If anyone had told me that I would be where I am now all because of one small decision, I can tell you without hesitation that I would not have picked up that simple old watch that sat on the gravestone of my father.  Mother and I would visit every Friday night after dinner and bring fresh flowers to his and the other graves near his that seemed to have been forgotten.  That was what my mother always warned me was the worst thing in the world, being forgotten as if you weren’t important enough to remember.  She said that no matter how small, every person did something in their lifetime that affected something else that eventually shaped the world as it is in this moment and that without every life, death, triumph, and failure everything would be different.  I just thought she was overly sentimental.  However, on the final Friday of the year, as mother and I entered the graveyard all bundled up, hiding from the frisky Nebraska weather, I noticed something out of the ordinary sitting atop my father’s grave.  It was small and a little hard to see through the light snowfall that graced my lashes, but as I got closer it was easier to see its brown leather band and glass covered face.  I bent down and got close enough to see that the hands on the face were not moving and right as my hand touched the leather strap I heard an “OOF” and looked over to see my mother bent over picking up the pink flowers that she had just spilled all over the snow after slipping on an ice patch.  I walked over with the watch in my hand and saw how as she stood up right, she was in pain, evident from the wincing, shaking, and jerking her body was doing.  In the past couple of months she had been getting worse and worse, giving into the fact that she was getting older and lacking the fight she had when my dad was alive.  As I stood there I wished more than anything that I could go back to when my mom first broke her hip, she was young for that kind of thing but when she fell from the attic and landed right on it, I was  surprised it healed as quickly as it did.  It was that day when she heard from the doctor that she had done the one thing always associated with being old that she started giving up.  She wouldn’t go out any more than she had to, she just knitted or cooked and she napped much more than the average 46 year old.  In the moment as I stood up wishing that I could go back and stop her from falling from the attic something odd happened, first my mom froze in place then before I even got the chance to wonder what was going on I felt the watch in my hand start to get warm and then the world around me started spinning in a whirlwind of color that continued to blur and mix until everything merged to black and I fell unconscious.  When I awoke I was not in the cemetery as I expected, but instead I was lying on the couch in my home wearing different clothes and I was surprisingly cool for it being our house. Ever since my mom had fallen from the attic she had been colder all the time so our house was always heated to the verge of sauna.  I stood up and walked from the living room into the kitchen then the dining room and then towards our bedrooms seeing no sign of my mother anywhere.  As I entered the hallway that led to our garage I noticed a small noise, a noise I know better than the back of my hand.  My mother was singing or humming at least.  I followed the noise leading out to the garage surprised and overjoyed since my mother hadn’t sung since she first fell.  I entered the garage and saw my mom up the ladder that came down from the attic and walked closer extremely confused.  She was in the work clothes that she used to wear all the time and was working in the attic, singing.  Something was definitely going on and, not sure what it was, I went up to the base of the ladder and called up to my mom.  Right as she turned to look down at me, her foot slipped and she flew down towards me.  We both landed with an UMPH on the concrete floor of the garage.  With multiple grunts and groans and a few hundred “I’m so sorry’s” from my mom, we got up and made it to the kitchen were we got some ice for the areas that would no doubt be bruised in the morning.  On the way in I noticed her chipper attitude and the lack of a twitch or limp in her leg, but before I could inquire about it she started talking about someone in her yoga class telling her about something or another I would usually tune out to, but instead I was shocked because my mom hadn’t gone to yoga since before she broke her hip.  When I heard her say something about what we should get for my grandpa’s birthday I froze.  We hadn’t been able to go to my grandpa’s birthday because my mom was still in the hospital healing from the replacement.  Instead of asking her what was going on and seeming like id lost my mind, I just excused myself and go to my room with my ice packs and just flop on my bed feeling like id lost my mind.  I laid there for a while in a half awake state. When I sat up and turned to put the now half melted ice packs on my bedside table I saw something that hadn’t thought about since I woke up. The old watch was lying there on the table as if it was waiting for me to pick it up.   