The Time in Between

The Time in Between - Write about a character who has the ability to pause the passage of time.

           “Why must she be so beautiful? Why must her voice resonate with my heart in such a melodic way to make it dance between beats?” The shadow of a young man was cast out from behind a not yet lit street light across from a local tea shop. He was standing, watching the one he knows is the love of his life, toiling her fingers, undoubtedly waiting for someone. Each and every day he waited for her at the closest distance he dared. Most days she arrived alone, but on occasion she was with someone who was clearly just a friend. Not someone, like him, whom she shared an inexplicable bond with. As day turned to night, and another cup of tea ran cold, he held his fist up in triumph as today was another day that a new fated suitor again failed to appear.

           As she stood from the table, a single tear dropped from her chin that she dared not catch for the shattering droplet on the table surface was proof enough to her that she tried. Though this young woman began to walk towards the door, her action was lost upon the young man, still praising another day that he alone may once again, someday, steal the young maiden’s heart like she had his.

           The young women, upon breaking the threshold onto a bustling street, threw her shoulders back, raised her chin high, and began striding forward. Just as the first step met the ground. She saw him. The young man was there again! Her mouth shot open to get his attention, as she practically leapt forward into oncoming traffic. “Rone. RON-.” Her voice broke off suddenly. It all stopped…

           Rone was frozen. His previously unobstructed glee faded as his eyes dropped slowly from the sky to the young women’s outstretched hand in his direction. “No, no, no, no, NO, NO, NOOOOO!!!” Rone shouted in the echoing silence. “Why must the sound that is unique to her, and her alone, pierce me in such a way!?” Rone began feebly crossing the road towards the tea shop. His hands only raised lazily to brush the hoods, and trunks of the vehicles frozen in time around him, as he walked toward the most elegant women he had ever sat across from in his life.

           Rone stepped up onto the curb, directly in front of the young women now. He blocked her view completely, but she could not see him. “Veronica…” Rone’s voice broke this time. “Veronica, I’m sorry. Since that day I gained the courage to approach you in this tea shop we briefly called ours, my whole self called out to be with you. I allowed myself to be stricken by love. WHY!?” Rone looked to the sky again shouting into the void he alone could create. “You have to believe I tried to write to you, but my pen froze the instant your smile appeared in between the blinks of my eye lids. Those seemingly empty phone calls weren’t empty… I waited and waited and waited for my heart to calm down, even for a second, to say your name again when you could actually hear it leave my lips…

           “I’m sorry… I will hold hope for tomorrow, should it decide to come for me again.” Rone turned and dragged his heels harder and harder into the pavement the further he moved away.

           “-NE! Rone?” Veronica looked to the spot where Rone was just standing. “He was right there! RIGHT THERE! He was there…,” Veronica whimpered to herself, knees almost buckling under her weight. “I’m not crazy. I’m not,” she continued to tell herself as she too drug one foot in front of the other towards the end of another day alone.

           Veronica returned the next day to the same tea shop, to the same table, to the same seat she had sat at for weeks, maybe even months now. The same one she sat at when she met him. The gentlest, most kind man she had ever met. He stood tall, but was obviously nervous in his approach. He tried desperately to conceal the fact he was wiping his sweaty palms on the back of his pants. They had caught each other’s eyes a time or two before, but that day was the day he chose to act. His voice was deep, and soothing. His stories so full of passion, yet his attention latched onto every word she spoke in turn. As the minutes turned to hours, the little shop was cleaning up all around them to close for the night.

           “Final service, sir, ma’am. Would you like a last tea?”

