The Way Time Moves
I always hated lecture halls, but this one was the absolute worst. It was cramped, over crowded and it always smelled like eggs. I can’t stand egg. And of course this was the one I had to take my final in. I was going to be in here for hours. The professor was passing out the tests, and I had never been so nervous. I barely studied, I wish I wasn’t such a procrastinator. He slipped mine onto my desk.
“Thanks.” I mumbled. I watched as he made his way to the front of the room.
“ You may begin” he said in a deep ominous voice. He was so creepy. I flipped it over and read the first question. Was this even english? I tried to slow down my thoughts, they were racing and I couldn’t focus. I felt kind of cold suddenly, but only for a few seconds. I looked up to see if anyone else had the same puzzled look I must have on my face. No one did. But something was, off. It seemed as if everyone was slow, moving in slow motion. I blinked a couple times, thinking I was just hungry. I had skipped breakfast. But nothing changed. I looked up at the clock. I counted the seconds, one mississippi, two mississippi, three mississippi. The second hand only moved one in that time. I glanced down at my test, and tried to make my thoughts speed up again. The cold feeling overwhelmed me again, and when I looked back at the clock, everything seemed normal again. My friend beside me nudged me.
“ Hey, you ok?” she whisperd. I must have looked at scared as I felt.
“ No talking!” the professor shouted at us. She turned back to her paper and I did the same. Something was up. But I couldn’t figure it out now, I had a final to write. I would think about this later.
□□□
I pushed open the door to our dorm, Sasha came in after me.
“ Dude, what happened back there. ” She said and sat beside me on my bed.
“ You went all pale, and you looked kind of faded, or translucent. As if you weren’t really there “ Sasha continued. She loved showing off her big descriptive words. She’d been doing that since she started her english major.
“ I don’t know. I was reading the first question, and then everything was moving in slow motion. And after 10 seconds, everything went back to normal.” She stared at me like I was crazy.
“ Well... do you think you could do it again?” She asked cautiously.
“ I guess” I replied. I tried slowing down my thoughts again. The cold sensation came over me again. I looked into Sasha’s eyes again. I could see her mouth moving, but it was very slow, and I couldn’t hear her. I tried slowing down my thoughts even more, and I felt colder. I watched as her lips moved slower and slower. I peered down at my watch. It look five seconds for the second had to move once this time. I focused and tried to speed up again. I stared at her face as time sped up and suddenly I could hear her again.
“What happened? You looked weirder this time, and paler. I could practically see the wall through you. Your eyes lost focus “
“ I… I did it again. “ I stutterd
“ Did what?” she asked.
“ I think I just controlled the speed of time. “ She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She stared at me, and I just stared back. This must sound ridiculous, but I didn’t know how else to explain it. “ What else did I look like, other than pale and translucent? Was I moving faster?”
“ I, I guess, yeah, You were. And then at one point you moved even faster, then you came back to normal. “ She managed to convey. Then she looked at me with an expression like she had just discovered the cure for a terminal illness.
“What?” I said.
“ You could use this to your advantage. Like in tests, or to give you more time to study.” Her eyes lit up with excitement. She was right. This was great. I could do whatever I wanted. I was so busy celebrating I barely heard my phone ringing.
“ One sec Sasha. Hello? Yeah, this is Izzie.” Sasha must have seen my face fall as I listened to the voice on the other end of the phone. “Ok,” I started, “ I’m on my way. “ I hung up and started to get my shoes on.
“ What’s going on?” Sasha asked, as I started to pull my jacket on. I kept my eyes on the floor, I didn’t want her to see the tears in my eyes.
“ It’s my mom. She’s in the hospital. I have to go.” I rushed out the door and slammed it behind me.
🕒🕒🕒
I was beside my moms bed, holding her hand. It was awful to see her like this, with tubes in her mouth and heart monitor and god know what else the other machines were doing. The room was small, and it was dark. The window was so little I could barely tell if it was raining or not. It was cold, and the blue walls didn’t help. I felt like I was going to suffocate. A few doctors walked in and waited at the end of her bed.
“ Miss Leyva, I’m Dr. Mckendrick. If now is a good time, we would like to discuss your mother's condition with you.”
I glanced at them. The doctor who had spoken was young, maybe 25. He looked like he knew what he was doing though.
“ Hi. Yes, now is good.” I said as I wiped away my tears.
“ Your mother went into cardiac arrest, we have a few theories as to why…” My focus trailed off. I couldn’t think with everything going on around me. “ So when you’ve decided which course of action you’d like to take, have the nurses page us. “ He finished. They turned around to leave.
