The Clock Is Ticking

By Russ Nettles

Not everybody finishes for whatever reason. Staying in touch has its rewards. What are you going to do? When will it end? Where are you going to end up?

Five friends come back together to figure it out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685266325

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The Clock Is Ticking

Russ Nettles

ISBN 978-1-68526-631-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68526-632-5 (Digital)

Copyright © 2022 Russ Nettles

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

What I Did

I Could Of

I Should Of

What Now

What I Did

Sometimes I find myself thinking about what Mom said when I was growing up. Those early years were lasting impressions that stayed with me. I remember my mom brushing my hair before I went to bed. She always reminded me, after she finished, how nice my hair was. Mom shared a few childhood stories about her mom that she remembered when she was growing up. I was always interested in hearing those stories that she has carried around with her all these years. One that I particularly liked that has stayed with me is the one about the bird that built a nest on a tree branch that was outside her bedroom window. That branch the nest was on was really close to her window. When that happened, I took an interest. One day, I looked out the window, and I could see two small eggs. I remember going downstairs and getting Mom. She smiled and said I should watch and let her know when the baby birds were born. A short time later, there were two babies. I yelled to my mom from the top of the stairs that there were two baby birds. She came and looked and smiled and said, They are so small. I hope they don’t fall out of the nest. Time passed, and one day I looked out my window and could only see one baby in the nest. I went downstairs and asked my mom what happened to the other baby bird. She told me to wait downstairs, and she would take a look. A few minutes later, she came back and said it must have fallen out the nest. She grabbed my hand, looked at me, and said, Let’s go outside and look under the nest to see if we could find it. Luckily, there was a lot of leaves lying on the ground around the tree. We couldn’t see anything. And then my mom went to a spot that was under the nest and carefully dug down and found the little bird that was barely alive. She asked me to go inside and get the shoebox that was on the floor of her closet and bring it to her. I ran upstairs as fast as I could and brought the box. My mom put leaves in the box and asked if I wanted to save this baby bird. Of course, I said yes, and so the story goes. I will let you decide how it turned out. So it’s not like we had those kinds of talks frequently or heard stories as memorable as that one. It was a special time in my life. Sometimes she would reminisce about things she did when she was my age. I didn’t really realize how lucky I was until I was all grown up.

Hi, my name is Jewel. I woke up this morning with good intentions as I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth, looking at my face in the mirror. I’m twenty-four, a high school graduate who is still trying to find her place in this insanity of a world we live in, and I can’t help but wonder where I will fit in. Of course, I want to make my own way and contribute something meaningful. The problem is, I really don’t know where to start. I have good social skills, meet a lot of people—never a dull moment.

It was great not having a care in the world growing up. There were a lot of cute boys, and there were plenty of parties on the weekends to go to. I made good grades in school, but I really didn’t enjoy being there. My mind was always somewhere else. I would daydream about all the fun I had over the weekend and what I would be doing next weekend, but I never really thought much about what I would be doing when I graduated. I knew school was important, and that was why I worked hard to get good grades. When I graduated high school, I decided I didn’t want to go straight into college. I was not inspired enough because there really wasn’t a direction to pursue. There was still time for me to figure out what I want to do.

A few of my close girlfriends whom I’ve kept in touch with that went to college and graduated with degrees were still struggling to get a job they really like. My friend Jody graduated two years ago with a political science degree. She had a job but didn’t really like it. I asked what it was she really didn’t like, and she didn’t want to talk about it. I figured she had a bad day, and we could catch up on what she had been doing outside of work. She told me she was dating someone and that it was going well. He was really cute. Besides that, they went up in the mountains, camping, and had a blast two weeks ago. They found a site close to a creek where they set up the tent. They could hear the water as it was cascading down the mountain into the valley below from inside their tent. I thought that was pretty cool. I was a little jealous that she had a boyfriend and went camping. It must have been romantic. I can’t remember the last time I went on a camping date. I told her it was kind of getting late and that I had a few things I needed to take care of before going to bed.

Just as I hung up the phone, I heard a knock on my apartment door. When I opened the door, there was a young girl standing there with a troubled look on her face and a little puppy in her arm. I gave her a smile, asked if she was lost or needed some help. She said, in a slightly high-pitched voice, This dog has been following me all day. I would stop, trying to trick the dog by running inside a store, hoping the dog would go away. As soon as I came out, there he was. He doesn’t have collar, and he doesn’t bark at anyone walking by. He seems to need some company.

I took him to my apartment. And when mom came home from work, she saw the dog and asked, Whose dog is that? I told her I didn’t know. It just came out of nowhere and started following me." My mom knelt down, and the dog just stood there and let her examine it. I was completely surprised that the dog just stood there, and so was my mom. The problem was my mom didn’t want this dog in our apartment and told me I needed to find it a home.

I don’t want to just leave it outside by itself alone. So I thought I would ask you if you watch him just for tonight.

I chuckled and said, Really, you want me to watch your dog?

"No! It’s not my dog. I just want you