A few years ago I wrote a short story for my family. I suppose you would classify it as fantasy. I thought I would post it here in case anybody enjoys it, though it won't appeal to all tastes. If you want to print it, use your pointer to highlight the story, then press Ctrl-C to copy, open Word or the equivalent, and then paste it there.

TIME AND OTHER NONSENSES

 There once was an accountant by the name of Norman. He had a small practice preparing accounts and tax returns for small businesses. He worked from home and tended to get behind with his work because he was more interested in playing the latest computer games. His latest obsession was the long awaited sequel to the Half Life shooting game. The graphics were outstanding, quite unlike anything he had seen before, and the game was so real, so terrifyingly real. There were never enough hours in the day.

 Norman had been playing non-stop when he suddenly realised that he hadn’t eaten for 15 hours. He went to get some food and noticed that the time was 10am. He thought he better do some work; after all he had to earn money to pay for his computer games and clients were screaming for their accounts. He sat down at his desk and picked up a pen. He tried to think about what he was supposed to be doing, but he was so tired that he fell asleep.

 He woke up later and started working. After a bit, he thought he would get a cup of coffee to keep him awake. He went into the kitchen and was surprised when he saw that the time was still 10am. The clock battery must have run out. But the clocks elsewhere in the house said 10am and the second hands were not moving. Strange, he thought.

 Norman turned on the tap to fill the kettle but no water came out. What’s going on, he wondered. There was a bit of water still in the kettle, so he switched on the kettle, but nothing happened. Maybe I’m dreaming, he thought. If I go back to sleep, maybe I’ll wake up and things will be normal. He tried to sleep, but couldn’t. He went upstairs to his computer. The screen was frozen and typing on the keyboard had no effect. This is weird, how come that there’s still an image which meant that power was getting through, but the kettle wouldn’t boil. He switched off the computer, but the image on the screen was still there.

 There was only one explanation possible, time had stopped. Electricity was still on, but there was no time for the kettle to boil, no time for the computer image to change or to disappear when he switched off the computer. When he turned on the tap, there was no time for the water to pour out. Yes indeed, time waits for Norman.

 Norman went outside the house onto the road. It was totally quiet. George Bill, a retired librarian, was in his garden bending over a flowerbed. Norman went to him and spoke, but there was no reply. George was motionless. Further down the road was a car that was not moving. The driver was rigid. Norman walked up to the main road that went over a busy bypass. Norman looked over the bridge down at the bypass. There were dozens of cars at a standstill in complete silence. Norman returned home. He tried ringing his parents, but there was no dialling tone, and no one answered.

 Norman hoped that time would start again, but of course it didn’t. He realised there was no point in trying to listen to the radio or television. This was something that was happening to him and to no one else. As far as everyone else was concerned, nothing untoward had happened.

 Norman’s priorities were food and drink. He realised that he would not be able to get water from the tap. There was a carton of milk in his fridge. He couldn’t pour the milk out as the freezing of time meant that the milk did not move. So he took a pair of scissors and but the top of the carton off. He bit into the milk and found that as the chunk of milk entered his mouth, it became liquid and he was able to swallow it. So he would not go thirsty.

 What about food? Well, cooking was out of the question as it takes time. So Norman would have to survive off cold food. Bread, cereal, cooked meat, fruit, tomatoes and salads, cake, biscuits, yoghurts. He should be able to live with that.

 For reasons of delicacy, I will not go into details of certain other arrangements that Norman needed to make. If you wish to make further enquiries, please consult “The Guide to survival when time stops for Dummies”.

 Norman was unable to play any computer games, so he thought he might as well start getting up to date with his work. As his calculator was useless with time having stopped, he had to add up cashbooks in his head. This took longer than normal, but took no time at all.

 Norman settled into a routine of working, eating and sleeping when he was tired. At first his dreams were normal, but later dreams became strange.

A Dream

 Norman was driving through the Brecon Beacons. There were no other cars on the road. The time was 10.00. Norman eventually arrived at a small town. He parked the car and got out to walk around the town. There were a few locals who greeted him politely, but would not be drawn into conversation. They were smartly dressed. The houses and shops seemed to be in immaculate condition as were the gardens.

 As Norman wandered around, he saw a sign “Model Town”. He walked on and soon came to the model town. It was clearly modelled on the town, but on a much reduced basis. There were even little model figures. When he looked closely, he could see that there was a tiny Model Town in the Model Town. He wondered if there was an even smaller Model Town in the tiny Model Town. He straightened up and thought he could see a model of his car in the Model Town. He got a bit intrigued then, was he going to see a model of himself? As he looked around the Model Town, the manager came out to see him. “We are closing now, you must leave this town.” “But what is going on here, there seems to be a model of my car here?” “Go now before it is too late. There isn’t time to answer you.” The manger pushed Norman away. “Get away from here.”

