Stopping the World

“...What?” I asked, not understanding. He shook his head.

“Never mind,” he said, but now it was my turn to disagree.

“No, Michael. Tell me. What do you mean?”

“I was given the world for my tenth birthday,” he said. “Before you got it, Mom and Dad originally gave it to me.”

“Why didn’t they tell me this? And how come you don’t have it right now, instead of me?” I asked him.

“You didn’t know about it because they made sure you were out of the room when they gave it to me. And then they didn’t tell you about it because a little while after they gave it to me... I accidently stopped it,” he said. My mouth fell open in shock. So this had happened before?

“You what? Well, how... how did you get things back to normal?” I asked, hoping this would lead to a solution so that I could unstop it myself now.

“Well, luckily, or this could be seen as unfortunately, for me, Mom was right near me at the time, and I panicked, so I touched her,” he explained. “And well, she... unfroze. She realized what I had done, and managed to get the world going again. But after she did, she took it from me and told me that I couldn’t have it; because she couldn’t trust me with it. That was the unfortunate part. And so, when you turned ten, her and Dad decided to trust you with it instead. And they could for awhile, but now... you can see they obviously shouldn’t have.”

“If that’s supposed to be funny, it’s not,” I said seriously, “but do you remember how she unstopped it?”

He shook his head. “It was a long time ago, Marley, and the only thing I can remember is that she somehow took it apart... but I don’t know. I wouldn’t try it.” His eyes suddenly widened, and he looked at me. “Holy crap... you don’t have it with you, do you?”

“Why?” I asked, confused now. “Shouldn’t I?”

“No,” he said, and continued with what he had been doing before. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”

“What?” I asked. He turned to me as he shoved more food into his bag.

“Why would you bring it here? Are you crazy?” he asked.

“What’s the big deal? I couldn’t just leave it!” I exclaimed. “Those people would’ve taken it!”

“That’s exactly the point, Marley! Those people you ran into... they want it! And since you have it... they’re probably on their way here, right now, to retrieve it! The world has a tracker, Marley!”

“What?” I asked, taking it out. Michael looked even more panicked when I did. “You have to be kidding me. So they know where I am?”

“Yes, and if I were you, I’d get out of here... now!” he said. “The only reason I came back was to get supplies.”

“So... you’re running?” I asked. He shrugged.

“I don’t see any other option,” he said. “We don’t know what those people want, and for all I know... they could want me, too, seeing as I already got in trouble for stopping the world before. Mom held them off of me before, but now... well, there’s been more of a time lapse of how long it’s been stopped.”

“Wait... you encountered them before? Or Mom did?” I asked. “How did she get them to go away? What stopped them?”

“I don’t know, Marley. Mom handled that part,” he said, zipping the bag shut.

“Well, maybe I should just unfreeze her, then,” I started, as I reached toward her. Michael stopped me.

“I wouldn’t do that. Because that could just make things... ten times worse than they already are,” he said. “When I unfroze Mom, it was right after I stopped the world, and even so... she was still confused. While they’re frozen, it’s still as if they’re living, Marley. They’re kind of going on in what you would call, frozen time. So if you unfroze her... I wouldn’t even know what would happen. But she could possibly just lose it.”

“But I don’t get it, Michael. How did you not freeze and she did?” I asked. He shrugged.

“I guess because it was me who initially stopped the world first,” he said. “And I had to touch Mom for her to join me. But I honestly have no idea; that’s just a guess.”

“So what do I do?” I asked him. He stopped himself, and hesitated.

“Look, you could... you could come with us, if you want to,” he offered. “Anna’s outside in the car, waiting for me. If you did come with us, though... you’d have to leave the world behind. I came here for supplies like I said to last us, and uh... honestly, there was the slightest bit of hope in me that I would come home to see Mom unfrozen, but obviously, she wasn’t and still isn’t. And quite frankly, if she had been... she probably would’ve tried to call you or me right after the world had stopped.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “And thanks for the offer, but um... I think it’s better if I just try to figure this out. I need to help Nick and try to find him; considering he’s where he is because of me.”

“You’re brave,” he said honestly.

“No, I’m just... in love,” I said, smiling a little at that thought alone, even though everything else was going horribly at the moment. “It does that to you.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “Well, I hope you find him. But Marley, you should know... this may not turn out the way you want it to. And something bad is bound to come out of this.”

“I know,” I said sadly, “but I’m going to do all that I can to try and prevent that.”

“Good luck,” he said, as a horn sounded from outside. He gestured to the front door. “That’s Anna, so... I better get going. And you should too... seeing as those people are probably on their way here right now.” I nodded as he grabbed both of his bags and started heading toward the front door.

“Mookoo?” I called just before he left. I thanked God for the moment he turned around and didn’t object to the childhood nickname. “I’m sorry for missing every holiday since last Christmas.”

“I’m sorry for missing last Thanksgiving,” he apologized in return. Suddenly, noise was coming from above the house. A helicopter?

“You better go,” I said. He said, ‘You too’, before we both nodded to each other and he was out the front door. I headed toward the back door where I had entered from.

I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I run for a little while longer or surrender? I looked at where the world was in my bag.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to decide.

“Freeze! Put your hands where we can see them!”