It was 7:27 am and I didn’t need to be at the office until 8 am, but first day at a new job in a new city ... you bet I arrived early. Locating a building on Google Maps was nothing like actually being there and staring it down. Thirty-three minutes was, however, a tad too early to walk through the front door, even on the first day. So I turned away from the hideous building I’d soon be calling “work” to suss out a good place to grab a coffee.

I’d only just moved up here from Melbourne. The ending of a ten-year relationship with the man who’d been my boyfriend since we were teenagers had really turned my life upside down. He’d been my one and only. I’d skipped out on the stage many young women go through, dating, having experiences with different people, because I’d been in a relationship. I’d given him my youth and then he’d gone and cheated on me. So, old life behind, new job, new city. Maybe I could live out some of the experiences I’d missed out on. I was in my late 20s, but still looked good. ell, in my opinion, anyway. Of course, I’d heard that the nightlife here was virtually non-existent. “Good luck if you want to find a place that serves dinner after six,” one of my friends had said to me. But, we’d see.

As I walked I found the usual big coffee chains, but after a bit of wandering around I found a small “hole in the wall” place. The whole shop couldn’t have been more than two metres square, it was just big enough for the barista to stand behind the counter.

“Good morning,” I greeted him. He was an older chap, thin with curling grey hair pulled into a ponytail. Probably should have been retired by now, but who could afford that what with the economy being what it was. “A small skinny latte please.”

“Wow, was that a full sentence and everything?” he asked with a bit of a chuckle as he grabbed a paper cup from the stack on the counter.

“I know, before coffee and everything, right?” I joked. “Bet not many people manage that?”

“Deserve a medal,” he said, “But nah, not many do these days. Folks spent two years locked away and forgot how to interact with people.”

“Dunno, this is my first day back at the office and I still remember how to say good morning.”

“Ah, boss finally forced you back into the office then, hey?”

“Nah, new job.”

“Ah, yeah, gotta at least turn up to the first day.” He poured some milk into a jug and began frothing it.

“Yeah. And while I may not have forgotten how to talk to people, I did forget how annoying these are.” I gestured to my corporate, high-heeled shoes. The man chuckled.

“Well, I can’t comment on that,” he said. Then he gave me a cheeky little glance. “Or maybe I could!” I laughed.

“In truth, if I could teleport I wouldn’t mind going into the office every day,” I said. I liked people, I liked the hum of a busy office, but spending two hours a day on a packed train just sucked.

“Would that be your superhero power?” the barista asked as he handed me my coffee. “If you could choose only one.”

“Now that’s a big question before coffee and all.” I thought about it. Just one power. Teleportation would be cool. So would flying. X-ray vision could be handy, and not just to see people naked, but you could use it to pick the winning scratchie. Knowledge of the future would be useful too, really useful ... But only one power... “Control over time,” I answered. That achieved teleportation (freeze time and walk there, ) knowledge of the future ... so much could be achieved with control over time. Not the joy of flying, but you couldn’t have everything you wanted.

“Good choice,” The barista answered. Something ... That was weird. Suddenly my nipples were hard and I was feeling wet ... down there. It was like I suddenly felt the after-effects of being aroused without being aroused ... Maybe a combination of nerves and the need for coffee? Old mate barista had certainly not done anything to cause such an arousal. “Oh, here,” he reached beneath the counter and handed me a small booklet not much bigger than a business card.

“Thanks,” I said. “Have a great day!” I turned around and walked back to the office drinking what was a pretty awesome coffee, putting my weird feeling out of mind. It always pays to skip the big chains and go for the small guys. A few shops down the street I paused to put the small booklet in my purse. I glanced at it, expecting it to be some sort of loyalty card or “where our coffee comes from” story. It wasn’t. The front read “How to Freeze time.” I rolled my eyes. He probably asked everyone the superhero power and gave out a booklet closest to their power, probably some advertising thing. “Enjoy a good cup of coffee, feels like time’s stopped still.” I looked around for a rubbish bin but there wasn’t one right here. But something else was off with the street. I couldn’t see the little coffee shop and I should have been able to, it was only a few shops back. I was tempted to go and look so I glanced at my watch. Shit! It was 7:53. I didn’t want to be too early, but I still wanted to be a little bit early. I hurried back to the office.

