The Pause Plan

Originally sent to newsletter subscribers in April, 2024. Modified in January, 2025. Sign up for the free newsletter now to receive exclusive stories months in advance.

May 13, 2024

…This will be my final entry. I’m so sorry.

#

March 28, 2016

The first birthday gift I got today was a weird one. It was sitting beside my bed when I woke up, a plain cardboard box with no card and no wrapping, just a single red bow.

Still groggy from the birthday celebrations last night, I gulped down the entire glass of water left on my nightstand before reaching for the box. I lifted the thin lid and the rest of the box sprung open, revealing a simple black watch with silver accents. The face glowed a bright green in my darkened room, displaying the time: 1:00. With a surge of panic, I reached over and clicked the side button of my phone. I let out a sigh of relief seeing that it was actually just 8:45. I could still make my 9:10 Biology class.

Squeezing my temples to fend off the incoming migraine, I slipped the watch onto my wrist and crawled out of bed. There was no time to shower, so I swished Listerine around my mouth while covering myself in deodorant. With a hat covering my mess of hair, I walked out into the brisk morning air.

Campus looked the same as always, bustling with activity as everyone rushed to reach their morning assignments on time, but something felt different, more alive, now that I was finally twenty one. I hustled across town as quickly as my hungover body would carry me. When Scott Hall was within sight, I glanced down at my watch. Even if the time was wrong, I could at least see how much time had passed.

To my mild annoyance, the time hadn’t changed. It still read 1:00.

I didn’t have time to deal with it then, though, so I took a deep breath, squinted my eyes against the sun, and pushed up the steepest hill on campus.

I had back-to-back classes in Scott Hall, and I think I drank about a gallon and a half of water in that time. When I finally left for the short walk to Sargent Labs, I was starting to feel a little better. And by the time I finished my two-hour biology lab, my final class of the day, I was pretty much back to normal. Tired and hungry, but no longer struggling to hold back vomit at every sudden movement or sound.

It may shock you to learn I had no food at the home I share with two other guys, so I stopped by Good Hombres for a couple slices of pizza on the walk home. I slumped down onto the old wooden bench to wait. The watch still read 1:00. I turned it over in my hands three or four times, but there was only one button with “Pause” written in tiny white letters along the edge of the watch face. There wasn’t a single other distinctive feature about it. No logo. No spinning wheel. Not even a charging port. Just that one single button labeled “Pause.”

I glanced up at the screen above the counter. Still a few minutes before my order would be ready, so I had some time to mess around with this thing. I pressed the button.

Immediately, the time started counting down. “What a dumb button,” I mumbled. “It says ‘pause’ but then it makes it start.” I shook my head. Then, I noticed something. The room had gone eerily silent. The cash register ceased chiming, the din of conversation fell to a halt, even the sizzling of the grills in the back were quiet. I looked up quickly, afraid I might be the cause of the awkward silence.

What I saw was even more confusing.

Everything had stopped. The clocks didn’t tick. No one moved. Spinning around, I saw cars frozen in time and space, leaves hanging in the air as if suspended by a string, people as still as a painting. It was amazing. Remembering my watch, I glanced down. Other than me, it seemed to be the only thing moving. It continued its hasty descent from its original time of one hour. It had already been two minutes.

With a trembling finger I reached down and pressed the “Pause” button once again.

“—der number seventeen!” All at once, everything resumed around me. No one looked around in confusion. No one seemed to realize they had just been frozen for over two minutes.

I looked back at my watch. The numbers had stopped at 57:49.

Even now, looking back on it, it’s hard to believe it was real. I decided not to tell anyone about it. Who knows what kind of cruel, awful things someone could do with this kind of power. No, I have to keep it a secret. No one can ever know.

I’m left with so many questions. How far does the effect reach? Is anyone else able to move through that time? Why was I given this watch? What happens when the time reaches zero?

#

April 2, 2016

When I woke up today, the watch was still sitting at 57:49. Almost fifty-eight minutes of freedom to do what I want, and I hadn’t used it at all. I just had a feeling that I would need to save that time for as long as I possibly could.

And I was right.

