Keith Bradford was in his late twenties. He was over six feet tall with short, dark hair and he lived in the English Midlands with his girlfriend, Kim, a petite blonde who was a similar age. He was in dire straits. It was two days before the World Cup Final and his television had failed. Alex, his mate, worked as a television repair man and had been summoned to investigate and hopefully repair the offending item. He had taken it to pieces, tested it and delivered his verdict.
"Well, the problem is, it needs a new circuit board," Alex had said. "It'll cost you and I'll have to order it from the manufacturers. You'll be looking at a few weeks at least, and they don't come cheap. To be honest, you'll be better off scrapping this one and buying a new one."
Keith nearly dropped through the floor when his mate told him how much it was likely to cost. He desperately wanted to watch the match the following evening as he knew that Kim would be working a night shift at a care home and he would have the flat to himself. There was only one thing for it; he would have to invest in a new one.
Later that day Keith and Kim were browsing round the electrical department of a local department store. A vast bank of flat screen televisions filled one wall, all seemingly showing the same thing, a twenty four hour news channel. There was one television which particularly caught their eye. It had a black surround and a large forty two inch screen and was on a special offer. All the televisions were muted so Keith asked the young sales assistant if she could get the remote control and give them a demonstration.
The young lady was aged in her early twenties and had long blond hair which reached well down her back and was tied in a ponytail and she wore a sky blue skirt suit with a pale yellow blouse, dark tan hosiery and black court shoes. She duly went to a nearby cupboard where the various remote controls were kept and started rummaging about. After a minute or so, she came back empty handed.
"I'm sorry sir, I can't seem to find the remote for that particular model at the moment," she said. "It might be in our storeroom out the back. You see we normally we leave the televisions on the same channel and just switch them on and off at the end of the day. If you'll excuse me, I'll just pop out and have a quick look."
She was about to go when Keith spotted a remote control unit on a shelf near to one of the television sets.
"It wouldn't be this one by any chance, would it?" he said picking it up. The manufacturers name on it was the same as that of the television which he and Kim were looking at. The sales assistant looked at it.
"No," she said. "I don't think so. It looks a bit out of date to me but I'll check it just in case."
She pointed the remote at the bank of screens and pressed a few buttons. Keith was aware of a strange sensation as she did it. It was almost as though time had paused for a moment. The sales assistant didn't seem to notice anything and Kim never made a comment either so perhaps he had just imagined it.
"No, it doesn't work any of those," she said. "I'll leave it on my desk for now and check them again later but it's definitely not for the model you are looking at. If you'll excuse me, I'll try not to keep you too long."
She put the remote on her desk and walked towards a red door in the corner of the store before pressing a few digits on a keypad to let herself inside. When she had disappeared from view, Keith picked up the remote and started pressing a few buttons.
"I wonder which television it works," he said, pointing it at the various models of that name. "She probably didn't check them all properly."
"I don't know," said Kim. "It might not be any of them."
"It's got to be one of them surely," said Keith, aiming randomly.
"Put it down before she comes back," said Kim. "You shouldn't mess around with things."
The remote control unit was a standard sized one and was black in colour. As well as the usual numeric buttons, volume control and mute buttons which were grey in colour, it also had three blue buttons with writing on them. One of these had the word 'Pause' written on it in white lettering while its neighbours either side had a double forward arrow and double reverse arrow respectively while immediately above those were the standard Red, Yellow, Green and Blue buttons. Keith pointed the remote at a large grey fifty inch television and pressed a few buttons. Immediately all the screens paused and the female newsreader could be seen standing in front of a large screen with her mouth open in mid-sentence.
"Hey, will you look at that," said Keith. "It's got a pause facility Kim. Look!"
He turned towards his girlfriend who had been standing next to him. She was standing motionless, her right hand half raised towards her face to brush away a loose strand of hair.
"Are you all right, Kim?" Keith asked, and he put his hand out and touched her wrist.
Kim never once flinched. Her skin still felt warm and soft and he was able to pinch the skin on the back of her left hand and watch it immediately return to normal. As he did so, he noticed that the watch on her wrist had stopped at that exact moment, two thirty seven in the afternoon. He checked his own watch and the time on his mobile phone and they were exactly the same. Even the clocks on the television news banner had frozen. Time had literally stopped, even though he was still able to move.
He looked around briefly and nobody else was moving either. Another assistant was standing a short distance away by an open fridge door with a young couple while a few other people were stationary further down the store.
"Bloody hell!" said Keith to himself. "What have I done?"