 Norman ran back to his car, got inside and started driving away. As he drove away, he saw that the locals had stopped moving. Soon he had left the town. He stopped, got out of the car and looked back at the town. The sky above the town was sliding away to reveal blackness. A gigantic arm descended from the blackness and picked up a local, placed a key in the local’s side and wound him up. One by one the locals were wound up. Norman watched in shock. The arm started moving towards him. Norman quickly moved back to the car, but before he could get in, the arm grabbed him. The key was coming towards him. He couldn’t escape. The key entered his side.

 Norman woke up. He had fallen asleep at his desk and he realised that the corner of the desk had been sticking in his side.

Norman was getting low on food and drink. He was going to have to get some supplies. He left his house and started walking down the road. George was still bending over his flowerbed. Norman said hello, but of course there was no reply. He carried on walking towards the local Co-op. As he walked along, a horrible thought crept into his mind. The Co-op’s door was an automatic door. If it were closed, he would not be able to get in. Although there was a staff entrance at the back, it was bound to be shut and one could only get in if you knew the keypad code.

 He arrived at the shop. His worst fears were realised; the automatic door was shut tight. No matter how hard he tugged at the door, it would not budge.

 Now Norman was essentially an honest person, but the situation was desperate. He went home and returned to the Co-op with a sledgehammer. With all his strength, he smashed a window with the hammer. The glass cracked into pieces, but because time had stopped, the pieces did not fall to the ground. Norman removed the pieces one by one and placed them in a nearby skip. He was now able to enter the shop. He collected the food he was looking for. There was enough food in the shop to keep him going for the foreseeable future, and of course, as time had frozen, the food would not deteriorate.

 Norman returned home. He made a list of the food he had taken. Once things had returned to normal, if they ever did, he would have to settle with the Co-op for the food and the broken window. Quite how he would explain things to them he did not know.

 Norman’s routine continued. He eventually completed all the client work he was able to do.

 His strange dreams continued, and, if anything, got stranger.

Another Dream

 Norman was working away when there was a knock on his door. He got up from his chair and opened the front door. Outside was a strange creature, green and rather wrinkled, looking rather like a gigantic cabbage on legs.

 “Greetings, Norman. Let me introduce myself, I am Ambassador Hnfitzschnizzle. I come from a distant planet. Many thousands of years ago, one of our spacecraft crashed onto your planet. We believe that our people survived the crash. Although they had to evolve to survive in your alien surroundings, we are sure that they survive to this day. We have come back to collect them and to take them home. We need your help.”

 “What can I do?” said Norman.

 “Take this whistle and blow it as hard as you can. The sound will travel around the world. Our people will hear it and realise that we have come to rescue them.”

 Norman took the whistle and went outside. In the playing fields close by, he could see that there was a strange craft on the ground. He put the whistle in his mouth and blew as hard as he could. Soon some green objects could be seen rolling towards the craft. They seemed to be cabbages and brussel sprouts. More and more of them came along and soon the ground was covered with them. They poured into the craft non-stop. Eventually all were safely inside.

 Hnfitzschnizzle thanked Norman profusely and climbed inside the craft. The craft rose from the ground and disappeared from view. Norman hoped that Hnfitzschnizzle and his companions would forgive us for the barbaric way in which we had treated their people over the years.

Norman woke from this dream thinking that he was going mad. He was a bit startled when he next went to the Co-op and found that all the cabbages and brussel sprouts had gone.

 Norman couldn’t do any more client work, so he did some gardening. He couldn’t use an electric mover, so he had to cut the grass with a pair of shears. This was slow painful work, but it gave him something to do, and at least once he had done it, the grass would not need to be cut again until time started moving again. Once the weeds were removed, they would not reappear. Eventually his garden was in perfect condition.

 What else could Norman do? Well, the outside of the house needed painting. Norman found some paint and started painting away. He realised after a while that this was not such a good idea as the paint was never going to have the time to dry. Well, he carried on. He would just have to remember not to touch the walls afterwards. And he certainly wasn’t going to decorate inside the house.

 After Norman had finished, he thought that he could give his parents, who lived nearby, a surprise. They had large gardens that had become somewhat overgrown. So he set to work on this. This was going to take a lot of work, but it gave him something to do over what seemed to him weeks.

 Now Norman, before time had come to a standstill, had been doing some research on the internet. When he was young, there was a boy in his class who was better than he was at everything. If Norman got 98% correct, James would get 99%. Norman hated James. He was glad when he left junior school because that would be the last he would see of James. But of course, James went to the same senior school and was in the same class.

