Chapter 2 -- Mastering time: the dawn of a super hero
The alarm ringing by my bed brought me back from a confused dream world. A world of violent storm, lightning, car headlights and fear.
I am not the fastest in the morning; not for me the leap from the bed with a song in my heart and the anticipation of a bright new day; no not that; more a groan and a wish to continue my sleep. As I had done on so many mornings I willed the clock to stop its incessant ringing and just let me go back to blissful sleep. The fact it instantly stopped but so also did the birdsong and traffic noise was, unsurprisingly, not at all conducive to dropping gently and easily back into a peaceful, dreamless sleep: on the contrary I sat bolt upright wider awake than I normally am even at midday. I had done it again - I had stopped time.
Standing in the window, I looked out on a silent and motionless world. It is difficult to conceive of utter silence until you have experienced it. Even underground, in a cave or mine, you are more than likely going to hear the drip, drip, drip of water, the little plinking sound of water in a pool, but there was nothing making the slightest sound except me - and my accelerated heartbeat actually did sound quite loud.
I was not at all sure how I had done it, how I had stopped time. Certainly I had little doubt it was me who had done it - I could very much recall my desire for the alarm to stop -- and stop it had. Slowly I descended the stairs and walked out into the street. There people were, halted in the act of walking along the pavement, people in strangely motionless cars, people on the other side of the road going nowhere in a hurry, birds suspended in the sky, even a cat frozen in the act of leaping off a fence. It was utterly strange.
Why the cat should have drawn me to it, first of all, was not clear; perhaps it was because it was not a person and I felt more comfortable. It was clear, crystal clear, why it was leaping or, to be more accurate, pouncing - there was a mouse there in the grass right below it. I bent and picked up the mouse. It too was frozen in time, completely unaware of me - or more importantly the cat about to descend to torment and end its little existence. It was like a child's toy, a beautifully detailed toy, a lovely little miniature furry thing. It seemed such a shame to have it broken (= killed) by the cat and so I placed it down in a different place and for good measure pushed the cat along a bit. There the cat was; suspended in the air and with a little push I just moved it a yard to the left. The cat did not fall to the ground, it just moved where I had pushed it. It was all very puzzling. Time had stopped but I could move things around as I wished. My actions had effect but everything else had ceased.
It was strange walking along the pavement with people frozen at the very moment my alarm had stopped its ringing. A little girl skipping with her mother suspended in the air; people in positions they simply could not have maintained if time was moving because they would have fallen over; people with odd expressions on their faces caught between one facial expression and another like photographs you would throw away or delete.
And there was I, walking between them in my pyjamas, the only moving thing I could see. 'The only living boy in New York' - except it was New Malden. What was happening to me?
A pretty girl hurrying, perhaps to work, caught my attention. You know how an eye can be caught by a pretty girl. But there was no need for the furtive, quick glance at face or bosom. There she was, frozen in time - and a very nice sight the cleavage in her shirt made in the morning sun. No need to observe from yards away: I could and did lean in close and look down between her breasts. And just like the little mouse or the suspended cat I could so easily have touched and moved. It was all very odd and disturbing.
My fascination, like the night before, turned to worry. It was one thing to have stopped time but how did I start it again? I was not awfully keen on that happening out in the street with just my pyjamas on. Not only would it look a little odd at rush hour, it could look an awful lot worse as I had become aware, you know how pyjamas are, that I was poking out of the fly. It was, of course, the pretty girl's fault having such an attractive cleavage: certainly that had something to do with what my mind had been thinking... Nonetheless there I was in the middle of the street with an erection on display!
I stuffed the item back inside double quick but even so for a moment or two - because the fright soon lessened the tumescence - what I had inside my pyjamas was still rather obvious pushing against the material and that was not the moment I wanted time to restart.
Back in the safety of my house I had the greatest desire to be a time starter but would it start? No! I stood looking out of my bedroom window willing people to start moving, I tried holding my breath like trying to stop the hiccups, shutting my eyes, frowning in concentration but eventually went to eat my breakfast and even after that - and discovering that whilst I could cut a loaf of bread with a knife the toaster simply would not do any toasting - the people and the pretty girl were just where I had left them. How had I done it the night before?
It had just happened. I had wanted to ask the couple a question about what they were pointing at, and time had just restarted; the second time I had stepped back from near certain death and time had restarted. There seemed no connection. I looked around me,
"Go on start," I said breaking the complete silence. Time did not seem to be listening.
The morning passed and I was well into the afternoon. Well, I say the morning passed but of course it was still morning and it was not yet afternoon at all. The sun had not swung across the heavens, the people had not moved or got to work, nobody had had lunch yet - except me - and my watch had not moved one second. I was getting desperate. It was just too quiet and whilst I knew there would always be plenty to eat I did not want to be stuck in my 'Groundhog Day' or rather 'Groundhog Second.'
I had even bothered to get dressed; not that anyone could see me or see what I was wearing. I could have wandered about in my pyjamas or indeed nothing at all and no one would have taken a blind bit of notice.
The frozen time period was so much longer than the night before. There had to be a way - there obviously was a way of restarting time. It had happened yesterday, twice!
