Moments in Time

A short story by Austin Cook, San Diego, CA

“Leah.” He called out her name sounding very bored. He glanced over at her and her head was cast down, staring into nothing. They were standing in an alley; it was dark, and damp. Trash lined the walls, resting next to the trash can. At the end of the alley was a tall chain link fence, at the top was barbed wire. Behind it was large wooden door. Leah’s long brown hair was down, creating a curtain around her face. She obviously wasn’t going to respond.
“Leah.” He said again, sounding stern. She shook her head, attempting to ignore him.
“Leah, come here.” Now he sounded angry. Leah finally lifted her head and looked over at him. Her face completely blank. She was obviously bored and was beginning to get angry about it.
“What do you want, Sean?” She hissed back. She straightened herself out and stood at her full height, she was tall, and lean. She reminded Sean a lot of their mother. She walked over to the chain link fence, wound her fingers around a link and stared at the door.
“Why do we have to watch this stupid door anyway? We don’t even know what’s behind it. Nobody ever comes down this alley anyway, even if they did I doubt they could climb the fence and get to the other side.” Complained Leah. They worked for The Agency. The Agency was essentially a protector of the innocents, like cops, except, in Leah’s opinion, better.
“Because Greg told us to? You know how these things go. We get an assignment and we finish the assignment.” Sean was older than her. He had a lot more patience for assignments for things like this. Leah on the other hand, had no patience. Sean chuckled to himself, knowing that there was nothing behind the door. Knowing that this “assignment” was only intended to train her.
“This is stupid.” She responded. She then reached up and pulled off her goggles. The alley way faded away and she was left standing in a blank, white room. She stormed out of the room, giving Sean a vicious look on the way out. She walked into a large, dimly lit room. There were three layers. On each side of the room were computers lined. Up the center of the room was a staircase that led up to a main console. Then, she found Greg.
“Greg, what was the point of that?” She raised her head and shot an angry look. He looked back at her, completely emotionless. He had short brown hair. He was wearing a suit. Black. As usual. She stared back at him. Waiting for a response that she could be satisfied with.
"You failed, as usual." he looked away, bored. "You have so much potential, yet you always manage to fail training, how is this possible? I was attempting to teach you a lesson in patience."
"What do you mean I failed, how could I fail a training exercise where all you do is wait?" Leah was angry. She knew in the back of her mind that she should not be yelling at Greg, but she did so anyway. Nobody else did. Somebody has to yell at him sometime.
"You failed because you did not w--" he suddenly stopped. Leah looked up at him, wondering why he stopped in mid-sentence. She saw his face, it looked frozen. As she started to look around more, she saw that everybody appeared to be frozen.
"Is this your guy's idea of a cruel trick? I took off my goggles, I should be out of the training simulator. Let me out. Now." Leah yelled. she then ran up to Greg and punched him in the face as hard as she could. "How do you like that?" she mumbled.
She started to look around and noticed that everything appeared to be getting colder. She could feel the room temperature changing, getting colder and colder. At this point, Leah was confused whether to be mad, or afraid. Although the training simulator operators sometimes play jokes, this was too much. She wanted this to end.
"I'm done. Let me out. Next time I won't fail my missions." her voice broke on the end, she was beginning to shiver. I want this to stop, she thought. Why isn't anybody stopping this?, she was trying to remain calm. It wasn't working as well as she had hoped.
She looked up at the clock and noticed that it was still ticking. Weird, she thought. I guess everything isn't frozen. She then looked at her wrist watch and saw that it too was ticking. What is going on?
She decided she could do nothing other than wait. So that is what she did. She looked at the clock every five minutes, wondering when this nightmare would end.
Eventually, it did. Leah noticed that it was begging to get warmer, closer to a typical temperature. She stood up and walked back towards the simulator to take off her goggles. Right as she went to take off her goggles, people started to move.
"ait! Ouch!" Greg yelped. Everybody in the room turned back to him. Leah ran up to him. "What did you just do Leah?" he stared at her. His face was not his usual composed, and collected look, but it was now one of anger. "All I'm trying to do is train you, teach you some lessons and you punch me?" he continued, anger coursing through his voice.
"What are you talking about? You guys trapped me in the simulator! I waited for at least an hour for you guys to let me out." she responded quickly. "See just look at the time." she pulled up her watch and saw that it was 3:47. "Well, my clock must be busted, it's showing that its 3:47, when really it should be at least 2:47." Leah sighed, now she had to find a new watch.
"Leah, my clock says 3:47 too, what did you say happened?" Greg asked, looking confused.
"I already told you. You guys were frozen. I waited for at least an hour then it started to get warmer and you all started to move again." Leah started getting angry. "This is not a funny joke."
"Leah, we are not joking with you." Greg sounded steady now. He looked at Leah again. "Leah, coming with me." it was not a question. Leah walked up the steps and followed him into the back, where his office was.
"Explain to me what happened again, please." Greg asked. Leah sighed.
"I was stuck in the simulator for at least an hour. You guys were all frozen." Leah sounded bored now.
"Did you do anything while you were frozen?" Greg asked.
"No."
"You sure?"
"Yes, Greg, I'm sure. Oh. Wait. I did do something."
"And?"
"I punched you in the face." responded Leah, a smile on her face.
"You punched me in the face?"
"Yes."
"Leah, can you stop time?"