As I write now, the watch reads 56:23.

It happened on my walk back from class. It was a normal day, I was coming home from my last lab of the week. I tried so hard to make sure I didn’t have late classes on Friday, but it just couldn’t be avoided this time. It was after five when I finally emerged from the dark basement of Porter Labs out into the blinding light of the setting sun. My mood was already sour after getting fussed at by the grad student running the lab for nearly three hours, and the brightness didn’t help any. The only saving grace was that my walk home was away from the sun, letting its warmth spread over my back and protect me from the cold breeze.

The streets were busy with cars as people headed home from work at the end of the long week. The sidewalks, on the other hand, were as empty as they are every Friday, when most of the students are already in the bars, drinking off the stress of the week. By the time I turned onto my street, I was basically alone. There was one small group, two men and a young girl, ambling toward me as the little girl, no older than four, played with leaves and sticks, but the path was otherwise barren.

It’s a good thing, too. I had a clear view of everything. It played out like it was in slow motion.

The little girl jumped at a leaf just as a strong gust carried it away. Laughing, she chased after it. The men were playfully arguing about something, so they didn’t see her start toward the street. At the curb, her foot caught on an uneven part of the sidewalk. She stumbled forward, into the rush of oncoming traffic.

I didn’t even think. I reached down and pressed the button of my watch.

The world around me stopped. The driver of one car still had his mouth open in a scream of horror as he approached the girl, his bumper only a few inches from crushing her shoulder as she lay on the pavement. I looked around. Nothing was moving for as far as I could see. I couldn’t hear a single car from the street or music note from the bars. The complete and utter silence was creeping me out, and the time on my watch was quickly descending. I hurried into the street and lifted the girl. Gently, I placed her on the sidewalk near one of the men.

I was about to press the button again when I noticed the brake lights on the rear of the car. The van behind it was too close. Even if the woman driving noticed the girl as well, I doubt she would have time to stop without crashing into the car and causing a massive pileup. Moving as quickly as I could manage without accidentally moving something I shouldn’t, I opened the car door and shifted his foot off of the brake pedal.

Satisfied with my work, I pressed the button. A short blast of a horn echoed through the air, but it cut off quickly as the man likely noticed that he hadn’t just ran over a child. I heard the girl yelp in surprise behind me.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” one of the men said. “Did you fall? Are you okay?”

“I was over there,” she said, pointing. “Now I’m here.”

“That’s right,” the other man said. “Last week, we walked on that side of the street.”

“No.’ She pouted in that way all kids have mastered by the age of two or three. “Just now. I was there.” She pointed at the road again.

“Are you sure you didn’t hit your head?” the first man asked.

“No, daddy,” she said. “I was really there.”

“Okay, sweetie,” he said slowly. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re here now. Look at all those cars. It would be dangerous for you be over there. Something might happen that would make daddy very angry. Then I would turn into the Hulk.” He roared and the daughter laughed, leaving her unexplained teleportation behind.

I breathed a sigh of relief and continued on my way. To be honest, it felt really, really good to be able to help like that. Even though, with this watch, I will never get any credit, I think I could really do good and help a lot of people with this thing.

#

June 14, 2017

When I woke up this morning, I had a feeling it was going to be a good day. There’s something about a morning summer rain that really brightens my spirits, especially when I know it’s going to be sunny later in the day. I spent my whole morning prancing around my childhood home in a state of bliss, music blasting as I ate, cleaned, and played with Miko.

When I left to go to the local pool, I did a quick check to make sure I had everything: wallet, phone, keys, and, of course, watch. After a string of deaths on campus, school let out almost a month early. In that month, I’ve been going to the pool almost every day. I have a pretty wicked tan line from the watch, but I learned that I can’t afford to take it off, even for a moment. You never know when I might need it.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I learned some new information about this thing. I was coming home from the movie theater. It was late, and I had to be up early the next day to help my dad with the landscaping. I was driving fast, but there was no one else on the road. I figured it was fine.

Well, the cop didn’t think so.

