. "Ave" He took his sip as Sam scrutinized the page, poking his 2 inch light grey beard with the back of the pen, “How do you spell that?”

Clark lowered his mug, “A-V-E” he enunciated in English as he looked down at the magazine, taking another sip.

Sam smirked and scritched the answer down "You're better than me at most of the questions about ancient history, and I'm supposed to be the ancient one here." He chuckled, his laugh lines deep.

Clark huffed in mock outrage, smiling. "Just drink your mud." He said as he glanced at Sam's steaming mug that had "#1 grandpa" written on it "I just appreciate the classics and old things. I tolerate you, don't I?" He smirked, leaning in closer to look through the crossword on the table between them.

Sam's hand went for his mug "Hah! Couldn't beat you off me with a stick. If this is you tolerating me, then I'd rather not see you turn into a tick if you enjoyed my company." He looked at Clark over his mug as he drank his coffee with a wry smile, eyes crinkled.

Clark tried to suppress a smile, poorly, as he coughed into his fist and continued "This one's up your alley: 6 letter word for a card game ."...

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Clark’s tears were trailing down his face and falling onto the tome still in his lap, vanishing in the span of a few seconds each. He sniffled and pulled his tissues back out, wiping his eyes and nose. ‘We’ll never get to fill these crosswords again or banter with each other. I’ll just have to treasure these memories I already have.’ He thought as he put the magazine into his backpack protectively, along with his tome.

‘I volunteered with the intention of recording his stories since he was dying. Then I enjoyed it. Keeping him company. Listening to his life. Not just for what I could gain from it. Two birds with one stone. Win-win. But why do I now feel bad about why I approached him? It was genuine after the first month or so.’ He looked at the ground, stuck in his mind for a moment.

‘Don’t think the question will answer itself if I wait for it.’ He thought as he got up and slung his backpack over his shoulder, before he started walking back, the gravel path crunching beneath his steps. ‘I’ll let them know I’m quitting until further notice since I’m already here. I’ve thought it through enough.’

As he walked back, the air felt crisper, cleaner, than it had on the way towards the park. He felt better, every deep breath he took seemed to clear his mind. Even his steps felt lighter, his posture straighter.

As he neared the entrance, he took out his phone and checked his reflection against the black screen’s reflection. His face didn’t look too puffy or his eyes too red. Not that he’d have waited outside if they had. ‘Why’d I check if it didn’t change anything?’ he thought as he pushed the door open, then the second. He walked around the plant again and towards the desk, noting with a bit of surprise from the clock that he’d been out for almost two entire hours.

Claire was looking down at some papers, writing something, as Clark walked to the desk. He smirked, as he didn’t feel like interrupting, and she had the habit of…

“Aaah!” Claire exclaimed as she leaned back quickly. “I’ve told you to stop doing that!” She whisper yelled as she held a hand over her heart. “I really will put a bell on you, you know!”

“So you’ve said, all naught but empty words so far.” he smiled wider. “I’ll remind you, I’m not trying to be quiet, you just focus and shut out the world around you.”

Claire looked at him as if searching for something, before smiling gently “You look a lot better than when you left, you doing okay?”

Clark leaned against the counter. “Yeah… yeah, I am. Better. The park’s good for… processing things, it seems.” he said, eyes going vacant, recalling the last two hours in his mind, before snapping back to the present and looking at Claire. “You?”

She nodded. “We’re more used to it. The job does that to you. Well some people don’t manage to, and they either change jobs or push through till they burn out. But we mostly catch the second type before it gets that bad. They also know what to look out for, but people can be bad at judging their own limits.” She explained as she leaned back on her chair.

“Makes sense.” Clark nodded slowly, retroactively connecting things from past interactions with the new context, relatively obvious in hindsight, but a lot of things were. “I actually came to inform you that I’ll…” He took a moment to think it through again, pushing through. “I’ll be quitting my volunteering. Don’t know if that’ll change so I guess we’ll assume it won’t until it does.”

Claire nodded readily, seemingly as if she was expecting that. “I think that’s for the best, people need time, and you don’t really know what you’re getting into, until… you know from experience. A lot of people try it out and quit after they experience their first passing. Or until someone they became attached to passes away.” She reached out and placed her hand over Clark’s as she said that. “Completely normal.”

Continuing, she said “Sam held on for a long time. I’m sure you were partly the reason he was able to do so. Be proud.”

As he started to feel his eyes moisten again, she thankfully pulled her hand away. “Oh, and Sam’s granddaughter is here collecting things and helping around today, she said she had something for the person who was volunteering with Sam.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

He tried to blink the wetness away “The new girl I saw carrying stuff just before I came in before?”

“Should be. I think she had a grey cardigan if that rings a bell?”

Nodding, he turned towards the entrance, leaning backwards against the counter. “Same person then. Thought she might have been a new hire since she was carrying boxes to the side building on the right, but she’s just helping out?”