 And James was so clever and successful and smug and Norman hated him even more. And James had a gang of followers who did everything he wanted. He was a bully and loved causing misery for Norman and others.

 And even though this took place many years ago, Norman had never forgotten James. Norman had always assumed that James would eventually pay for his crimes and land up in prison. So one day, he did a search on the internet on James and discovered to his horror that he was the headmaster of a select private school. There was his photograph on the school website. Although James was older, there was no way in which those piggy eyes could have changed and the sneer was imprinted on his mind forever. It was he all right. Those poor students, Norman thought. They must be living the same nightmare he had endured all those years ago.

 And now that time had stopped, Norman could do something to save those students. He would kill James.

 The school was some 200 miles away and Norman would have to walk there. He filled a rucksack with food and set off. When he was hungry he stopped to eat. When he was tired he stopped to sleep.

 Eventually, Norman arrived at the school. He went inside and hunted around until he found James. James was standing in front of a classroom looking at some motionless students.

 Norman took a revolver out of his rucksack and placed it in James’ hand. He moved James’ hand so that the gun was pointing at James’ head. He pulled James’ finger against the trigger. Once time restarted, the bullet would go straight into James’ head. Norman would be miles away. As no time had passed whilst Norman was at the school, no one would see him there. The perfect murder!

 He left the school, intending to return home. But Norman was not an evil person and he realised he could not go through with it. So he returned to the classroom and removed the gun. But he did tie a pink ribbon in James’s hair. That would give the students something to laugh at and show that James was not infallible.

 Norman walked home, carefully disposing of the gun on the way back so that when time resumed the bullet would not do any damage. He eventually arrived back to find that everything was as he had left it. Norman was exhausted and fell into a deep sleep.

Yet Another Dream

 They were chasing him through the forest. They were green and wrinkly and had teeth and they were out to get him. Gigantic arms were swooping down from the sky above, searching for him through the trees and undergrowth.

 Norman entered into a clearing and suddenly all was quiet. The green things and the arms had vanished. He looked around, and at first thought he was alone. But then he noticed a shadowy figure sitting on the stone, hardly visible. The figure was sobbing. Norman went towards the figure and asked it why it was crying.

 “I am alone, cast out by my fellow beings and unable to return.”

 “But why have you been thrown out?” asked Norman.

 The figure replied “Because I have no name.”

 “But why do you have no name?”

 “Let me explain. My fellow beings and I are words, all the words that have ever been and ever will be. We came into existence when the universe was created. And at the great Naming of Names we were each given a meaning. But I was late and by the time I arrived, all the other words had been given meanings and there were no meanings left. There were more meanings than words available so many words were given more than one meaning. If I had been a bit earlier I could have been given a meaning to my life. But it was not to be. The other words refused to let me stay with them as I had no meaning, so since then I have been apart.”

 “So if you were able to find a new meaning, one which had never existed before, then you could return to the others?”

 “Yes, I suppose I could. But what about you? What are you doing here?”

 “I don’t know. I think I am dreaming this. I’ve been having strange dreams ever since time stopped for me. I don’t know why time has stopped.” Norman told the figure what had been happening.

 The figure looked at Norman “You humans think of time as some sort of dimension like height and length, something that can be measured, because that is how your brains are made. But really it is a sense. You humans have the sense of sight so that you can tell one object from another merely by looking at it. You have the sense of touch so that you can identify something by feeling it. The sense of time enables you to categorise one set of happenings from another.”

 The figure continued ”Other creatures have different types of senses, but I cannot hope to explain them to you. If you had always been deaf, how could you understand the concept of hearing? If you had always been blind, how could you understand the concept of the colour green, for instance.”

 “You humans think that time is so important, and let your lives be controlled by it. There are some creatures that have no sense of time. To them the past, the present and the future are meaningless concepts. What has happened to you is unheard of. Your brain must have become so overcome with an excess of time that it couldn’t take any more.  It is as if you have suddenly developed a non-sense of time. There is no word for what has happened to you, no word at all.”

 The figure stopped and looked at Norman excitedly. “Would you be willing to give me the right to name what has happened to you after me? If the other words accept me back, I will see if they know if there are other creatures who can help you.”

 Norman was only too happy to oblige and told him his name. The figure ran off and as it did Norman shouted after it “ But what is your name?” The figure stopped for a moment and replied, but a gust of wind blew the answer away. Norman was left alone in the clearing. He wandered around, not really knowing what to do next.

Norman was awoken by something. At first he did not know what it was, but then he realised that his phone was ringing. It was his mother. “Something’s happened to the garden, it’s perfect – it’s beautiful!”