Back to Main Page · Author: Iron Nick
Greg Price went to visit his grandfather at the retirement community. Greg was seventeen years old, and his grandfather was seventy. His grandfather had always looked older than he was for as long as Greg could remember. After his wife died three years ago, Grandfather Price had become despondent. He gave most of his belongings to his children and most of his savings to charity and moved into the retirement community. Greg drove through downtown, which separated his parents' subdivision from where the retirement community was situated.
He arrived at 10:00 a.m. His grandfather greeted him at the door of his bungalow. "Come in, Greg, come in. I'm glad you came so soon." He showed Greg in and offered him a seat.
"No problem, grandpa," said Greg, "What's so important?" Greg took a seat on the sofa.
His grandfather paced back and forth a minute or two then took a box down from a shelf on the wall. He handed the box to Greg. "Greg, you're my favorite grandchild. You're the only one who ever visits when not forced to by your parents like your cousins and brother. I want you to have that."
Greg looked at his grandfather and saw the love in his eyes. It almost choked Greg up. He looked down at the wooden box and opened it. Inside was a bracelet. It was like a watch, only instead of a watch face, it had a sundial. Instead of Roman numerals around the dial, it had Asian characters. Greg took it out and weighed it in his hand. "Thanks, grandpa."
His grandfather looked at him and chuckled, "You don't even know what it is, boy."
"It's a bracelet."
"Yeah, but it's much more than that. I found that when I was stationed in Korea. Found it in the ruins of a temple. Had no idea what it was until I got back to the states."
"What is it?"
"See those characters?" He watched Greg nod. "Each one stands for an hour of the day. When there's a full moon, like tonight, that little bracelet will stop time for exactly fourteen minutes and forty seconds any time a day while the full moon lasts. I can't tell you how long it took me to figure it out, and how luck I was to do so."
Greg tried not to look at his grandfather like he had gone senile. "It only works if there's a full moon out?"
"No, the moon doesn't have to be out. It just has to be in that phase of its cycle, Usually about forty-eight hours. All you do is twist the dial there, and it starts clicking back to its original place."
Greg twisted the dial. It became eerily quiet. He could feel the sundial ticking in his hand. He looked at his grandfather. The old man stood motionless in front of him. Greg grew worried. He jumped up and went over to grandpa. He touched the old man's hand. It was warm, but still the man did not move. Greg circled him. He noticed a clock on the wall above the sofa had stopped. He put the sundial on his wrist and walked over to the window and parted the blinds. He could see the driveway leading into the community. A car was stopped in the driveway. He saw an elderly man walking his dog. The man and the dog were motionless just like his grandfather. Greg shook his head and looked again, but nothing had changed. He walked back to the sofa and sat down. He picked up a wooden and cork coaster off the coffee table and let it go. The coaster hung suspended in mid-air. Greg's eyes bulged. "Ho-ly shit!" he wanted to say, but no sound left his mouth. He suspended a few more objects and tried in vain to turn on electrical appliances. Finally, his time in suspended time ran out and sound returned. The coaster smacked down onto the coffee table, and two throw pillows plopped onto the couch. Greg was standing to the side of his grandfather.
The old man turned to Greg, "Ah, I see you figured it out."
Greg just stared at he dial and nodded, "Uh, huh."
"Listen to me, boy," said the old man. Greg turned his eyes to his grandfather's, "Boy, that is one powerful device. I probably don't need to say this to you, but promise me you won't use it to rob a bank or rape a girl, or put an enemy in front of a speeding car."
"Sure, Grandpa," said Greg, "I'll do anything you say. I promise."
"I know, son." The old man put his hand on Greg's shoulder. "I know you well enough to know you wouldn't use that to really hurt someone; that's why I'm giving it to you. Let me warn you, though." He tightened his grip on Greg's shoulder, "Every time you use it, it ages you. "I don't know by how much, but I imagine I have the body of an eighty-year old man now, so be careful and don't go nuts with it. Understand, son?"
"Yes, sir," said Greg. He smiled at his grandfather.
"OK, I know you're chomping at the bit to use that thing, but be careful and remember: only fourteen minutes and forty seconds. Oh, and you can only use it once an hour. Have fun, but be careful. I don't want to see on the news a report about too much weird shit happening."
"Thanks, Grandpa," Greg hugged his grandfather, "I promise to be careful." His Grandfather patted him on the back, and Greg left.
As Greg left the retirement community, he checked his watch. It was now 10:30. He thought he would go downtown to try out the device again. First he stopped by a drug store for some supplies. He bought a pair of sharp scissors, some safety pins, a tube of superglue, and a black magic marker. He then went downtown, found a parking place, walked to a sidewalk café and had a seat. He ordered a Coke and waited. When it was 11:25, we left the café and ducked into an alley. He turned the dial. Everything came to a halt. He jumped up, grabbed his bag of supplies and headed down the sidewalk. He first came upon a well-dressed man, who seemed to be brushing off a homeless man who was asking for money. Greg took the man's wallet from the suit jacket pocket and found seventy-four dollars inside. He took the cash and stuffed it in the homeless man's shirt pocket and moved on. He came up behind two women walking down the sidewalk. He walked in front of them to see what they looked like. They were both around thirty. One was about 5'7 with long red hair clamped up on the back of her head. She was thin with small breasts and long legs. She wore a floral print skirt that came down to her knees and a red blouse. Greg walked behind her again and lifted her skirt. The woman was wearing French cut red panties. They looked silk, but Greg checked the label and found they were synthetic. He ran his hands over her ass for a few seconds, and then he pulled the skirt back down, took out his pair of scissors and made a cut from the hem all the way up to the waistband. The skirt zipped at the side, so the zipper was not in the way. Greg then examined the other woman.
She was about 5'4 with shoulder length blonde hair pulled back over her ears. She was just a bit overweight with medium size breasts and wide hips. She wore an airy royal blue skirt that came to about three inches over her knees. She also had on a white blouse and a vest made out of light material that matched the skirt. Greg took two of the safety pins and held them in his mouth. He then carefully doubled up the back of her skirt and pinned the fold to the waistband, thus exposing about forty percent of her skimpy white panties. Greg stood back and admired his work. He looked at the first woman's hair and took out the tube of super glue. He squeezed a small strip of glue onto the woman's hair clip, so that when the glue dried, she would not be able to unclamp it. Greg looked at his sundial. It had revolved about three fourths of the way. "About three minutes or so left," he thought. He looked across the street and saw a hotdog vendor. A young woman had just gotten a dog and was about to take a bite. Greg ran across the street. The woman was probably in her mid-twenties with thick brunette, curly hair that hung to the middle of her back. She was about 5'6 and wore a tan pantsuit. He took the hotdog and shoved it into the woman's mouth. He then smeared some mustard from the dog onto his finger and gave the woman a mustard mustache. He wiped his finger off in her ear then ran back across the street. He found a good vantage point that was not too close to the two women he had pranked and waited.
Time whirred back into motion. The well-dressed man blew off the homeless man and walked on. The two women strolled on down the sidewalk. Greg heaved a sigh of relief as neither noticed any differences. The first woman's altered floral skirt swung open, giving everyone behind her a view of her panties. The other woman strolled along too, totally unaware her skirt was now pinned up. Greg looked across the street. The woman at the hotdog stand was gagging. She finally spit out the extremely large bite of hotdog she had bitten off. The hotdog vendor looked at her strangely and offered the embarrassed woman a napkin. Greg turned his attention back to the two women, who were unknowingly showing the world their panties and watched them turn a corner.