I'm hoping to turn these into a series of stories about a stop watch.
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I am sitting behind the counter of my dad's clock shop when an old gentleman walks in with a package under one arm and walking stick in the other. He has a grey scraggly beard, flat cap, long trench coat.
He places the box on the counter. "Hello Sir, how may I help you today?" I ask standing up to greet him.
"Good afternoon" he says in a broken voice "This stop watch I have doesn't seem to be working properly, I was wondering if you could have a look at it for me."
"Well my dad normally fixes them but let me have a look as I take it out the box. As I take it in my hand with my thumb over the button at the top, another customer starts walking into the shop. She is half way in when I press the button. I am looking at the watch to see the time has stopped on it. I look up to talk to the gentleman and I notice that the woman seems to have frozen still in her tracks. She has one foot in the door with her hand on the glass pushing it open and one foot is stuck in the air.
Shocked and confused I drop the watch in front of me on the counter, the gentleman picks it up and hands it back to me. "How? What? Why?" is all I can say, trying to work out how he is still able to move if she is frozen.
"My boy, listen to me very carefully. This is a very special watch. It lets you freeze time when you press this button" pointing to the top one. "Just press it again to restart time. This one at the bottom lets you ask the person a question and they will answer you truthfully without even knowing they are doing it. Then finally the winder. Be very careful with this as it lets you reverse any action that has happened in the last 60 seconds, it can be quite dangerous if you aren't careful though."
Still standing there trying to take it all in, he pats me on the shoulder, turns around and walks towards the door. He turns back to look at me, looking the woman up and down and back at me again. "Enjoy" is all he says as he disappears around the corner.
This can't be happening I think to myself, I must have fallen asleep at the counter. I pinch myself and it hurts. "This is real? What is actually happening? I have to test this out!"
I press the top button on the watch as the woman snaps back to life like nothing has happened. She walks into the shop and starts looking around. I press the button again and the woman stops in time with a table clock in hand in front of her. I press the button again and watch as she doesn't move for 2 minutes. She is about medium height at 5'7" give or take. She has long blonde hair with light dark roots showing. She is wearing black slacks with heels, a bomber jacket and a white blouse by the looks of it.