As Time goes By

"You need a watch?"

He was old, a little stooped, his pants and shirt clean and well pressed. I lifted my wrist. "From my kids on my fiftieth."

Murphy's bar on 2nd Avenue. Outside, the constant wail of sirens because President Bush was in town along with the heads of state of more than a hundred other countries. The UN General Assembly opening session. And much of the East Side closed.

He lifted his own wrist. "I'm the Watch Man. I got thinner ones than this." More here.