Time

TIME by
Donavan Bethanie

I would like to share with you a revelation in my work experience, that I've had with my boss Percival Fairbanks.
Percival Fairbanks is from Toronto, Canada, twenty eight years old and has been living in London since 2003;
Percy as he prefers to be called, is an employee in retail. He's a training manager in a prestigious formal wear company called Seymor & Hoffman of Jermyn street in London, England.
Jermyn street is renowned the world over for purchasing English formal attire.
A brief description of his duties would include, staff training, store set ups, store management and basically to be at the beck and call of his superiors wants ranging from coffees to abnormal working hours,
yes Percy likes to please at whatever price including once working till 3am, the normal working hours end at 7pm.
He's a good man, an amiable human being, has a meek nature, strong ambition and is an individual with wholesome intelligence. 

My name is Raymond and I'm twenty one years old. I'm a character simply described as fashionable, weak, functional and only adequate to lets say an enmployer.
I'm originally from Switzerland, and am employed to Mr Fairbanks, I have one basic function but we'll get to that at a later stage.
I'm a humble, faithful and very reliable employee to Percy and have been for almost four years.

Percy and I live together in a shared flat in Surrey Quays, south east London.
Surrey Quays is a small county, twenty five minutes south east of central london stretching about seven miles, it dates back nearly a century to a time when horse driven carts thumped their hooves up and down its by ways and thoroughfares,
when candles and parrafin lamps illuminated our ways, when nobles marveled at their status quo and the commoners were prisoners to their own social standings.
It is now the year 2008, a few decades on and there have been remarkable technological advances to the physical world,
for example the boisterous mane's that transported the public to and fro have been substituted for earsplitting motorized engines; honking and bustling to get their way and electricity now lights the dark to enlighten our lives to mention but a few, however there are some things that remain unaffected by change like our needs, our wants and our desires.
Our wants are derived by our needs, 'I want a job so I can afford a lifestyle, so I need a job to have a life'.
Our desires however are more complex, our aspirations if you will are simply clarified by thise items or status we seek that is for most of us beyond our grasp.
Those insignificant elements that leave our pretentious selves satisfied, people utilize certain symbols as a way of depicting social rank, you could say, I'm a result of someone seeking social status.

Percy has a flaw to his character, which simply said, is that he's conceited; the worst part of it is, he's smug and boastful about being Percival Fairbanks.
See Percy is someone who is not true to himself and in my philosophy, the worst deceit anyone can have, is deceiving one self.
Percy leads a modest life but disguises it by material fronts with an objective to portray an image, an image of a distinguised gentleman, an illustrious person.
Percy has this dream of becoming an acclaimed writer, a name in the hall of fame, a seat with his name in the house of the rich and famous, only he's not doing anything to become one except writing the occasional poem.
He bought a correspondence course to study creative writing but hasn't touched it since buying it a year ago.

Percy has another defect to his personality, he's a prisoner to complacency and as result lost his egde and drive for risk, that flame which kept him alight is burnt, what he now has left is a vanity fair.
Percy likes to please, one of his philosophy's is 'making people, is living a happy life', a quote from him.
He strives to achieve a smile in others, to get recognition and acceptance is his purpose.
He believes that achieving all the above enriches his being.
Percy is a character that brightens up a room with his energy and charm, all of this however is an act, his performance which while endearing and entertaining to his audience is eating him away and with my help of time becomes apparent.
All his friends and colleagues have somehow exceeded his expectations by becoming successful entities and it left him cursing his existence because his life is stagnant, he's idling.
He saw himself as their mentor; this title he gave himself, Percy slowly became more aware of his own status and it raised all of those old questions. The answers he knew so well had suddenly, upon reminiscing the old excuses, became invalid and unworthy, worse yet, that they always were.
He now had to search within himself and unearth those unfounded reasons that hindered his progress.