I leaned forward and clasped my hand over the cool glass face.  If I’m sitting here with my mom perfectly fine in the kitchen for the reason I think, then I should be able to hold this watch in my hand, wish more than anything else to change something and it will take me to that moment before it happened so I could change it.  I get up and make sure my door is closed all the way just in case my mom walks by and it doesn’t work.  I sit back on my bed and clutch the watch in both of my hands picturing the day I won a medal for my achievements at school and ever so gracefully face planted going back to my desk.  I closed my eyes and suddenly felt a great weight pulling me in all sorts of directions, and felt a great pressure in my head like the very beginning of a migraine.  I did not open my eyes until I heard a faint coughing sound coming from behind me.  As I opened them, I realize, to my utter surprise, that I was precisely where I had intended to be.  I was so startled that it actually worked the person behind me had to cough again for me to focus on the fact that the whole class was staring at me waiting for me to go up and receive my medal.  I went through the motions the exact same way I had when I first received the medal but on the way back I managed to avoid the ridged spot in the carpet that originally tripped me up.  As I sat back down I jostled my backpack which had been sitting at my feet.  From the pocket that had been slightly unzipped, came that same old watch that had now helped me change the past, twice.  As soon as the bell rang I went into the bathroom and pulled out the watch thinking of the next thing I felt needed changing.  From that moment, as soon as something came into my head that needed changing I would go back and change it.  Most were things like going back so I could study for a test I had failed, or go back to the last time I remembered having something so I could put it somewhere I would remember and not lose it.  All of those things seemed harmless to me, but one Friday after school, as we were walking from the car to the graveyard, I realized what should have been the obvious change from the beginning.  I decided to go back and stop my dad’s death.  I pulled the watch out of my pocket, where it had started returning to after every use, gripped it in my hands as tight as I could, and wished harder than I ever had before.  Everything around me started swirling and morphing,  my head felt as though it was going to explode, I felt like I was being torn apart and then suddenly, I was in the passenger’s seat of my dad’s SUV.  I was confused at first by the overwhelming sensation I had just experienced, but after that all settled I realized that I was not where I should be.  I had not been with my dad when he died in the accident.  But before I could worry too much about that I saw a bright light a little ways away.  Adrenaline kicked in and I reached over and swerved dad’s wheel so we were in the other lane.  My dad started to yell at me but right before he could ask what on earth I was thinking, the car that had killed him that night raced past us in the lane we had been in moments before.  He looked shocked and I smiled at him becoming overwhelmed that he was actually there perfectly safe and looking just like he had the last time I’d seen him.  I was about to say something to explain how I had seen the car but before I did I heard my dad scream my name and saw a bright light coming from my side and then it was dark.  I wasn’t really sure what it was that was going on but I knew that something must have gone wrong I reached down to find my pocket so I could find the watch, but instead of its cool glass face I felt a wadded up piece of paper.  As I took it out, somehow the space around e got brighter, not like my eyes were adjusting or like someone had turned on a light, but just like the area decided it was tired of being so dark.  I unrumpled the paper and found a small note written inside.  “There is not a single life, nor a single death that did not have a special outcome, in order to fix what you have disturbed, a trade has been made.  Your father will continue through life, however in his place, you will not.  You messed with time, so you will live in a state of nonexistence.”  I was unaware of both how the paper got into my pocket and also of who wrote it but I first believed it was a joke.  I went to stand up, when I realized I couldn’t move.  Not like I was stuck or anything, I just had no control over any part of my body.  I couldn’t hear, smell, taste, feel, or speak, I could see but there was nothing for me to see.  I could however think, and when you’re unable to do anything but think, you come up with a lot of things.  I’m sure you don’t want to know what it is one thinks while stuck in a state as I am in, but I will give you a warning.  If you find yourself in possession of something that seems to have the ability to change things, think about the consequences of what it can do before you go in blindly.  If you don’t, well then, I guess I’ll see you soon.