I had one more road to cross to get to the office, and the crossing light was green as I approached. I ran, the best I could in my heels to the crossing. It was one of those where the numbers counted down and you weren’t meant to start crossing once it hit 1. 10... 9... 8... 7 ... I wasn’t going to make it. But I sped up anyway. 6... 5... 4... 3... 2 ... stop traffic lights! Stop! My head begged. Just freeze! 2... 2... 2 ... Somehow the light stayed on two just long enough for me to sprint onto the road. But something felt off. It was like the world around me was frozen in place and I was the only one moving. I blinked and the world was normal. Just my imagination. I made it across the road just in time and arrived at my new work at 7:55am.

My first day was fine, as first days go. In the afternoon there was a farewell party for someone going on maternity leave. Never one to say no to free cake, I went along. I was flirting a little with one of the cute guys there when I turned around and accidentally knocked a jug of raspberry soft drink off the table with my elbow. Instinctively I reached out to grab it, knowing I had not a chance. It was one of those moments when you just wished time would stand still.

And it did.

Everything froze. The people, still. The hum of conversation, silent. Even the soft drink froze in mid-air, half spilt out of the jug. Everything but me. Holy shit. This morning I wished for control over time and here I was, freezing time. I reached out and touched the jug and found I could move it. I scooped all the suspended soft drink back into the jug and found it settled back in there like it hadn’t spilt in the first place. That didn’t make sense, but then, neither did freezing time. Now I just needed time to ... unfreeze?

Time started again. Right where it left off.

“Woah!” the cute guy I’d been talking to exclaimed. “Nice catch!”

“I know right!” I put the jug back on the table. “I thought I was going to wear that!”

As soon as I could I excused myself to the toilets, grabbing my handbag on the way. I didn’t need to pee, but the toilets were the only place I knew of so far where I knew I would find privacy. As soon as I was in the cubical I sat down and rifled through my bag, soon emerging with the little booklet. “How to freeze time.” The writing, I noted, was not in any script I recognised. But I could read it somehow. I turned to the first page.

You have been gifted the ability to freeze time. This ability you will retain until you choose another to pass it along to. If you die before passing it along, the ability will die with you.

So old mate barista gave this power to me? That seemed even more unbelievable than the existence of such a power in the first place.

This ability allows you to freeze and unfreeze time. It does not allow you to otherwise change the speed or the direction time travels in.

Bugger. Oh well, freezing alone is more than I could do yesterday. I kept reading.

You can control this power through the use of your thoughts and will learn to use it through instinct and practice.

When you freeze time everything in the world freezes except you. You have the ability to selectively unfreeze some non-living objects or particles provided you can either see or touch these.

Well, that explained the soft drink settling back in the jug.

You can interact with the world around you while time is frozen, however, the effects or side-effects of some of your actions may not occur until you unfreeze time. You, and other living things, cannot die while time is frozen. If actions are taken to cause death while time is frozen then the death will occur the moment time is unfrozen.

The Human mind will attempt to make sense of the world around it, which includes changes made while time is frozen. Very large changes may be unable to be accounted for, so be cautious. Here was written in another hand If, while time is frozen, you move a man poised halfway to sit in a chair, when you unfreeze time he will either sit down in the belief he moved to the chair to sit, or stand up in the belief he was just sitting. If, however, you move him many miles, he will usually be unable to reconcile this movement and become alarmed or confused. Huh. Moving people while time had frozen hadn’t occurred to me. I read on. The rest of the booklet was much the same. Information, but not a how-to manual. Other hands had added additional thoughts or advice. I reached the end and realised I’d been in the toilets for some time. Should have frozen time ... well, no time like the present.

Freeze

I stepped out of the cubical, I was the only one there so it was hard to tell if time was frozen or not. I turned the tap on, to wash my hands out of habit, and water came out as normal. Once that was done, I opened the door and peered out. No one was in the hallway, but there was an eerie silence. I walked out and once on the floor, I knew time was frozen. Everyone was just frozen in spot. Some with their mouths half open, or leaning to grab something. There was a lady bent half over, reaching for a file. A man in mid-stride. A woman with a coffee cup halfway to her lips. I touched her arm. It felt solid, but yet moved easily when I put pressure on it. I removed the cup from her hands and put it on the desk. I then stepped in front of the man who was mid-stride.

