Stopping the World

“The Eiffel Tower seems more romantic when it’s just us, no?” I asked Nick, before winking. “Especially at night, when it’s all lit up.”

“Yeah,” he said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. I smiled. “I have a question, though...”

“Yes, Nick, I will marry you,” I said dramatically, knowing this probably wasn’t what he was going to ask. But he took it seriously, seeing as his eyes nearly fell out of his head when I said that. I laughed. “I was just kidding! But seriously, what?”

“How long is the world going to stay like this?” he asked, after composing himself. I shrugged.

“I’m not sure,” I said. “Although, if I caused it to stop spinning, I’m pretty sure I can be the one that can cause it to start spinning again. But that’s just an assumption.”

“Okay... well, has this ever happened before?” he asked next.

“Again, I’m not sure,” I said. “Nick, what’s with all of the questions? You’re the one who just said to enjoy this, remember?”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, looking out at the view the Eiffel Tower offered. I put my arms around him and snuggled against him.

“Why so serious?” I questioned meekly. He gave a half smile. “Now this is the Nick I was kind of expecting earlier. But guess what? My serious stage has kind of passed, so... ooh! Let’s get off of this tower, and see that fountain!” I said, pointing below. He looked at it as soon as I said about it. “It’s frozen, just like everything else is!”

“Marley!” Nick exclaimed as I made my way back down the tower. He started to follow me. Once I got to solid ground, I made my way towards it, with Nick still following.

I touched one of the streams of water in the fountain, but unlike what the bird had done, it stayed frozen. Hm... made because this was a lot bigger... it stayed frozen.

“Here, try this,” Nick said, patting the fountain’s ledge, making it all of a sudden spark to life. Or, I guess I should say unfreeze. I gave him a look.

“Well, I kind of liked it frozen,” I said, tapping where he just tapped, to all of a sudden see the fountain refreeze. It kind of startled me, so I backed up a little away from it. I wasn’t really expecting that to happen.

“Hm... so we can not only unfreeze things... but we can refreeze them too,” Nick said. I nodded, not really understanding this. I really should have asked my parents what would have happened if I did ever actually stop the world; even if by accident. But I guess they trusted me enough that it would never happen.

What a disappointment it would be if they ever found out about this.

“Well, I say we enjoy this...” I said to Nick, as I dug out the world from my bag. It was really starting to take a toll on my back; I still couldn’t understand why it needed to be heavy all of a sudden, Nick’s explanation for it or not. “Where should we go next? I hear Japan is awesome! Although, it may not be so much now considering they’re still recovering from the earthquake they had recently... China, maybe?” I hadn’t noticed that Nick was in a whole different world until I looked at him. “What?”

“Wasn’t the moon just, over there, when we were on top of the tower?” Nick said, pointing to where he assumed the moon had been in comparison to where it now was. I shrugged.

“So? Your point?”

“Marley, if the world is frozen... it shouldn’t be spinning,” he pointed out. I nodded at this. “And time is frozen, meaning... shouldn’t it stay day or night depending on the time it was whenever we stopped the world?

“Well, yeah,” I said. “That’s why the moon is still here, silly. Because it will remain nighttime for however long this world stopping thing lasts.”

“Yeah, I agree. So then why is it moving?” he asked. I still didn’t get what he was referring to.

“What do you mean? It’s not moving. Look, it was probably just at a different angle on top of the tower, okay? And now it looks like it moved because of the different location.”

“Maybe, but Marley...”

“What?”

“The clouds,” was all he said, pointing up to them. I looked as well, to see that the clouds were... moving. I scratched my head in concentration, but then I noticed what was happening. Instead of them moving like you typically saw day by day, they were moving as if on their own. It showed that the world itself wasn’t moving, but instead... the rest of outer space continued to move around it.

“Aw, I see what you mean,” I said finally. “But we just stopped the world, remember? Not the entire universe. So everything not sitting here on earth or in the air in close proximity is still moving.” Nick just looked at me then, probably because I had just spoken pretty intelligently. If you knew me, this was not the way I usually talked. Even I knew that.

“You’re right,” he finally said. I smiled.

“Now, stop worrying,” I said. “Honestly, where was this when I was expecting it, oh, in that desert in Australia? Everything’s fine, so let’s just enjoy this. Anyways, like I asked, should we head to China, next?”

