With steady hand and infinite care, the watchmaker positioned the final pieces, gently wound the stem, smiling with satisfaction as the intricate mechanism came to life — springs and wheels meshing with precision. Slowly removing the loupe from his eye he sighed, wishing his broken heart could be mended so easily.

Nick Young is a retired award-winning CBS News Correspondent. In addition to 50-Word Stories, writing has appeared in more than twenty publications including the Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Bookends Review, the Nonconformist Magazine, Backchannels Review, Sandpiper, the San Antonio Review, Flyover Magazine, Pigeon Review, The Best of CaféLit 11 and Vols. I and II of the Writer Shed Stories anthologies. He lives outside Chicago.