Tag Archives: time

A Particular Historical Constellation

Thus he decided to put himself in the freezer.

Wanting to stop time, but not knowing how, he reasoned that freezing himself would almost be the equivalent of freezing time.

He wanted to stop time because things were finally good in the usual ways that people mean when they say that. But he knew life to be a constant negotiation between the good life and the opposite of the good life. The trick was to stop time when life was good so it would always be good.

He had envisioned casting a spell or whispering magic words or waving a magic wand to bring time to a stop. But that’s impossible. Which is why he decided to put himself in the freezer.

Before doing so, he went shopping. I want to look nice forever, he told himself. He bought a nice suit and a really expensive watch. He charged the shit out of his middle class credit card–since time was coming to an end it didn’t really matter.

He got in and closed the door.

He wasn’t dead when somebody opened the freezer a day later. But his watched stopped. So his plan kinda worked.


And So It Comes to Pass

He stopped, about halfway between here and there, at a country gas station. A pretty(ish) girl was working behind the counter. He asked for directions even though he knew were he was going. Her voice was kind of cute if handled in short bursts.

He stopped again, the next year, at the same country gas station. An awful fast food restaurant had been tacked onto the outside, bringing in a fair number of travels on their way from here to there. The pretty(ish) girl was working again. She had highlights in her hair and paint on her fingernails. He asked for directions again just to see. She didn’t remember him. Besides, thanks to the fast food restaurant she had more menial duties than last year and didn’t have time for guys doing guy things.

He stops again a few years later. The country gas station is now flanked by a motel and a 24 hr. breakfast place. It is busy and he gets kind of sad. He decides not to go in to ask for directions because he feels left behind, somehow, even though he probably shouldn’t.

He pays for his gas outside (something he had been unable to do previously).