I have this phobia of being set aside, which unfortunately I'm a victim of all to often.
See for me not being part of someones life, leaves me, well to cut a long story short useless, inadequate and that will be my demise.
I've a long standing heritage, I'm part and package of a life of service, my ancestors have left me a duty to fulfill. A duty which may seem a simple task to some, but it's a duty of profound measure, one of my great responsibility's which people often take for granted, but realize just how important my occupation is, is when they don't have the gift of my service anymore. There is however a fortunate some who have an epiphany and realize my significance, they then take full advantage of my role. These are the people I yearn to work for, these are the people who live in every sense of the word and make my profession an adventure.

Percy had his first glance into the portal of his purpose. An incident occurred at work; he was performing his daily tasks when I showed him the time, but he wasn't interested in the time but more in the date, it was the 26 November 2007, it struck him that four years had gone by and he had no noteworthy recollection of his past, no proud feeling of accomplishment.
Instantly he knew what needed to be done to take his first step to ascension, his first step into stamping his stamping his true existence and he took action. A draft that made him smile with excitement but simultaneously tremble with fear: he wrote his resignation.
He called his superiors and gave his months notice, he emailed his colleagues the news and anticipated the plea's to stay, after all they were his 'audience'.
He did receive correspondence even from his superiors to please stay and they even offered him a more lucrative position and a significant raise, but he didn't care, he had set himself a goal and he was going to seize this opprotunity at all costs.

Percy decided to first take some time out for reflection, so he decided to have a holiday and travel, then returned home to Toronto and action the necessary steps into forging his dream to become a writer,
needless to say I was his loyal subject so I automatically had to take this journey with him and my longing for adventure easliy won me over, so I had no quandaries.

We took nearly two months out and visited seven countries on continents including Asia, Australasia, South America, and the West Indies. This trip consisted of a long lasting haul of grand memories and a blur of partying.
Upon his return home, he realized he had to mend old frienships because he had to weave a life at home again,
so his partying continued in theme, 'welcome home'.
As I mentioned earlier, one of Percy's shortcomings is complacency, and in this is where his next conflict arose.
He became an image again, one which meant 'good time' to his so called friends.
These 'friends' were not really his pals but just seekers of pleasure at the literal expense of Percy.
This he knew, but he was so drunk with fun, so much that he was willing to neglect these false anatomy's that now surrounded him and fed his ego with chants of 'you the man'.
It was an image albeit surreal, was one he needed to uphold. After several weeks of being a social butterfly, his finances and energy navigated him into an empty cul de sac. His friends became fewer and his sense of belonging; non existent.
It was back to the drawing board for him again to locate his road to purpose.

Now that he had all this time whilst he's buddy's were absent to think about mapping his righteous path again,
he by invitation went to a course designed for detecting oneself, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect.
He took the three day course but was not sold completely because he was conflicted with some of the theory's,
however he did get a very insightful lookinto his faults and it helped lift the barriers that obstruct his ascent into accomplishment.
His new found knowlege and awareness gave him ideas that filled his head rapidly and slowly he started learning the course that's been dormant for so long.
He's now slowly started writing which is his ultimate dream.

Percy is gradually beginning his writing career and he feels alive for it. His destiny is ofcourse unbeknownst to him and me,
but that's the beauty of life, if our routes were mapped out, then where would be that tingling feeling of journeying the unfamiliar, conquering the unknown be.
Life is a series of moments created by us, not by a dictator.
Percy is now steering his own ship, he's not following a compass, oblivious to where he might dock but it doesn't concern him, all he's doing, all he wants to do, is write.

I now am sadly no longer with Percy but by no choice of my own; I unfortunately had to endure my eventual fate of being set aside. That phobia I have needs to be examined and modified so I don't feel victimized everytime it happens, however I've no ill will toward Percy, no regrets.
He gave me a voyage, a venture, an experience that I craved for and a proper sense of my job description.
I couldn't have envisioned for a better arm to lead me,
so finally my departing words is my name is Raymond Weill and my one basic function is to give time,
I'm but a watch.