I had left my watch in the car during the movie, and it was still sitting in my cupholder. I’m tired of trying to explain to people why I wear a watch that doesn’t work. I usually come up with some excuse about it being an old family heirloom, but I wasn’t in the mood to make up a story on my first date with Nissa, so I left it off.

When the lights flipped on behind me, I instinctively reached for the watch. I pressed the button, but the lights kept flashing. I pressed it again and again, but nothing happened. Eventually, the siren flipped on as well and I was afraid the police officer would think I was trying to evade him, so I pulled over. I ended up with a speeding ticket over one hundred dollars, but no other charges.

Since then, I haven’t even taken the watch off to shower.

And I wasn’t going to start today. Just before closing the door behind me, I looked down to verify the numbers I had memorized at that point: 44:16. I had used over fifteen minutes in the year since receiving the watch, usually to help someone about to be seriously injured or prevent some kind of tragedy. Only once have I used it for personal gain, and that was just to win a beer chugging contest and impress a girl. It took less than seven seconds off my time.

After the pool, I had a text from my friends asking if I wanted to meet up for ice cream. I needed to go to the bank and get some cash, so I told them to give me ten minutes. The drive-thru was lined up to the street, so I parked and went inside. It would be nice to see Beatrice, the teller who’s only a couple years older than me and always flirts with me when I come in.

As soon as I walked through the door, I knew something was off. It was too quiet, and hardly anyone was moving.

“Get down on the ground!” a man in a mask shouted as he turned the corner to face me, waving a pistol in my face. “Get down, now!” I did what he said. “Don’t move.” He turned back the desk, where two other masked figures were shoveling money from the registers into big duffel bags. “Let’s go, boys.”

I smirked. These guys were about to get very unlucky.

The moment he turned away, I flicked the button of my watch. The robbers were frozen in place, stacks of money caught in the space between hand and bag. It took me almost five minutes to take all of their guns and arrange everything so that it aroused as little suspicion as possible.

I’ll be honest, there was a moment there where I considered grabbing just one of the stacks of money for myself. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, though, so I settled on a punch in the face for each of them. It was almost just as satisfying.

When I returned to my place on the floor and pressed the button to resume time, they each clutched at their heads and spun around looking for their guns, which I had placed safely within reach of the single security guard assigned to protect the bank. Seizing my opportunity to earn some small amount of glory, I darted forward and tackled the closest thief. A shriek of fear came from somewhere in the crowd, followed by a chorus of cheers as they realized what was happening. In mere moments, the other two criminals had been tackled to the ground and apprehended. Sirens reached our ears within a minute.

I didn’t stay to let myself be celebrated. As long as someone knew who saved the day—hopefully Nissa—well, that was enough for me. I went back to my car and circled around to the drive-thru, which had emptied considerably. When I finally looked down at my watch, it was almost a shock to see a new time displayed on the screen, a new time for me to memorize: 39:22.

Barely a year in, and I have already used almost half of my time. I’m still afraid to find out what happens when it runs out.

#

October 31, 2022

It was the first time I’ve gone out in almost a year. It takes a long time to recover after a break up. I thought I was ready. I’m not so sure I was, but I felt like I was at the time.

The bar was especially crowded considering it’s a Monday night. I have to be at the clinic early tomorrow, but I got invited to come on this costume crawl, so I figured it was maybe time to finally get back in the game. I showed up in the best costume I could find at the last minute, a giant teddy bear. It got me a good round of grilling from the guys, but at least I made it out.

They all left early, anyway, so who was really the lame one? They all had to go home to their wives and kids, leaving me all alone in the bar. Well, not totally alone. I was surrounded by strangers, but I felt like the only one who would rather be anywhere else but there.

I was about to go home and finish the night with a few drinks in my room when I just happened to look over and see some guy leaning in close to whisper in a girl’s ear. She didn’t seem to enjoy it, but she didn’t push him away. While she was distracted, the guy tipped his hand forward. Some kind of liquid poured from the palm of his hand, into her drink. I was too groggy from the beer to reach my watch in time to stop it, but I went for it. I managed to find the button just as the man was retreating and making some joke about her being “not ready to handle him.”

Gross.

