There are still days when I think of that. Those events that unraveld themselves almost five years ago. Life was so different then, we had no idea much things would change, just because someone ate a bad bat.

Five years ago I had just started uni, traveling back and forth every day. What an exhausting thing to do, sit on a train, on a bus, on a bench, just waiting for time to pass or the cinery. One day, as I was waiting for another bus to come, to take me an another one hour drive towards school, this elderly man needed help at the stairs. In Finland, it’s such a crazy thing that no one helps, we don’t want to bother, to be seen, to confront each other. People passed by as he stood there, unable to move, stuck between stores, between destinations. So I got up, offered my hand and assisted him down the stairs. It was not a big thing for me, I do it all the time, random acts of kindness. But something with this experience stayed with me, maybe because I ended up missing my bus and had to wait for another hour for the next one. Or maybe because he gave me his pocket watch, so I wouldn’t miss another bus ever again. He stayed with me for the hour as he chared his stories, random climbses of the long road he had traveled. What a wild ride it had been, life he had lived. Those are a stories for another time, another wait. Anyway as the bus came and we said our good byes he gave me the watch and said that someday it might help me to move on as I had helped him.

Now it’s five years later, I have lost my job, my income do the pandemic that has taken over the world. Everything has changed, world has become this unknown, scary place where things can change any minute.

One day, as I was going through my things, sorting out stuff for the fleemarket to get some money, I came across the watch. Beautiful, old, shiny thing that was still going, even though the world had stopped around it. As I studied the watch I started wondering maybe it’s worth something. Without thinking it too much I took it to the panoffice, first time ever visited the place, never thought I would need to. Sales person looked the watched, studied it carefully, weighted it and wrote something on the paper. As he offered me the paper I couldn’t believe my eyes, watch was worth much more than the small act I did, so many years ago. As I cashed it, I couldn’t help but wonder, that the old man was right, one day the watched helped me to move on as I had helped it.