Ennui

“Ennui” wasn’t initially part of this short story collection. It was the last one I wrote, early 2025, and it didn’t exactly fit the pattern of “real-world technologies going awry”. The orange watch in the story can only be described as a magical item. The protagonist, Alan Dewkes-Hall, eventually learns the properties of the watch and how to benefit from it, but the idea of a “time-skipping device” hardly seems feasible given our current knowledge of physics.

I decided to include it because, at its core, it’s about someone misusing something they don’t fully understand. That’s pretty much the synopsis of every story in this collection if you squint your eyes a little.

Of all the protagonists in this collection, Alan Dewkes-Hall is the most like me. Where he circumvents his boredom with excitement and pleasure, I bypass my boredom by writing stories. The whole idea of skipping ahead in intervals of ten seconds came when I was watching adverts before a YouTube video and thinking “Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if I could just skip the boring bit and get the part I actually want to experience?”. I soon realised this was a dangerous notion if applied to life at large. I could skip something important during that timeframe. In a sense, the anticipation itself is what makes the exciting event all the more impactful. Alan Dewkes-Hall understood the risks and used the orange watch regardless. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I sympathise with him. I really do.

The orange watch is something that actually exists. Well, not the magical one as seen in the story, but I have an orange watch gathering dust in my real-life bedside table. It was a birthday present from an uncle, and I think I wore it once or twice. Maybe. To repay his kindness and generosity, I immortalised his gift in a short story. Does that count as being grateful?

There’s definitely a motif of absolute power corrupting absolutely within “Ennui”. Alan is presented with a world-altering ability with seemingly no drawbacks, and he uses it to its fullest almost immediately. There’s no hesitation in his mind about what he wants to do, or who he is as a person. I’ve often wondered how I would react if given absolute power. I’d like to think I’d use it for good… but perhaps my own writing is trying to tell me something. Nobody is truly innocent. Nobody deserves that much power. It can’t be used. It can only be misused.

When reading this story, I want you to apply your own life. Your own boredom. Those seconds and minutes wasted in between the highlights of your days. Would you skip time if given the chance? What would you do if given complete control over your waking hours? Perhaps, like Alan, you already skip time. You zone out and miss a few crucial seconds of information. You daydream and delay and procrastinate, wishing you could jump ahead to the good bit. In that case, you wouldn’t need a magical orange watch. The damage is already done.

Will a time-skipping orange watch ever exist? No. Of course not. But our boredom will always have limits.