Chapter 3: I want you to be proud.

August 29th, 2015

Cadi could not believe it.

Time had stopped.

How was she supposed to get it unstopped?!

At this thought, the eight year old really started to freak out. She was going to be stuck like this forever!!!!

She was about to start crying, when suddenly, the world came back in a whoosh of noise.

To anyone else, it wouldn’t have seemed that loud in the Wille home, but to Cadi, there was a cacophony of lovely sound. She watched happily as the clock turned from 7:59 to 8:00.

“Cadi! You’re going to be late to school!” her mother called out from the kitchen.

Right.

School.

Cadi slowly wandered into the kitchen and eyed her mother as she continued to wash the dishes.

“Um… Mom? Did you… feel anything weird just now?” she asked hesitantly.

“Nope.” her mother answered simply. “Did you? Maybe it was an earthquake.”

“Do we even have earthquakes around here?”

“Sometimes.”

Cadi stood there silently for a moment.

She had felt something weird.

When the world had unfrozen, she had felt something tingling deep down in her gut and out to her fingertips. She wondered what in the world that could have been…

“Ok. Well I’m off to school!” she said, her mind preoccupied as she picked up her power rangers backpack and ran outside to her bike.

She no longer cared that she was going to be late. Time had stopped!! But why? And how? Cadi continued to think about this as she dreamily walked into the front office and grabbed a tardy pass and slowly made her way to her classroom. The clock on the wall read 8:15. She was alone in the hallway.

Her fingertips still felt a bit tingly from earlier, and so did her stomach.

Absentmindedly, she made it to her classroom and sat down in her seat in the middle of the room.

Could she somehow make it happen again?

She thought about the tingle in her tummy and then clenched her stomach, subconsciously holding her breath.

“Are you ok Cadi?” her friend Juno whispered. Cadi let out her breath of air.

“Uh… Yeah.”

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing…”

For the rest of class time, Cadi drudged through the school work, all the while thinking about the events of the morning. Finally, it was recess. The eight year old ran out with all the other kids, the wind slightly blowing on the hot August playground.

Maybe she could try to make it happen again? But before she could slip away, about ten kids rushed her.

“Cadi!! What happened with the mad scientists?”

“How did you get away?”

“Did they do experiments on you?”

Cadi smiled at all the attention.

“Their names are Mr. Harry and Ms. Emille.” she said proudly, her hands on her hips. “And I got an electrical shock from one of their experiments!!”

The kids looked at her in awe.

“And something weird happened this morning, but I’m keeping that a secret until I figure out what happened.”

“Woooooah…”

“Let’s play red rover!” someone exclaimed, changing the subject.

For the moment, Cadi forgot all about the strange events she had experienced that morning, and then before she knew it, recess was over.

Then school was over.

Cadi walked beside her bike as her friend Juno, with his crazy curly black hair and cinnamon skin, walked with her.

“So what happened this morning?” He asked curiously.

“I’m not sure…” she started, thinking. “I woke up this morning, and… time had stopped. Everything had stopped.”

“Really?!” Juno gaped at her.

This was one reason Cadi liked Juno. He always trusted what she said, unlike some other people.

“Yeah. I don’t know what happened though.”

The two of them walked in silence for a moment.

“Well, here’s my turn.” Juno announced, starting to turn at the corner of the sidewalk. “You’re still coming to my birthday party on Saturday right?”

“You know it!”

“Sweet! I’ll see you tomorrow Cadi!”

“See you tomorrow!”

At that, Cadi hopped on her bike and continued riding down the sidewalk. Her dad would’ve been mad if he had seen her without a helmet, but he couldn’t see her, so she guessed she’d be good.

She turned the corner that led to her street in the suburbs, and then slowly skidded to a stop. Some of her neighbors were out and about.

She began to feel the tingly sensation again.

But this time, she focussed on it.

Cadi closed her eyes, feeling the warm tingling deep down in her gut that spread throughout her fingers.

Then another weird feeling; almost like she was getting goosebumps all over.

She opened her eyes and then gasped.

Over to one side, the fat, bald guy that she called “Mr. Potato” was frozen in the middle of trying to start his lawn mower.

Next to him, were his little kids that were always loud and throwing mud everywhere, caught in a mid air jump into a little inflatable pool.

Across the street, Sally, the old lady who was really nice, was standing in the door, looking down at a still cat with only one paw on the ground as it jumped down from the porch.

Cadi could not believe her eyes.

Time had stopped again.

This time, instead of freaking out, she slowly biked through everything, occasionally poking people and dipping her hands into things, and seeing what she could do. She found that she could move things while they were frozen, but they still had their same weight, so she couldn’t move anything really heavy. But things like the cat, or even the neighbor’s annoying little kids, she could do things with. With a chuckle to herself, she shoved one of Mr. Potato’s fingers up his nose and the other on his butt like he was scratching it. Then she quickly went back to her bike and focussed on the same tingly feeling in her gut.

