STOPWATCH: A Dialogue (Draft One)

By Christopher Atkinson



“There’s an old episode of the Twilight Zone where a guy gets a literal stopwatch. He hit’s the button, time stops,” said Sam. “That’s like the ultimate power. He can do whatever he wants and there’s not a person in the world to stop him.”
“Oh, like, he does things when time’s stopped?” asked Mark. “When you said ‘literal’ I thought you meant, like, he just stops and, uh, he just stops and, you know, watches. Things.”
We were all high at the time, by the way.
“No, dude, that would be lame,” said Sam.
“Totally,” chimed Mark.
“Why would you do that? I mean, you’d have all the power in the world. You could do whatever you want. Go wherever. Be whatever. All in an instant, at least essentially. It’d be a waste to just look around,” said Sam.
“But think about it, man,” said Mark. “The ability to just, uh, just explore. Any moment. Take the time to check out a situation before you, uh, before you make a decision.”
I felt my eyeball twitch, my eyelid droop, so I just listened.
“That’s only when you can see physical variables though, dude. What if it’s just like an argument with your girl? You know, and if you fuck up, she leaves for good, but if you do good, she stays? Your stopwatch wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
“But at least you could stop and think, man,” said Mark. “Like, think of all the things you could possibly say, like uh, and instead of just saying stupid shit off the top of your head, you could clear your thoughts and play the sensitive card.”
“It’s not gonna stop you from making mistakes, though, because you’ll keep making mistakes until you learn lessons. So you can sit there and think things through but you’ll keep fucking up until you learn, the stopwatch can’t stop that. That’s just how that goes,” said Sam.
“Granted,” said Mark. “So then nix that shit. What if you saw the world’s most beautiful girl or the most serene landscape or something. You know that shit ain’t gonna be there forever. She’ll get older or we’ll build on that shirt. Go to the Grand Canyon or something, you could grow old looking at that shit. And, uh, well yeah.”
“That’s great, one minute you’re here and 20 years old, the next we find an 80-year-old’s bones with your DNA at the bottom of the Canyon."
“That’s the life, man.”
“No it’s not,” said Sam, “and I’ll tell you why. I picture the most beautiful girl and it’s not just the way she looks or the fact that she’s youthful, okay? It’s the grace with which she walks. It’s the way she smiles politely, respectfully at everyone. Fuck, it’s the smell of her hair, which would surely fade if time froze for too long.”
“True, true.”
“And as for this landscape, let’s think about that for a second. A forest, okay, we can see the trees. Picture them. Picture them not swaying in the wind. Picture all the little animals frozen in action, not building little habitats or laying eggs or raising young or, fuck, killing each other for sustenance and survival. You’re not freezing a moment, dude, you’re freezing life.”
“You’re flagged from this bong, man, you’re messed up,” said Mark. He took a hit from said bong and passed it to me; I declined. “So what happened in this Twilight Zone?”
“Oh, it was great. He freezes time and robs a bank but he breaks the watch and can’t unfreeze time.”
“Shit,” said Mark, “That must suck.”