Unfreeze

The man stepped suddenly to the side

“Sorry,” he said as he walked past, “Wasn’t looking where I was going.” The woman picked up her coffee cup and took a sip. She didn’t seem confused at all that the cup had gone from in her hand to on the desk. Interesting.

The week passed. I did try on several occasions to find the coffee shop again. I never did. I spent time experimenting with my new power. And no, it didn’t distract me from my work. After all, I could freeze time. Some technology worked while time was frozen. For example I could write in a word document or an excel spreadsheet, I could save it to my desktop but couldn’t save it to sharedrive until I unfroze. Or I could compose an email while time was frozen, and then send it while time was unfrozen. I could use my phone to take photos. I couldn’t open new documents or emails while time was frozen unless I’d opened them before, and I couldn’t stream videos or songs. Did I use my ability to appear more productive and competent than I was? You bet! To be honest, I was having a blast!

On Thursday the systems at work went down. All of them. No Internet, no Intranet ... nothing. Communication was being done by people physically walking around the office, from floor to floor. Between messages we were meant to be finding something productive to do, but there was really nothing we could do. So I sat at my desk and chatted with Tara and Chie, two ladies in my team I’d gotten to know a bit.

“Oh girls, isn’t this a nice little multicultural trio, but all gossip, no work?” Michael, a co-worker I didn’t really know yet had sauntered up and lent against Tara’s desk. Tara skirted her chair back a fraction, looking a little uncomfortable with him looming over her.

“Uh, nothing’s working?” I said, with a bit of sass. What the fuck was with calling us a Multicultural trio?

“I’m sure you girls could find something better to do.” His hand was in his pocket and it looked like he was rummaging in there for something.

“You first!” Chie said, “Ain’t you got somewhere better to be?”

“On my way to deliver an update to the boss.” Michael stood up, pulled his hand out of his pocket and to his nose, and sniffed his fingers. He gave Tara a creepy-looking smile and then sauntered off in the direction of our head of department’s office.

“What the fuck?” I blurted out as soon as my mind had caught up with just what his hand had been doing in his pocket.

“Yeah, try to stay away from that creep,” Tara said.

“But ... no ... that’s ... that’s sexual harassment!” I hissed, “We should report it to HR!”

“Have, no good. His mum’s the head of HR, he gets away with anything. Her darling boy just couldn’t. We’re all crazy left wing feminists seeing shadows.” Chie said, “I’ve tried, we all have. He fawns over Cheryl—” she nodded in the direction of our head-of’s office, “He’s her little golden boy. Gets her the numbers to make her look good to her boss. He’s done worse than that. Only thing that would stop him is going once to far in front of someone important or...” she shot me a wicked grin, “Meeting me down a dark alley.”

Cheryl’s office had glass walls, to make her office feel less like a barrier or some such shit. I looked over and saw she was in there, leaning over some papers Michael had brought in. There were two other people in the room, the head of Workforce Optimisation and his mother, the head of Human Resources. While I couldn’t meet him down a dark alley, could I encourage him to go too far? He sure had an audience for it. Chie and Tara filled me in on some of the instances that had happened and been dismissed or covered up. Apparently groping a woman’s breasts at the office Christmas party wasn’t “going too far” so I’d have to ensure whatever I encouraged him to do was bad enough to get him sacked.

“Well, if you ladies excuse me, I need the loo,” I said as I stood up. I walked as quickly as I could to the toilets without drawing attention, and once there went into the first cubicle and shut the door.

Freeze

I opened the door. When I re-entered the office, the world was frozen. I made my way to Cheryl’s office and everyone was about where they were when I last looked.

I hadn’t experimented much with people while time was frozen. Now was my chance. But what to do? I had an idea, of course I had an idea, but I hesitated. It was wrong. But then, Michael was preying on women and getting away with it, and that was wrong too.

So, I walked over to Michael and unzipped his fly. I took his hand and moved it, pushing it down into his undies. His arm moved easily and, once moved, stayed where it was put. I stood back and admired my work. Yes, it looked like he’d undone his fly and was touching himself. But, nobody’s eyes were on him. If I unfroze time he might have time to jerk his hand out and re-arrange himself before anyone saw.