WHOOOSH!

Back came the sound in a torrent of chaos, and Cadi rode away laughing as Mr. Potato looked down at his finger in confusion.

This was unreal!!

“Moooom!! Mommy!!” Cadi yelled in her excitement, throwing her bike down in the front yard and bursting through the door.

Instead of her mother however, she was met with her older brother, who was looking at her with an eyebrow raised, a bagel halfway in his mouth.

“Uh… Wha are ooo elling foh?”

“What?”

Rick took a moment to swallow what was in his mouth.

“What are you yelling for?”

Cadi paused, trying to decide if she should tell him her big secret just yet.

“Where’s Mom?” she asked.

“At the store.”

“Why are you home so early?”

“We had early dismissal. Now why are you yelling? It’s annoying.”

Cadi couldn’t contain it any longer.

“Icanpausetime!!” she yelled in excitement, dropping her bookbag on the floor. Rick stared at her incredulously.

“Excuse me?”

“I paused time!” she said, taking in a deep breath. Rick rolled his eyes.

“Ok. Whatever.”

“No! Really!”

Rick shook his head and opened the fridge to get a drink.  

He didn’t understand.

Cadi put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes.

“Well if you don’t believe me, I’ll just have to show you!” she exclaimed. And with that, she grabbed him by the arm and and pulled, causing him to drop the carton of orange juice he was holding.

“CADI!!” he yelled angrily as it started to spill on the floor.

“Oops!”

“What the heck are you-.”

Cadi hopped from one foot to the other.

“Riiiiick!”

“Whaaaat?!”

Cadi impatiently grabbed him by the arm as soon as he picked up the carton, and then pulled him to the front door. She wanted him to see things frozen like her. She wanted him to look down at her and say, “Woah Cadi! That’s cool!” She knew she annoyed him a lot at times, but she couldn’t help but want him to be proud of her for once-to play with her- to-.

“What are you doing?” he asked sourly, obviously annoyed as she continued to clutch his arm.

“Watch this!” she exclaimed, closing her eyes.

Once again, she focussed on the tingling feeling. She could feel it warming up in her belly, exploding out of her fingers…

“OOOOW!” Rick suddenly exclaimed, yanking his arm away from her and jumping about a foot in the air. Cadi opened her eyes.

There was Mr. Potato down the street, mowing his lawn.

There was the weird exercise lady going up and down her own steps.

And there was her mother, pulling into the driveway.

Time was still going.

“Oh my gosh Cadi! What did you do?!” Rick seethed, storming into the house and rubbing his arm. “That hurt you little jerk!”

“But Rick-!”

What had just happened?

Cadi closed her eyes and tried to feel the tingle again, but it wasn’t working. Why wasn’t it working?

The eight year old started to brood as she trudged into the house after her brother.

She picked up her bookbag as he mumbled angry things under his breath as he cleaned up the orange juice.

“Cadi, Rick, can you help me with the groceries please?” their mother asked as she came in carrying four different bags.

“Sorry, I’m cleaning up after Cadi again. She made me spill the orange juice.” Rick called out grumpily.

“It was an accident.” the eight year old was quick to respond.

“Don’t worry, I got some more. There’s more stuff in the car.”

Cadi nodded and went out into the garage.

As she was getting some things out of the trunk and seeing how many bags she could carry at once, she couldn’t help but look outside at all her neighbors that had been completely frozen still just a few minutes before.

Was all of this because of the mad scientists maybe?

Cadi thought about this as she waddled into the house carrying thirteen bags, which was now her new record.

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Cadi sat in her room, her homework untouched, as she sat on her bed and closed her eyes.

Come on… Come on…

She tried to feel the tingle like she had before…

She wanted to pause time again! For the past hour she had been trying to do it, but every time she opened her eyes, the clock was still ticking.

Suddenly, she started to feel it deep down in her stomach. She tried to contain her excitement as she could feel it traveling through her fingers.

She opened her eyes.

The clock had stopped.

Cadi jumped up victoriously with a punch in the air.

Oooooh if Rick thought she was annoying earlier, he was going to hate it when she made him put his fingers up his nose!!

Devilishly, she ran to her brother’s room and burst through the door, prepared to put him in some weird position like she had done to Mr. Potato. She skidded to a halt in surprise as she saw her older brother bobbing his head to his ipod.

“Cadi?! What are you doing in my room?” he growled, pulling out his earbuds and sliding his laptop across the bed.

“But… you aren’t paused…” she said, sounding disappointed.

“What are you talking about?”

“I just paused time!”

Rick groaned and put his earbuds back in.

Angrily, Cadi closed her eyes and felt the tinglies, only to find that her brother was still unfrozen. Confused, she glanced at the clock to see that it was moving. Dejectedly, she pulled Rick’s door shut as she left his room and sulked back down the hall.

Guess time was still going…

Full speed ahead…