“ Dr. Mckendrick, “ I began. He turned around as the other two left the room“ I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you the first time. Do you have the time to explain it again?” He looked into my eyes with a gentle look across his face. He sat on the stool beside me.
“ Of course,” he said to me in a soft voice. “ These times can be difficult. So try and calm your thoughts” he said as he placed his hand on my forearm. I felt the cold feeling come over me again and I watched as the seconds on the clock slowed down. But then a sense of panic filled my head as I looked at the doctor. And saw he had a terrified look on his face. He kept his hand on my arm, gripping tighter in fear.
“ What, what’s happening?” He said in a voice that was close to hysteria. “ What did you do?” I realized he must be feeling the affects too. I quickly pulled both of us out of it. I watched as the fear in his eyes slowly lessened. He pulled his hand away from my arm in horror.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t know that would happen! “ I said quickly as I stood up and took a step away.
“ How… what… did you do? “ He stuttered. He looked at me like I was some kind of witch.
“ I… slowed down time. And I know that seems crazy, and I’m still trying to figure why and how it works, so please don’t freak out and call the police or something! “ I was freaking out. I didn’t know what he was going to do or how he would react. He slowly approached me with caution in his eyes.
“ How have you used your, power, so far? “ He asked carefully.
“ I just figured out I had it this morning during my math final. I guess if I’m in physical contact with someone, they feel the effects too “ I replied.
“ This is, amazing! Imagine all the lives you could save by giving doctors more time, or search and rescue teams, or…” He was talking so fast I could hardly keep up with him.
“ Wait !” I said “ I don’t even know what this is, or if it’s safe. I don’t want anyone to know about this. “ His face fell. “ So promise me you’ll keep this to yourself.” I say assertively. He paused , then sighed.
“ Alright, fine. I won’t tell.”
“ Thank you.” I replied. I could feel the tension from my shoulder slipping away that I didn’t realize was there. He left the room quickly. I sat down on the chair beside my mother’s bed, put my head on her arm and fell asleep. I woke up several hours later to the sound of my mom’s heart monitor going crazy. I yelled for a doctor. Dr. Mckendrick rushed into the room along with two nurses. One of them grabbed me and dragged me outside.
“ You need to wait out here, darling. We will come get you in a minute. “ She sat me down on the chairs outside the room and ran back into the room. I waited for what felt like hours for them to come back out. If only I knew how to speed up time. Dr. Mckendrick finally came out of the room.
“ She’s stable, but it’s not looking good. Izzie, you should start preparing yourself. She may not last that much longer.” I felt my heart sink into my stomach. My throat started to ache with the feeling that I might cry.
“ Let me know if you want to consider my earlier proposal. “ He said quietly. He then turned around and started to walk away. I paused.
“ Wait! ,” I shouted. He stopped walking and slowly turned around. I checked over my shoulder to see if anyone was around. A few nurses were chatting a few rooms down and a few people sleeping beside loved ones, but other than them, the icu was empty. It was almost creepy, how quiet it was. With only the sound of monitors beeping, the moon reflecting off the tile felt very ominous. I stood up and walked towards him, pulling my sweater around me tighter. I stopped about a half a metre in front of him and looked up into his deep brown eyes. “ I… I’ll do it. Slow down time. If you promise to try and save my mother. And you can’ tell anyone.” He hesitated before replying.
“ Alright. Come with me. “ He said as he turned around and continued down the dark hallway. I followed about three steps behind him. We turned a few corners and entered a dimly lit corridor. He opened the third door on the left and opened it. “ After you,” he said. I entered the room. It was pitch black. I turned back to face him. I vaguely saw his reaching for something on the wall close to the doorframe. He flicked on the lights. I looked around the room. It was about the size of a large walk in closet. There was a desk facing a wall and some x-rays against a surface lit from the back. There was a bookshelf in the far corner filled with medical journals and big science textbooks. I heard the door close. I spun around to face him again.
“ What is this place? “ I asked him.
“ It’s my office. I thought if you did your thing here, no one would see us. “ He told me.
“Don’t you actually have to touch my mother to fix her “ I said slightly sarcastically. He smirked at me and sat down at his desk.
“ I need to figure out what's wrong first. “ He stalled for a few seconds. “ So, whenever you're ready.“ I walked towards him and sat on his desk. I took a deep breath and placed my hand on his shoulder. I closed my eyes and focused on making my thoughts slow. It was harder this time, probably because my mind was racing. But I still managed to do it. I held up my watch and looked at it as I saw the seconds slow down. The cold feeling came back. Dr. Mckendrick shivered.