I needed to do more.

I pulled his hand out of his undies and reached in with my hand. Feeling a little squeamish I grabbed his penis and pulled it out. It froze how I left it, sticking up in mid air rather than flopping down like a flaccid penis would. I let out a little giggle, it looked so funny sticking up, because it was so small and little. It would have a bigger impact if it were erect, so I took his penis in my hand and started rubbing it. Nothing happened. I rubbed more. Willing his little flaccid member to become an erect cock under my attentions, but still no change. I thought back to the little “How to Freeze Time” booklet.

You can interact with the world around you while time is frozen, however the effects or side-effects of some of your actions may not occur until you unfreeze time.

So I could move his body, but perhaps not cause him to have an erection in frozen time. Would he become hard the moment I unfroze time? Only one way to know.

I moved his hand back to hold his cock, then looked around the room. There was a store cupboard with ventilation slits. It was conveniently empty enough for me to hide inside. I climbed in, shut the door and then peered out through the slits. I could try and unfreeze time for just a moment, and then I’d see what, if any, effect I’d had.

Unfreeze

Freeze

There’d been a small rush of noise when the scene before me came to life that stopped as abruptly as it had started. I climbed out of the cupboard and surveyed the scene ... okay, yeah, I just looked at Michael’s penis. It seemed that the effects of my hand job in frozen time had indeed occurred the moment I unfroze time. Not only was Michael now grasping an erect (but still rather small) cock, he appeared to be mid ejaculation. A little glob of cum hung in mid-air, frozen en route to land on the papers Cheryl was looking at. Yikes. This had gone a little further than I’d planned. Then again, quite a few steps too far would have the same result as one step too far, right?

Still, I couldn’t stay here and watch it play out. That sounded just too painful, so I bolted back to the toilets, locked myself in a cubicle and unfroze time.

I waited a little before exiting then washed my hands and left the toilets. I arrived back in the office in time to see Michael being escorted out of the building.

“What’s going on?” I asked Chie. But she could only tell me there was some commotion but she didn’t know. The rumors flew though, never before had someone been fired, escorted out by security with their mother following after screaming at them.

The next day the systems were up and we received an email advising us that Michael “No longer worked for the company.” We also received a fresh round of elearnings to complete on appropriate behaviour in the workplace, which only served to fuel the rumours.

“Where do people go after work on a Friday?” I asked my team later in the day. “Is there a local pub you all go to or anything?”

“Ha! Those were the days. Knock off by half-past-three and home to the wife and kids.” Jason, a guy in my team replied.

Everyone else had a similar answer to Jason. So when my teammates started leaving I hopped on line and researched the local pubs and clubs. We were in the CBD. There had to be something.

There was, but not even in Brisbane did people go out clubbing at 4pm, and the office was already deserted. Friday was “late night shopping” which meant that some shops stayed open as late as nine, so I filled the afternoon with some window shopping, grabbing some food in the food court, before heading to the first pub on my list later in the evening.

It was early enough that there was still a relatively mixed crowd. The Bartender looked about thirty, well-built with beach-blond hair which kept falling in his eyes. I took a seat at the bar and, after getting his attention, ordered a drink. He barely looked at me as he took my order, distracted by the gaggle of girls a the other end of the bar. The girls looked eighteen or nineteen, they wore a lot of make-up, fake eyelashes out to there, and I’d seen bathers which covered more than their skimpy outfits did. They were flirting with him outrageously, and he was lapping it up. Clearly the twenty-something (hopefully still) cute but not slutty Asian girl didn’t even get a look-in here.

The bartender put my drink in front of me, not even taking his eyes off the girls who were flirting with him. Well, that wouldn’t do.

Freeze

I Adjusted my shirt to show a bit more cleavage, and then turned his head towards me, directing his eyes to look at what I had to show.

Unfreeze

Is eyes flickered up up mine, back down, them up again.

“Uh, here you go.” He sounded a little embarrassed to be caught-out looking. But he must have liked what he saw because he didn’t keep ignoring me.

“So,” I asked him later, “I’m new in town and don’t have anyone to show me around. Can you recommend any clubs? Preferably ones not filled with eighteen-year olds?”