jml297

‘I’ll be there in a tick!’

And that’s all it really took, one second. One second between everything being perfectly normal and happy in Ivan’s world, and the sudden shift where nothing was the same again. All it ever really takes is one moment, a heartbeat, a lapse in judgement or concentration. But once it’s done, it cannot be undone.

Ivan could pinpoint the moment that had been the catalyst of change in his life. It was something that he dwelt on to such an extent that it became an obsession. He didn’t think it was unusual in the circumstances. But as time passed, those closest to him became concerned when he returned again and again to the idea that if he could only have topped time for one second, just one second, that everything would have been different.

‘But you can’t. That’s the thing. You can’t stop time. You can’t go back in time. Not only that, you have to accept what’s happened and move on. As hard as that is, Ivan, you can’t keep obsessing over this.’

It was difficult to hear, and harder still to stop talking about it when it was consuming his waking hours. There was a comfort of sorts in knowing that he wasn’t the only person who felt this way. Thank goodness for the internet, and for its welcoming forums and chat rooms where, if you persevered long enough, you’d find other people that understood where you were coming from.

There’d been some false starts along the way, including some sites where the opinions were extreme or so beyond the realm of possibility that Ivan felt a sense of wonder at how divorced from reality some people could be. By now, he’d stopped sharing his discoveries with his friends and family, and had found ways to move the conversation on when questions around how he spent his spare time were asked. Omission was easier than lying.

Then, in one of the groups he was actively involved in, there was a flurry of messages about a prototype for a device that would stop time. Not for everyone, not for an indefinite period, but for one second. It was called Project TokTik, which created waves of discussion around the ability to turn back time. Ivan knew that while there was nothing now that could return what he had lost to him, the idea of something which might help prevent future despair in others provided a glimmer of hope. The ability to pause time for one second would have been enough for him, and now he knew that he would do whatever he could to help it be a reality for others.

Ivan was selected as part of a small group of people to trial the instrument. It could be used only once to pause time for one second. As he waited for the pivotal moment, the meaning of time changed for Ivan. Every second seemed to count now.

This piece was written to a prompt on the Writer’s Digest website. Not a Second Wasted: someone has a magical instrument that can only be used once.

Photo: timer