“Sure. I’ve always wanted to see the Great Wall,” Nick answered. I made a noise at that, which he laughed at. “What?”

“Well, being a Jonas Brother and all, I would’ve assumed you’ve already been there,” I said. He rolled his eyes.

“Well, being a... keeper of earth, I was thinking you would’ve been there already yourself,” he countered. I laughed.

“Keeper of earth? You make me sound like an old wise one or something,” I said. “But oddly enough, no, I haven’t been there. Mainly because I didn’t want to go by myself. I haven’t been to a lot of places, actually.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s no fun by yourself,” I answered, sticking my tongue out at him. “How about you, though? Never been there for tour, or something?”

“Oddly enough, no,” he said. “We’ve been to North America, of course, South America, and Europe. Joe went to a country in Africa once, but that was just to help out.”

“Okay, point made,” I said, as he grabbed my arm. I held the earth, and flipped it so we were looking at Asia. “China it is, then.” I pushed my finger in the general area I thought China was, and after a minute or so of doing that, it was brought up in front of me. Hm... it just took a little extra time, but the world was still working as it was before, I realized. It just took a little more effort as well. “Hm...”

“Really? Your earth has a search box?” he asked, as I clicked on it. I found it interesting that it still worked as well. I nodded in response to Nick’s question.

“Yep. One of the reason’s I love this thing,” I said. “Like Google: I don’t really know where I’d be without it.” He laughed at that, as I searched ‘the beginning of the Great Wall’, and it gave me a location. I clicked on it, and suddenly... we were there.

>>------------------------------------------------->>

“Geeze, who knew this thing was so damn long?” I asked Nick. We had been walking it for about an hour now.

“That would be just about everyone else except you, Marley,” he answered, as he switched the bag to his opposite shoulder. He had offered to carry it for me, the gentleman. But now, with that remark, he wasn’t being so gentle.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but... I’m tired. Don’t they have like, places to stop along here or something?” I asked, feeling the sun starting to get to me now. Unlike where we were in the U.S. and in France, where it was dark, this place was definitely in the daytime.

“Aw, so you do know something about this place,” he said, smiling. I smacked him on the arm, now getting some energy. He laughed as he held me off. “Okay, okay. So we can either rest somewhere here, wherever the next stop place is, and in the daytime... or, we could transport somewhere else, where it’s nighttime.”

“I like the nighttime idea better,” I said. He nodded. “Let’s go, um... home, I guess. Because I don’t really have the energy to look up a place to just sleep in at the moment.” I grabbed my bag from him, took out the earth, and found home. This earth was just like the internet; having a search section and a home button. When Nick saw that, he laughed.

“Unbelievable,” he said. “You don’t even need a computer with this thing.” I put my finger on the home option. Suddenly, we were in Nick’s house. I smiled as I started to make my way to the nearest room; Nick’s. He was getting a roommate whether he liked it or not.

“Wait... why is my house your home button?” he asked, following me. I shrugged.

“Because...” I trailed off, knowing I was about to reveal something to him that I hadn’t even had the chance to admit to myself. “Your house is more like my home now, instead of mine. I mean, I love my parents and all, but you and your family... you guys are just like more of a home to me. Or what I picture a home to be, anyhow.” We had made it to his room, but he stopped me from laying down on his bed, by grabbing my hand and turning me around to face him. I looked up at him, to see him looking at me genuinely.

“Really?” he asked. I smiled, and looked down then; feeling modest all of a sudden. He put a finger under my chin to make me look back up.

“Well, yeah,” I finally said. “I... no matter what happens in our future Nick, you and your family will always be important to me. Nothing can change that.” He kissed me then, sensitively by still romantic, before pulling away.

“You, Marley, will always be important to us. Especially to me,” he stated in return, as his forehead was placed against mine. I smiled as I took hold of his hand, and turned around. I laid down on his bed, and he soon joined me. As we got under the covers, I snuggled into him.

“I love you, Nick,” I whispered, not really knowing if he heard me or not. I soon got my answer, though.

“I love you too, Marley,” he said, as he wrapped his arm around me. I smiled, and soon we were both off into a deep slumber.