The bar froze and fell silent. I couldn’t stop the drug from being poured, but I could do something about it. I noticed they were both drinking beer, though the woman had only about half a glass remaining while the man’s was full.

Generally, when I stop time, I try not to get involved too much. I help how I can and then back off to let things play out as they will. I don’t know why this time was different. Maybe I was getting tired of the whole thing. Whatever the reason, I took a new approach this time.

Moving quickly, I took a gulp of the man’s beer. It was some traditional American lager. Not much flavor. I drank it until it was about halfway empty. I hoped she wasn’t drinking anything too fruity and dumped the remainder of her drink into the man’s glass. Then, I took my best guess at her drink and filled her glass back to where it was.

I slid into a bar seat a few stools away from them and pushed the button of my watch.

I watched as the girl looked away from the man and took a sip of her beer. She made a face. “Ugh, this is bitter.”

Oops, wrong choice.

The guy looked more nervous than I did. “R-really?” he sputtered. “Are you sure you aren’t just a little drunk?”

“This is my first one.” She raised her finger for the bartender, but the man snatched it back down.

“Why don’t you just try one more sip?” he said, barely concealing his frustration. “Maybe you just had a bad taste in your mouth.”

I had to do something. If she got a new drink, the guy might try to do something else to her, something even more sinister. I paused my watch again.

This time, I opted for the most bland beer I could find among the poorly labeled taps. When I resumed time, she hesitantly lifted the glass to her lips. “This is a little better.” I could see the man visibly relax as she took another drink. “It’s still not great, but it’s fine.”

Convinced the girl would be safe, I sat back and waited for the drugs to take effect on the man. They didn’t hit him as quickly as I expected, probably because he was so much bigger than the woman. But when they hit, it was obvious. He swayed in his seat, his words were slurred, and his movements grew increasingly erratic. He suggested they go to the dance floor, to which she politely declined.

He rose anyway, leering over her.

“I said come dance!” he shouted, though no one noticed over the thump-thump of the speakers and the chorus of conversations. “Now!”

The moment he reached out to grab her by the arm, I was up. I covered the distance between us in two long steps and wrapped my hand around his wrist. “Let go of her.”

“Who the hell are you?” he spat. “Get your hands off of me. This has nothing to do with you.”

“It does actually.” I stepped forward and tightened my grip. It probably didn’t actually hurt him, but his mind was a mixture of alcohol and drugs, so he let go of the woman and yelped in pain. “You see,” I continued. “I don’t like when big jackasses like you mess with people like her. So how about you take your disgusting, belligerent self back home and sleep this one off. In the morning, maybe you’ll start figuring out how to be a better person.”

To my surprise he walked away. He made a show of it, sure, puffing his chest like he had been the one to intimidate me, but it didn’t matter, as long as he left. It was just an added bonus that, as he crossed the dance floor, he got it in his mind to grab two girls’ butts at the same time. Their boyfriends didn’t take too kindly to that and had him on the floor with two swift punches. They kicked him a few times, leaving him writhing in pain, and called for the bouncer to have him removed. I felt myself smile as I watched the security team literally toss him out the front door and onto the cold concrete.

It was an even bigger bonus when Camilla, the woman he had been harassing, asked me to stay close to her to keep her safe. She’s sleeping in the other room as I write this. I should be beside her, but I can’t sleep.

I should feel better about this than I do, but the more I stare at my watch, the faster my heart beats.

8:42.

I don’t have much time left.

Who am I without this?

#

May 8, 2024

I stopped a kid from landing on his head when he fell out of second story window today.

I thought it would make me feel good. It didn’t. I guess it just doesn’t give me the same thrill as it used to.

It doesn’t help that my time in nearly up. I couldn’t stop staring at the numbers on the screen earlier. I think I spent over an hour just looking at them when I got home.

3:19.

This whole thing is almost over. Then what?

#

May 13, 2024

It all comes to an end tonight. My time is basically gone.

01.63. Less than two seconds remain. Not much I can do with two seconds.

In the end, I think I can live with how I spent my last three minutes or so.

