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For one thing, if time had really stopped, ere they still conscious? How could they be aware of the phenomenon? Why weren’t they frozen in that lasttime just as the airborne litter was, as the moths were?

"No," he said shakily, "it’s not that simple If time stopped, notbi would movewould it?-not even subatomic particles And without subatomic movementmolecules of airwell, won’t molecules of air be as solid as molecules of iron? Hoould we be able to breathe?"

Reacting to that thought, they both took deep and grateful breaths

The air did have a faint chehtly odd in its way as the ti life

"And light," Harry said "Light waves would stop ister with our eyes So how could we see anything but darkness?"

In fact, the effect of ti to a stop probably would be infinitely more catastrophic than the stillness and silence that had descended on the world that March night It seemed to him that time and matter were inseparable parts of creation, and if the flow of time were cut off, matter would instantly cease to exist The universe would implodewouldn’t it? Crash back in on itself, into a real tiny ball of extremely densewell, whatever the hell dense stuff it was before it had exploded to create the universe

Connie stood on her toes, reached up, and gently pinched the wing of one of the er She settled back on her heels and brought the insect in front of her face for a closer inspection

Harry had not been sure if she would be able to alter the bug’s position or not He wouldn’t have been surprised if theimmovably on the deadcalm air, as fixed in place as a metal moth welded to a steel wall

"Not as soft as a moth should be," she said "Feels like it’s made out of taffeta or starched fabric of soo of the wing, the ently batted the bug with the back of his hand, and watched with fascination as it tuain It was as motionless as it had been before they had toyed with it, just in a new position

The ways in which they affected things appeared to be pretty h all other shadoere as un as the objects that cast theh it as usual but couldn’t really interact with it She had been able to ht it into their reality, had not ain

"Maybe time hasn’t stopped," she said "Maybe it just sloay down for everyone and everything else except us"

"That’s not it, either"

"How can you be sure?"

"I can’t But I thinkif we’re experiencing tih faster tostill, then every move we make has incredible comparative velocity Doesn’t it?"

"So?"

"I un

Velocity is destructive If I took a bullet in e But at a few thousand feet per second, it’ll punch a substantial hole in you"

She nodded, staring thoughtfully at the suspendedti would’ve disintegrated it"

"Yeah I think so I’d have probably done soe to my hand, too" He looked at his hand It was un slower than usualthen no laht as they are now They’d be diht Maybe And airwater or syrup?"

He nodded "I think so I don’t really know for sure Hell’s bells, I’ure this if he was standing right here with us"

"The way this is going, he otten out of either the tow truck or the Volvo, which indicated to Harry that the occupants were as trapped in the changed world as were the moths He could see only the shadowy forms of two people in the front seat of the more distant Volvo, but he had a better view of the man behind the wheel of the tow truck, which was almost directly across the street from them

Neither the shadows in the car nor the truck driver had moved a fraction of an inch since the stillness had fallen Harry supposed that if they had not been on the saht have exploded through the windshields and tuhway the instant that the tires precipitously stopped rotating

At the barroom s of the Green House, six people continued to peer out in precisely the postures they had been in when the Pause had coht of it as a Pause rather than a Stop because he assuain Assu it was Ticktock who had called the halt If not hi at atable; the other four were standing, two on each side of the table

Harry crossed the sidewalk and stepped between the shrubs to examine the onlookers more closely Connie accolass and perhaps a foot below those inside the barroorayhaired couple at the table, there was a young blonde and her fiftyish co near the bandstand,too heartily Now they were as quiet as the residents of any tomb On the other side of the table stood the host and a waiter All six were squinting through the , leaning slightly forward toward the glass

As Harry studied them, not one blinked an eye No face le hair stirred Their clothes draped thear expressions ranged from amusement to amazement to curiosity to, in the case of the host, perturbation But they were not reacting to the incredible stillness that had befallen the night Of that, they were oblivious because they were a part of it

Rather, they were staring over Harry’s and Connie’s heads, at the place on the sidehere the two of the had fled Their facial expressions were in reaction to that interrupted bit of street theater

Connie raised one hand above her head and waved it in front of the , directly in the line of view of the onlookers The six did not respond to it in any hatsoever

"They can’t see us," Connie said wonderingly

"Maybe they see us standing out there on the sidewalk, in the instant that everything stopped They could be frozen in that split second of perception and not have seen anything we’ve done since"

Virtually in unison, he and Connie looked over their shoulders to study the deadstill street behind them, equally apprehensive of the unnatural quietude With astonishing stealth, Ticktock had appeared behind theard’s bedroo hih Harry was sure that he was co inside the bar, Connie rapped her knuckles against a pane of glass The sound was slightly tinny, differing frolass to the saree that their current voices differed from their real ones

The onlookers did not react

To Harry, they seemed to be more securely imprisoned than the most isolated man in the deepest cell in the world’s worst police state

Like flies in alesshorribly vulnerable about their helpless suspension and their blissful ignorance of it

Their plight, although they were al Harry’s spine He rubbed the back of his neck to warm It

"If they still see us out on the sidewalk," Connie said, "what happens if we go away froain?"

"I suppose, to theht before their eyes"