“ You feel that to? “ I said, feeling relieved that I had someone who kind of understood. He nodded and looked down at his desk.
“ I never told you my name. “ He said. It was hard to focus on talking while trying to slow down time.
“ What do you mean, it was practically the first thing you said to me.“ I replied in a playful tone.
“ I meant my first name. “ He corrected.
“ Oh. “ I said, slightly embarrassed.
“ It’s Grayson. “ He said in a calming tone.
“ It’s kind of hard to control time with you talking. “ I said. He put his hands up as if to say sorry. I felt the cold more intensely now. The seconds seemed to take forever to change.
“ Ok there. Now you can work. We are now moving 7x faster. Or they’re going 7x slower. I don’t know. Either way we have more time.” I said. He smiled at me and opened his laptop and began to type. I scanned the walls, looking for something to do. I saw a bunch of degrees framed on the wall. The dark grey blue colour of the walls really accented the black furniture. I was starting to feel kind of tired. How long had it been? In my time. I looked at my watch and did the math. It had been fifty-five minutes. I’d never done it for this long. I ignored the feeling for what felt like hours, but was about five minutes. Then I started to feel light headed. “Hey Grayson, “ I started.
“ Yeah” he replied , not looking at me.
“ How much longer do you think you need to work? “
“ Uh… maybe 10 minutes. “
“ I’m not feeling so great. “ He stopped typing and placed his hand on my forehead.
“ I don’t feel hot. I’m just tired and lightheaded. “ He looked concerned.
“ It’s probably slowing down time taking a toll on you body. You should stop. It only been about 8 minutes for everyone else. Your mother can hang on for ten more minutes. “ I didn’t want to stop, but I felt like I might collapse, so I gave in.
“ Ok, “I said, and I focused on making my thoughts faster. I felt the cold feeling again and I watched as the second hand started to move faster. I waited for the cold feeling to disappear. That was the indicator that I was back at normal speed. But it didn’t come. I waited and waited, but it was still there.
“ What’s wrong? “ asked Grayson, noticing the worried look on my face.
“ It’s not working. “ I said. He went to say something, but he stopped. He probably didn’t know what to say. Neither did I. But I had an idea. It was risky. “ Grayson, I might have a way to get us out of this. “
“ Well, what is it? “ he asked anxiously.
“ If I let go of you, it might break curse, or whatever this is. “ I watched the blood drain from his face.
“ Izzie, I figured it out. How to fix your mother. If something happens to me, give this to Dr. Demusz. Tell him I had to leave suddenly, and that I told you to give this to him. So, try it. Let go. “He pushed a file folder over towards me with my mother’s name printed on the front. I looked at him. He had tears in his eyes. “ Don’t do anything stupid.” He said with a small smile.
“ Ok.” I whisperd. “ Thank you. If we both get out of this, we should get coffee or something.
You’ve been really great to me, and I’d love to be your friend, if you want that to.
“ Yeah. “ he said. I took deep breath, closed my eyes, and took my hand off his arm. I felt the cold feeling slowly disappear. Once it was fully gone, I opened my eyes to see Grayson, in the same place he was when I let go. He looked like he was asleep. I shook him and yelled at him. It was awful, seeing him like that. I couldn’t get him to wake up. I slowly backed away from him, with tears in my eyes. I felt empty. I had only just met him, and he was willing to sacrifice his life for my mother and I. I felt empty. I watched him from across the room. I saw something. I thought I was hallucinating again, so I stepped towards him. I looked closer and blinked a few times. It was really there. His eyes were fluttering. I looked right at him, and watched as his eyes opened.
“ Hey, I guess you were right.” He said in a slow groggy voice. I was overwhelmed with joy.
“ Yeah, I guess I was.” I said.He suddenly stood up and grabbed the file from the desk.
“ We have to go. Now, if your mother is going to live. “ He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door. We raced down the hallway. The sun was just coming up and it pierced through the windows. We rounded the corner into the hallway with my mother’s room in it. “ Wait here.” He half shouted at me. He ran into the room and started yelling a bunch of medical stuff. A bunch of people entered her room. After a few minutes of what sounded like chaos, there was clapping. Grayson poked his head through the doorway and said,
“ Congrats. You just saved you mother’s life.” I walked over and hugged him.
“ Thanks. “ I said with my arms still around him.
“Once you’ve said hello to her, how about that coffee?” He said after I released him.
“ Yeah,” I said. “ I’d like that.