Story：Charlotte's little watch

[2021.04.28] 發表

【明報專訊】CHARLOTTE had many watches, but none of them was more meaningful than the one given by Grandma. When applying for college, she was still an idle good-for-nothing and did not prepare well for the exam. In order to make Charlotte more motivated, Grandma bought a watch for her and told her to take it into the examination centre. Of course, Charlotte did not do so in the end. The watch was then sitting collecting dust for many years.

Grandma passed away not long after, and Charlotte became a secretary in a small company. Careless, she still made many mistakes and was often scolded by her boss. One day, her boss asked her to prepare all the colleagues' vacation records within two hours. That was a challenging task. Though the company was small, it still had about 200 employees. Charlotte had to bite the bullet and get the job done.

There was no clock in her office, and she had forgetten to bring her mobile phone that day. ''When is it exactly now? If I ask my boss, I will be heavily scolded!'' The colleagues were all out for dinner.

Suddenly she came up with an idea, and finally found the dilapidated watch in her drawer. The watch hadn't broken yet. She knew she had more than 50 minutes left after looking at it. After a lot of hard work, she finally finished the work in time, and her boss didn't say anything harsh.

Charlotte remembered that she was wearing it when she applied for the job, hoping to give the employer a good impression. But she then put it in the drawer after wearing it for less than a week. ''Thank you, Grandma, I will never take off this watch.''

(by Ian Lam)

■Food for thought

Are you an idle good-for-nothing? How do you schedule your schoolweek?

■Gear up

Circle the correct answers after reading the above story.

(1)Charlotte is a hard-working person. (True/False/Not given)

(2) Grandma gives Charlotte an expensive watch. (True/False/Not given)

(3) Grandma works as a secretary. (True/False/Not given)

(Answers on next text)

■Glossary

idle good-for-nothing (n) 游手好閒者

collect dust (idiom) 塵封