Time

Time was annoyed. Everybody was grumbling about him. Everybody had a grievance. Some thought he was flying too quickly, like a lunatic, some that he was dragging. Some objected to him being independent and high-minded.

You can fool it for a while with a facelift or a makeup mask but sooner or later Truth seeps to the surface, to Time’s advantage. Nobody liked him and everybody was afraid of him.

This is why, one day, he made up his mind and decided to stop.

Suspended like a spider on a ceiling, he started to have a closer look around the world at his leisure.

Through the hospital window he saw the immobile hand of a surgeon and the exposed heart of a patient, the heart still, not beating.

It spoilt his mood a little but he decided not to give up.

On a park bench he witnessed the everlasting kiss of young lovers who appeared, after a while, as if they had became oblivious to it.

it was different in Fortis bank where the cashier had frozen with banknotes in her hands in front of the immobile queueing customers, their faces set anxiously.

In the plane which was about to land, panic erupted..

The leaders of the countries and governments attending a summit in Brussels stopped dead in their pig skin armchairs, convinced that it was a terrorist attack.

The TV speaker was speechless. The gangster failed to pull the trigger.

The emergency ambulance couldn’t get to a casualty in time.

Some were frozen in a moment of pain, some in an act of joy, some were waiting for something or not waiting any more. Someone was regretting something, someone else was swearing vengeance.

There were some who were praying and some who were cursing. Everybody felt the clamp of paralysing fear.

The street went still, the queue of cars trapped in a titanic traffic jam. Nobody was shouting, swearing, pleading or retaliating. A great silence prevailed. Everything was at a standstill.

Everybody was helpless. Silently they sought an explanation for this bizarre state of affairs which had deprived them of passing time. And that means movement, activity, life.

The one who did not give in to the will of time was thought. She moved effortlessly and became the only consolation for those people trapped in inertia. They started to think more intensely than ever. There was such a condensation of thoughts that they started to push each other out and fight.

It wasn’t an even fight. Negative thoughts pushed themselves forward and were more aggressive. They preferred to gather close to the Earth’s surface. Positive thoughts, being the lighter ones, glided upwards and created enormous cumuli which protected the immobile people from the harmful rays of the Sun’s embrace.

Both Thoughts were trying to find a way out of the situation but there seemed to be no way out. Thoughts were circling around, teasing each other, spinning in space, coming back to Earth. They were full of contradictions and ready to fight to the death. Deep inside they felt their own helplessness. They emanated an illusion of freedom, as the paralysis endured, and the people suspended in time lost their ability to enjoy life. Time thought with satisfaction: “You have what you wanted. You complained endlessly, that life is too short or too long, that you age too quickly and die too slowly. So now I have given you eternity.”

But time wasn’t vengeful and when he looked at the frozen faces, the interrupted gestures and unfinished words, he realised how much people need him to live and to be happy. He felt appreciated and important. He saw that everybody is waiting for him, that he still had a lot to offer to the world and that he gave people nourishment for their thoughts. Only then did he get up and move forward with his daily, steady stride. And everything else followed.

translated from Polish by Jolanta Hadcock