Time Stoppers
verthing stopped. Everybody froze, except me. Why is it that everything
happens to other people, and nothing happens to me? I'll tell you why.
Because I'm a boring person, that's why. Anyway, this time, something
happened to me. I guess I'd better tell you why everything froze. Of course,
it was my fualt, and nobody else caused it, did they? No. Well, it happened
like this. My mother bought me a brand new watch, warning me not to break
it or even fiddle with the buttons. But the little buttons beckoned. So, as
you can imagine, I broke it. Hey, hang on a minute. You know I'm clumsy,
but I'd better give you some more infomation on myself before we get
involved in the story.
Firstly, my name is Jennifer Wilson. But all my friends call me Jenny. I look excactly like my mother. We both have long hair to our waists. Our noses I hate. They are kind of long and sharp, making my face too long and hidden behind my hair. My hobbies are reading, writing, drawing, you know the stuff. I'm turning 14 really soon, and to tell you the truth, I hate being a teenager. Actually, when you get to this age, you hate a lot of things. Like... sorry, I won't scare you with the things I hate. You know I'm clumsy, always breaking things, so can you keep a secret? I suppose it's not really a secret, but nobody knows except my family. Here it is: I've broken something every day since I was six! I'm so ashamed, but what can I do? Anyway, this watch of mine, I think when I broke it, it let off some sort of power, which froze the time...
It was a Saturday afternoon, the day after I got my watch. I was innocently looking at my watch, when a strange force knocked my watch out of my hands...O.K., That's not the real story. What really happened was that me, banana fingers, dropped the watch. And of course, I was grounded. But then a really strange thing happened. Mum came into my room, and said, "Jenny dear, I've changed my mind. You can go out and play." I was speechless. But without a word, I went outside.
For two hours, I played with my friend Racheal. But she was in a bad mood, so I eventually went inside. Mum was waiting for me. "Where have you been, young lady? I grounded you, remember? Now, you have just grounded yourself for another two weeks!" She spoke so sharply I winced. But I had to prostest. "But...but..." I whined. "No buts. In you go. And have a shower, too."
While I was in the shower, I thought about my watch, and groaned when I thought about what Mum would say. When I was drying myself, I noticed on the highest shelf of the bathroom, my watch, which I had hidden. I dragged the small stool that lay on it's side on the other side of the room. I stood on it, and grasped for my watch. "Oh, no," I moaned, as the watch clattered to the floor.
"You did what?" Mum shouted. "It was an accident! Really!" This was really too much. "Fine! I'll run away, then you'll be sorry!" I ran upstairs, and slammed my door behind me. Once I was in my room, I threw everything across my room, pulled out a large suitcase, and put everything I could see into it.
I had trouble escaping my house. But that's all the trouble I had. My bedrooms on the top floor, so I took drastic action. I poulled the sheets from my bed, and tied the together, and strung them out my window, like the superhero's do. Then, using my gymnastics skills, I swung myself out of my window. I landed softly and safely on the hedges below.
When I realized that I had left my suitcase behind, I had to go back and get it. I snuck past Mum, who was talking on the phone, grabbed my suitcase, then quickly pulled the sheets in. Then I ran downstairs, tripping over our cat Bubbles. I picked myseld up, and ran out the door. I walked along, my head bowed, and without realizing it, ran straight into a tree. My things fell out of my suitcase, and lay on the ground. I gathered them up, and headed on, my head up this time.
I had walked around three kilometres, when I realized it was getting dark. And I hadn't the faintest idea where I was. I had only one thing to do. I sat on the curb, and cried, the hot tears, streaming don my face.
I awoke the next morning, lying on a comforatable sofa bed, wrapped in warm sheets, and smelt the aroma of breakfast in the kitchen. Am I at home? I wondered, and shook my head, the memories of last nights adventures flowing through my head. Just then, a small girl aroung six or seven, wandered into the room. "Hi there!" I said brightly. "What's your name, then?" She just smiled shyly. Then an old lady hurried into the room.
The lady hustled the small girl out of the room, then smiled at me. "How are you feeling?" She asked kindly."Where am I?" I asked. "Somewhere nice," I heard the old lady say. "Now come and have breakfast." At the mention of the word, my stomache rumbled loudly. The old lady chuckled, then led me into the kitchen.
After breakfast, I went through my stuff I had hurriedly packed the day before. I gasped. There, at the bottom of the suitcase, was the watch, glistening in the sunlight which was streaming through the window on my left. Now was my chance to fiddle with those buttons. I reached for the buttons, the closest one...so close...nearly..."Ready for Morning Tea?" The small girl, now energised, skipped into the room. "Yeah, I'll be right there. Just give me a minute." I promised. "O.K." The little girl happily skipped out of the room. I reached again for the buttons. As my fingers touched on of the buttons, a small cat landed on my shoulder, scaring me so much, my fingers pressed all the buttons at once...
I decided to go and have lunch. My eye caught sight of the clock on the wall. It said five minutes late, and had apeared to stop. I'll tell the old lady. I dicided, and strode into the kitchen. "Umm, the clock.." I stopped short. The old lady was in mid step. She had a shocked look on her frozen face. "Call 000!" I shreiked, thinkig the old lady had had a heart attack or something. Then, seeing no-one was around, I called them myself. "Help! She's had a heart attack or something and she's all frozen looking..." I dropped the phone. There, in the hallway, was the little girl, the same shocked, frozen look on her face.
After racing around the house, and finding everthing frozen, including the cat, which was in mid leap, I was excuasted. Then I realized I was grasping my watch in my hand. At first I didn't realize the trembling, then the shaking, and then the watch clattered to the floor. I gasped. The watch! It then dawned on the me. The watch stopped the time! I couldn't believe it! But one question bothered me. Why didn't I freeze as well?
That night, I thought alot about this.I slept on the small sofa bed again. Then I thought about Mum...Mum! I jumped out of bed and threw all my stuff into the suitcase. I wondered if Mum had frozen too! I didn't want to think about it. But I had to face it some day. I was the only one. That's it. I thought. I'm going home!
I went to a telephone booth and was shocked. I was over seven miles from home! No wonder Mum couldn't contact me. If she was still human, I thought grimly. I flipped through the book, looking for the number for directions. I was in Thornleigh Dr, and I couldn't walk that far. Luckly, I had enough money for the bus. But the bus was in an hour. So I settled myself down for a sleep.
I awoke next with lights in my eyes. Bus lights! I smiled sleepily, and handed the bus driver my money. But I jolted awake quickly. He was frozen! The bus had been there all the time! And the automatic street lights must have come on while I was sleeping. So I decided to take matters into my own hands.
Since I had seen my bus driver drive the bus morning and afternoon everyday, I knew how to drive. And I knew I wouldn't be caught, because everybody was probably frozen. So I gunned the engine, glanced at the map, and sped away into the night. I stopped occasionally, to sleep every hour or so. Finally, I got to my steet. I dragged my feet up the Victorian steps, then called to my mother. To me relief, she called back, crying. I ran to her room, and hugged her. She smiled through the tears that were pouring down her face.
So, the spell was broken. It turned out it wasn't my watch. It was a turn in time that made it slow. And the reason I wasn't hit by it was that I had a method of time in my hand, and so did Mum. That method of time was my watch. Suddenly, while I was holding my watch, I felt a tug, the same tug I had felt before time stopped...
