Sightlines (2000)

Leona Theis's book, published by Coteau Books of Regina in 2000, is told in twelve sections, from "Powers of Sight" to "What We Are Left With", that move among the people of Flat Hill, a small Saskatchewan town where in the sixties water and sewer were brand new and the phone numbers had two digits. In "Wheels", Evelyn's father, Pete, who once ran his own shop and worked at the mine, has spent ten years in a wheelchair; the town says he lost his feet to the drinking that followed his wife Em's death. (Open Library)

Watches

Gruen watch: Living alone on the dinners his neighbours bring, Pete keeps up habits the town does not know about. He talks to Em's photograph nearly every day, and he has adopted her old Gruen wristwatch, letting out the band to fit his own wrist. Every six months or so he takes it apart and, for the satisfaction of the work, cleans its gears with toothpicks and fine wires; Evelyn remarks on the watch and the reading glasses of Em's he also wears every time she comes home. Later he checks "his watch, Em's watch" to see whether he can get Paul, who is building new handles for his wheelchair, out of the house before Love and Enemies comes on at three-thirty. The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: He’s adopted Em’s old Gruen wristwatch, expanded the band so it’ll reach around his wrist. He takes it apart every six months or so and, just for the satisfaction of the work, cleans with toothpicks and fine wires all the wheeled gears that keep it ticking. (Leona Theis, Sightlines, scan cataloged as Coteau Books, 2000, p. 158, in "Wheels", which the contents page lists from p. 145; he checks Em's watch again on p. 160; Internet Archive scan OCR)