           “Oh gosh! It’s already that time. No, I must get going!” Veronica grabbed for her purse, and dug frantically. She flourished a pen, and a flowery piece of stationary from her bag as the waiter walked away. Her hand jetted out. “I have to go, but please call me Ron—"

           “I definitely will!” Rone went to stand from his chair, but he wound up sort of falling out of it. The chair didn’t move like he expected as he crashed to the floor. “Ha ah, that was weird, wasn’t it.” He looked up slightly to see that Veronica hadn’t moved an inch to help him up. “It’s okay, I’m alright.” He stood up kind of laughing at himself. Veronica’s hand was still outstretched. “I get it, you have to go. I will call, I promise.” He went to grab the paper. “Ha ha, you can let go.” Nervous laughter was all he had at that point. “Did you reconsider, ha ha?” He didn’t meet her eyes. He felt the embarrassment rise into his cheeks from falling over so dramatically that he didn’t realize what was happening around him. “Veronica?” He finally looked up to see that her eyes were still looking down to wear he was sitting before. “Are you okay? Hey! Are you okay? Waiter!” Rone’s head shot from side to side as he tried to get Veronica to snap to. It was then that he realized that everything was silent. It was also then that in the silence he noticed his heart beating into his ears.

           “VERONICA!!” Rone screamed for what felt like the millionth time. His voice grew horse. He tried to pick up the half full glass of water at least a dozen times to no avail. His heart still sounding off, almost mocking him for feeling the way he felt so quickly when Veronica was about to leave. Every ounce of his being had fallen for her, and it all came flooding over him in the moment she stood up from the table.

           Surely, several more hours had passed as the silence continued, yet the sun light never faded. Rone wasn’t hungry or thirsty per say. He wasn’t sleepy either. It was more of a fully wake, but quiet insanity.

           It took what must have been several days for him to finally just walk away. The further he walked, the quieter his heart became. Until finally, everything sprang back to life.

           “Watch it, kid!” A bicycle flew past so close to Rone that it blew his hair out of his eyes. Rone’s hands flung up to his ears. The shrill noise around him was blinding. He stumbled forward, barely able to keep one eye open.

           “Breathe, breath dang it!” he kept telling himself. Somehow, even the air felt heavier to his lungs given his over stimulated senses. One thought shot back to him above all else. “Veronica!” He turned and ran as fast as he could back to the little tea shop. “Sorry! ‘scuse me! Sorry!” he yelled back as he literally ran through people on the sidewalk.

           There she was!

           “Veronica!” He screamed from across that street. She had moved! Her arm was down by her side, she was waiving over the waiter! “VERONICA!”

           She looked up to see Rone just barely avoiding a speeding taxi. Their eyes met. “Ron-?”

           “Oh Veronica! You’re okay! Thank goodness. I thought I lost you.” Rone had reached her, heart pounding harder than it was before he left. His breathing was sharp as he held a stitch in his side. But there it was again. His heart beating in his ears. He was afraid to look up. He began whispering to himself again. “No. Please no. Please…” Rone couldn’t fight back the tears. “Not again. I can’t do this again.”

           Rone looked around to see everything had stopped moving once more. The silence hurt him more than the fractured burst of life he had experienced just moments before. He went to turn away again knowing he had been defeated by his own feelings. This time however, the stationary caught his eye. Before, two numbers were blocked by Veronica’s thumb. Now that the stationary lay on the table, the numbers were clearly visible. He could call her! He had already committed the first numbers to memory, so remembering two more was quick work. There was still hope! He walked away slowly, not wanting to leave her side again, but he knew he must.

           “e. Rone? How’d…” Veronica and the waiter both looked outside to where Rone was just screaming. But he wasn’t there. They both looked around. “You saw him, right?”

           “I- I thought I did. But where did he go?” the waiter answered. The waiter then looked down. “I think you have a phone call miss.” Veronica’s phone was vibrating on the table top.

           Veronica snapped back to reality, and picked up the phone. “Hello? Oh, hey mom. Ya, everything is fine, I think.” A tone beeped through her ear piece. “One second mom.” She pulled the phone from her ear. It showed a number she didn’t recognize. She put the phone back to her ear and continued talking. “Ya, I’m fine. I swear. No, I’m still coming. Yes. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Okay. Love you too. Bye.”

           The waiter had already shrugged off Rone’s disappearance as just one of those days that had already been long enough. Veronica grabbed her things, and saw that Rone never took her number in his obvious haste to leave. A hollow pit just below her heart formed as she picked up the first note she had ever written with her number on it to give to a man. She looked at her phone again. One new voicemail, three seconds long, no auto-dictation captured. She rushed out to the street hitting play to only hear deafening silence.