001

The year was 2001. It wasn't a space odyssey by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a pretty colorful point in my life. It was later in the year, during winter. I had always liked the cold air. It was fresh and invigorating, and it felt like the winds of change were blowing, as though bigger and better things were only a gust away.

I was just another 18-year-old in twelfth grade. Unsurprisingly, that also meant I had teenage hormones that raged constantly, and I was always giving in to them. Aside from any pictures or videos I could have found on the internet, there were scores of pretty girls I found quite appealing at school. The combination of the two caused me to fabricate an endless array of fantasies in my head.

I couldn't help but let my mind wander during school, day in and day out. There was never a shortage of nubile girls my age sitting mere feet away from me, with their lovely, warm bodies curved and filled out in all the right places. I would catch a whiff of their different perfumes and admire the attention to detail they spent grooming themselves. To put it simply, I was pretty damn horny a lot. I fantasized relentlessly about the opposite sex. The only problem was that they weren't interested in me.

I had the unfortunate designation of being a wild child throughout my childhood and into my teens, and I was indeed wild. I was also the complete opposite of the stereotypical female fantasy of a tall, dark stranger. I wasn't an honors student, and I wasn't the captain of the football team - I was just a regular, short-ish blond guy. And so, I fell back on my imagination and did such silly things in my spare time as daydreaming and writing stories about them, which was complete and utter silliness. I knew there was simply no possibility of ever getting lucky with any of the many objects of my desire.

But then, one early Monday morning, I woke up. It wasn't an amazing achievement; I'd done it many times before. However, that morning I noticed that I suddenly had a very odd superpower that had just come out of nowhere. It wasn't something that could be explained with some sort of long, complex, meaningful plot or a fantastic backstory - it just happened. That's all there was to it.

I didn't know I had this ability until that particular morning when I was walking towards the school bus with my backpack. It was a little chilly, but I opted not to wear a sweater since I lived in an apartment building close to the beach, and the air always carried the scent of the ocean breeze regardless of the time of day. The sun hadn't risen yet, and I always wondered why I had to wake up before the sun to get to school. I was convinced it was a form of torture.

As I pondered this critical question of the beauty of rest, an inattentive guy on a bicycle suddenly appeared out of nowhere and headed straight towards me. I gasped and panicked, throwing my hands up to protect myself and brace for impact, when everything went silent.

I slowly opened my eyes, relieved that I was unharmed. The bicyclist, however, was completely frozen in place, as though time had stopped. I looked around with wide eyes; the world was completely motionless. The tree leaves stopped rustling, cars on the early morning street were at a halt, and that annoying flickering street light had finally stopped flickering. Everything was just as still as the bicyclist. However, I was not.

I calmly stepped out of the way of the oncoming cyclist and began to walk around, looking curiously in all directions. I spotted a few people in the distance who were also frozen in mid-movement, and the tree limbs that were otherwise swaying were stuck in a bent position. But the most striking thing was the silence - it was utterly quiet. The only sounds I heard were the ones I was making. I couldn't help but say my first words in sheer confusion, "Okay... what?"

I curiously touched the frozen bicyclist's arm. He was as solid as concrete. It was stunning, and yet for some reason, it made perfect sense to me. "Did I do this?" I wondered aloud. "...How do I even turn it off?"

I slowly turned my gaze away from the cyclist and started walking towards my destination, pretending as though everything was completely normal, my mind wanting time to resume. And so, just then, it did. The sudden resumption of all sounds caused me to jump in surprise. I looked back at the cyclist, who just kept going. He had sped towards me because he hadn't even noticed me. I couldn't help but shake my head in disbelief.

While I continued my morning walk, I obsessed over how I had just frozen time. I combed over all sorts of wild theories in my mind, from radioactive superpowers to me being an alien or some kind of government experiment. I then imagined time being frozen again, and suddenly, it was.

My eyes widened in amazement. When I imagined time resuming again, it did. I continued to test it several times, turning time on and off like a light switch. It brought an amused grin to my face as everything moved in slow motion, like I was hitting 'pause' on a video game over and over again. I'd always been a quick learner, even if I hardly paid attention during my classes.

I reached my bus stop, where mostly everyone stood around like zombies, as was the norm. I never really cared about carrying on a conversation so early in the morning, and I was paid in kind by the other kids. But still, I couldn't help feeling on top of the world right then, standing there and waiting for the bus with a big grin on my face. I knew this incredible new power was going to be awesome.

On the bus to school, as the sun started to peek over the horizon, I continued to use my new power for my entertainment. I found myself excelling quickly as I got used to it. I soon had it down to simply doing it with a blink of my eyes. However, that would have forced me never to blink if I wanted things to always stay the same, so it was only when I thought about it while blinking that it happened.

I amused myself on the bus ride, playing games with my power. I stopped time just to read people's license plates as they drove by, or to see what people were doing in their cars. It was endless fun to watch people sing, eat, yell at their kids in the back, or talk on these newfangled things called cell phones that more and more people were starting to own.

However, when I froze time to look up at birds overhead, something strange happened. I had somehow made it so that the birds were the only things that froze. It sent me into a panic, and I quickly resumed time for them before anyone happened to notice.