The Alcove - Chapter 5 -

# #twitterfiction The Alcove - Chapter 5 -
# Gramps or Sam as he was called by friends always had tall tales from faraway lands and adventures too fantastic to be true, like Egypt.
# Egypt and everything about the tombs and mummies seemed to be enough to fuel an adventuring grandson's wildest dreams for years.
# Sam, an average man in all respects - had somehow stumbled upon the secret to life: He had always fully lived every moment of his life.
# The Irony of fate is that you tend to get more of what you already have, and not something that you don't. This was much the same.
# Sam had told the story only once - he had traveled for four days to New York to meet his cousin who had sent word he was moving to America.
# When Sam arrived at to meet Francis, he also met a handful of illegals that had stowed away on the ship that Francis had befriended at sea.
# From what Sam had seen of other illegals he was hesitant at first to engage them, but after half a day he had warmed up to them like kin.
# For the entire summer the troupe was inseparable. Stories from across the sea light the fire of Sam's imagination and a fire in his belly.
# Reginald the lanky one with the unkempt hair, not for lack of combing, had a grandfather who lived in Chicago, and planned to visit him.
# Reginald was quirky with never a want in the world. He carried beneath his unruly locks a secret. Summer waned and their paths parted.
# As harvest time approached, Sam was needed back at home but the few roaring weeks he had spent in the city had felt like a lifetime.
# Francis came to stay with Sam - inseparable by day, spending their nights spinning adventure stories of daring adventure by lantern light.
# The harvest came and went, and the two set out on adventure whenever they could, taking numerous trips to the big city with wide eyes.
# Sam was celebrating yet another birthday in the city with his cousin, when to his utmost surprise he was met by Reginald from the troupe.
# The reunion celebration that ensued was never mentioned only that Reginald handed Sam a handkerchief and in it was the enchanted watch.
# Sam clearly remembered the first time he saw it, a moment burned into his mind. He remembers unwrapping it, the key to living in the moment.
# Reginald said that he had one too. His Grandfather was making these watches. Reginald did not know how. Then the fun began.
# Francis also received a watch and the three traveled through dimension to the place where they were kings of time itself.
# In a city with millions of people, pranks were endless, and benefits plentiful. Within a span of what would have been a week they were rich.
# It started innocently enough with a meal or two, then picking pockets of the mannequins around them - they tried to never take too much.
# Francis was quite the ladies' man and would plant a juicy wet one on any pretty face he came across. Sam showed the most restraint.
# Reginald was infinitely clever with elaborate setups that ultimately ended with an upturned bucket of water on some poor chap's head.
# They were unstoppable.
# The "reentry" was a vomit inducing world war two preview - that seemed to always end the same. Dead in a muddy trench body aching. So grim.
# Reginald's grandfather would only share the fact that their family had been making these devices for generations in various forms forever.
# Wanting to put their new power to "good use" Reginald ever the mastermind - orchestrated a bank heist. This was big time!
# Orchestrated may be too good of a word - the three men touched their watches, walked in when the vault was open and took what they needed.
# Reginald still took full credit for the success and had already scouted a hiding place for the loot. The world was theirs. The World!
# They had spent around a month on the other side and Francis was suffering from the traumatic images that he saw on reentry. Too much death.
# Reginald saw that Francis was not handling the new power well. He seemed to be less and less engaged, the loot was divided. Francis left.
# Francis was never quite right after that. He lived well off the spoils but he never married and lived out his days on the family farm.
# Sam fearing the same fate began to regulate his own use of the power. "I don't want to see the horrors of my own death anymore." he thought.
# The sense of adventure was too large to ignore. He vowed he would travel the world for a year and only use the watch to "pay" for the trip.
# And Travel he did, Sam "jumped" on a steamer set for Europe and slept for most of the two weeks, constantly vigilant of pick pockets.
# He had plan to travel the world with Reginald but Reg had disappeared one day and never came back.
# Sam wondered what would happen if you died on the other side.
# He left a note for Reginald in the stash of loot. He would be sure to find it there. Reginald was constantly in the stash - adding to it.
# The travel had landed Sam with thousands of stories, hundreds of memories. He then found his way home where he courted his old school flame.
# She was feisty, with quick wits and a youthful look about her - or was he just looking older? They set out to spend their lives together.