I heard the crash from my room. Looking through the window, I could see that it was bad. One of the cars was totally crunched. There was no way the driver lived through that. They had been the ones to hit a truck in the passenger side door at an intersection, but the truck had fared much better than the tiny sports car. The passengers could’ve still been alive. I ran outside, along with half the neighborhood, to see what I could do.

It looked like the driver of the pickup was alone, but she was unconscious, leaning against her inflated airbag. I pulled out my phone to dial 911, even though I could hear several others already explaining the situation to a dispatcher. That’s when I saw the sparks shooting from hood of the car toward the pool of gas that had collected on the ground beneath the truck. If it caught fire, the truck would go up in flames, likely igniting the diesel in its own tank.

I didn’t think. I jammed my finger into the button of my watch as I sprinted toward the wreckage. A spark froze in midair, inches from the flame which had begun to erupt within the gas on the ground. I worked as quickly as I could, but the woman was wedged into her seat pretty tightly. I only managed to get her out because of the pocket knife in her console that let me cut through the seat belt. I almost didn’t notice the baby seat in the back. The child in it was probably less than two years old.

I couldn’t let him die.

I used up nearly every second of time I had left getting him and his mother clear of the truck. I sprinted back to my place in the yard and jabbed at my watch.

Screams of horror rang through the air as the car and truck burst into flames. The sound of a baby’s cries cut through the noise, sending everyone scattering in a confused mess to help the child and mother. I looked down at my watch for the first time since pausing the scene and felt my heart sink. With my head low, I crept back into the house and crawled into bed.

As I write this, I know that I did the right thing. I couldn’t let those people die just so I could have three extra minutes of freedom from the confines of time. I did the right thing, and I can rest easy with that. I am satisfied.

I’m going to press the button and finish this thing.

…

Oh, shit. Shit. Fuck.

It’s all over. My life is over.

As soon as the clock hit 00:00, a message popped up on the screen. I didn’t even know it could do that.

“For one hour, you were free. Or so you thought. In fact, you were being monitored, to see how you would use this ability. Now, all of that footage will be released to the world. Will you be celebrated? Will you be shamed? Will you be vilified? Only time will tell.”

Now the world will know the truth.

Even as I write this, I can hear the sirens getting closer.

I lied, about all of it.

This will be my final entry. I’m so sorry.

#

August 4, 2025

“We bring you now scenes from inside the courtroom as twenty-nine year old Morris Pinehearst awaits sentencing for the litany of crimes committed between the years of twenty-sixteen and twenty-twenty-four. Most of us will remember the footage which mysteriously appeared on every television, computer, and cell phone around the world on the evening of May thirteenth of last year.

For those of you lucky enough to avoid the footage, I will spare you the details. What was shown were the heinous crimes performed by Pinehearst which included, among other things, pedophilia, necrophilia, beastiality, theft, and murder. Along with acts too abhorrent to discuss here, Pinehearst was witnessed pushing a small child into oncoming traffic, injecting a patron at a local bar with a lethal amount of drugs, and setting a car on fire, causing the death of several passengers and bystanders.

Pinehearst appeared calm during his initial hearing and his demeanor did not change today. Several of Pinehearst’s diary entries have been released to the public, though many remain under wraps. The entries coincide with many of Pinehearst’s crimes. They describe vastly different situations which psychologists believe Pinehearst concocted to alleviate his mind from the stress of his true actions, though others argue they are delusions created by his psychosis.

Whatever the case, many members of the public, and the district attorney, will seek the death penalty for Pinehearst. Judge Galston will preside over the hearing.”

“Well, Lisa, whatever the outcome, it’s a blessing to know Pinehearst is off of the streets.”

“I couldn’t agree more Trent. Coming up, the newest development in theoretical physics. Have scientists discovered how to breach the fourth dimension and manipulate time? Meg Yanir has more after these messages.”

#

May 14, 2024

Mom woke me up early for my birthday, today. There were gifts labeled “Amelia” all around the room. The best one, though, was sitting on my nightstand. Mom says she doesn’t know how it got there, but that doesn’t even make sense. Who else could have put it there?

Whatever she says, it was the best one of all.

It was a watch. Not just any watch, though.

This watch is special.

End.