Show me a good time

A pocket of space preserved in time

Show me a good time

Time always stood still here, just here and nowhere else. A bubble looking down into the valley, where rumours said that a witch had frozen time many years before.

Everyone ignored it as a stupid old tale, but Matthias had a free Saturday for hiking and climbed upwards through the landscape. Winter had set in, even if the area hadn’t been violated with cheap industrial buildings long since left abandoned, what little remained of the sad patches of grass and broad trees neglected by mother nature were bare, deadened and uninviting. Matthius knew exactly where to go. Sector 3, behind the old oil drums, look for the ‘X’ he'd marked with scotch tape back when he'd discovered it, during his old squatter days.

Always with delicate trepidation, this time was no different. He stepped carefully into the bubble. 

Matthias was always shocked when the world changed around him as if flicking on a light switch. Instantaneously, the abandoned warehouses and offices transmuted into pristine, unspoiled fields, trees tall proud and strong. Bustling with wildlife which had been suspended in place at that moment. Here, Matthias was free to lie for a tireless while, in whatever great time this was, the present unmoving without him.

Closing his eyes, he rested for a while, forgetting his cares. Without warning, and just as he’d relaxed, a group of other squatters appeared in the bubble with him!

By the time he’d bolted upright in shock, and the squatters had asked ‘what the f**k was going on’, a flash of smoke drowned the bubble, to vanish again at just the same instant. 

A real caricature of a character had joined them. A sinewy, dark robed and pointy hatted figure. “Grr” she roared “Who are you all?”

The witch?

The squatters immediately started laughing, what a poor choice. With a single sinewy finger and spark, the squatters glowed a fiery orange and faded, expelled from the bubble.

Matthias cowered in shock “P-please, uh..witch. I didn’t mean to take anything from you. I found this place and it was good for a rest. I’ll leave quietly, please don’t hurt me.”

The witch cackled.

“Haha, relax boy. I still need somebody from this time! Hmm, yes you’ll do...” she peered down at him, stroking her pointed chin and peering intently through one eye.

“Alright, I’ll be nice. Here’s a deal for you. You agree for 3 days a week to show me somewhere fun to visit in your time, and anchor this time pocket to it, and for the rest of the time I’ll stop any errant squatters from barging in on your little time here unwanted. Good enough for you? Or would you rather join those fools in...oh wherever I sent them. I wasn’t paying attention."

Matthias agreed, and wracked his brain for somewhere even remotely nice in his time. Where would a witch even wish to go?

“Let me guess, don’t know where to start?” she laughed. In another flash, she changed herself into modern, more normal clothes.

“Come on, pull me out of the bubble. I’m sure that somewhere you can show me a good time...”