“Said she wanted to keep busy. Sounds like temporary volunteering with fewer steps and we have no reason to refuse, not the first time someone asks to help when they clear out their family’s belongings either.” The phone on her desk started ringing and she extended her hand over the desk. “She goes past here quite often, so you’ll catch her if you wait in the lobby. Thank you for all the volunteering you’ve done so far and good luck!” She said with a smile.

“Thank you for everything as well, Claire. It’s been a pleasure.” He said, shaking her hand with a smile of his own. She then picked up the phone and he turned towards the lobby, walking to the chairs against the wall and sitting down.

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Around 20 minutes had passed when Sam’s granddaughter, Julia entered the lobby, and Clark stood up. It wasn’t odd that he couldn’t recognize her the first time, since the pictures Sam had were of his kids and grandkids when they were much younger, and she was currently in her mid 20’s, but now he could see the clearly grown up version of the little girl in Sam’s picture frames.

Shoulder blade length brown hair, grey cardigan as Claire mentioned, blue-grey eyes like her grandpa and she was quite tall, just somewhat shorter than he was. She looked a bit tired, which was better than he expected.

She visited Sam most out of his family and they were really close. The news must have hit her hard, but she’s clearing things out the same day. The policy here was to collect things within five days unless they make an agreement over the phone if he didn’t remember the number wrong.

“Julia?” He confirmed as he walked to her, hand extended when he got close. She turned to him, put the box she was carrying down and shook his hand. “That’s me, and you’d probably be Clark?” he nodded “Yes. I’m sorry for your loss. Sam was a great man.”

She paused for a moment, giving a shaky nod. “Thank you. That he was. And more.” She looked down at the box she was carrying before. “It doesn’t feel real yet. I guess that’s a blessing in disguise, since I don’t think I’d be able to take care of everything if I… yeah. So I’m doing everything I can, while keeping myself busy, until it catches up with me.”

She seemed lost in thought for a moment and he didn’t interrupt her. She nodded again and turned to him. “Sam talked about you on our visits. Thank you for keeping him company. I could only visit every so often, but he said that he didn’t get to feel lonely before either me or you visited him again. Really, you have no idea how much that meant to him, or to me.”

She looked like she was about to tear up, hug him, or both, but ended up doing neither as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve as she dug into her handbag. “He wanted me to give this to you.” She held out the old brass pocket watch Sam always kept on him.

Clark shook his head as he felt a pit in his stomach. “I’m not sure I can accept that. Are you sure?” Julia flipped the note she was holding open “This said to open it if you rejected it. And to say-” She paused abruptly. She looked… Worried? Hesitantly she continued reading, then looked Clark in the eyes.

“He said, and I quote “I guessed you wouldn’t accept a dead man’s will the first time when told nicely, so if you don’t want it, I’ll be happy to just haunt you instead.”” She then hurriedly handed him the paper, which he accepted and read again. Sure enough, that’s what it said, word for word. “Sorry, his humour was always-” she began.

Clark scoffed, shaking his head with a small smile on his lips. “Sam’s been using that threat on me to get his way for a while now. I bet he was grinning ear to ear when he was writing this note.” His smile turned a bit sad as he kept looking down at it. “Do you want to keep this note?” He asked.

“No, feel free to keep it too.” She said, as she was smiling a bit when he looked up at her. She put the pocket watch in his hand, closing his fingers around it. “I have plenty of things to remember him by, but it’s never enough. He wanted you to have ONE. It’s not too much, if anything it’s barely enough for what you’ve done. He wanted you to have this specific pocket watch to remember him and the time you spent together.” He felt his eyes start watering again as he stared at it. He gently squeezed it in his hand and pulled it against his chest. “Thank you. I’ll treasure it.”

She was silent for a moment before continuing “He also said you’d actually use it even for a while, and that we’d just let it collect dust. A waste of a perfectly good watch, he said.”

Tears threatening to run down his face again, he barked a laugh at that. “That’s just like him.” He said as he fished out his tissues again and wiped his eyes.

As Julia was nodding, she picked up her box again. “I’m glad I saw you today, I’m planning to be done moving everything by evening, and I wasn’t sure when I’d be ready to bring it to you later, I wouldn’t dare to send it by mail.”

“I quit volunteering today too, so it might have been quite the hassle for you.” Clark revealed, as he packed his tissues back into his backpack. She initially looked surprised by that, which quickly turned to understanding. “I’m sure they would have either given me an address or contacted you about it. It was nice meeting you. Thank you again.”

“Thank you too.” He said as he kept the pocket watch to his chest. Julia looked at the pocket watch before nodding in approval and turned to walk away to a different corridor.

As Clark started walking to the exit, he waved at Claire, getting a wave back before going through the doors.

He looked down, staring at the old brass hunter case pocket watch’s front case and the pine tree ornaments on it. First he secured the chain around his wrist so he couldn’t drop it, then he flipped the front case open so he could watch it ticking silently in his hands as he began his trip home.