The day when time stopped 1
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? Foreword: Increase time
? 1972, global time increased by two seconds, and Britain agreed to join the European market. The Dreamers Choir took part in the European singing competition. "leap second" adds two seconds, because the time on the clock is different from the time of the earth's rotation.
? The extra two seconds frightened Byron Hommings, who is 1 1 years old and is an imaginative boy. "When will it increase?" He asked his mother. "Anytime, isn't it two seconds?" He doesn't think his mother knows about it.
? I heard about leap second from his friend James Lowe, who is the cleverest boy Byron has ever known.
? After a few months, everything has changed, and these changes will never be the same. "It's not your fault," he told his mother. "It's all because they added two seconds. This is an accident. " Because of this little mistake in time, the whole story began with it. Only one of James and Byron is on the right track in life.
? Chapter one: Inside story.
? First of all, terrible things
? James Law and Byron Hommings go to Winston Boys' School. Not surprisingly, they will be admitted to Oxford or Cambridge all the way and start their elite life after graduation. 1972 On the morning of June, Byron was lying in front of his parents' bed and asked his sleepy mother, "I'm worried. What if they plan to add those two seconds today? "
? "When you add leap second, you won't notice. Isn't it two seconds? " Mom said with a smile.
? "That's because no one realized that two seconds had a huge impact. There is a difference between whether things happen or not. One more step and you will fall off the cliff, which is very dangerous. " Byron blurted out excitedly.
? Mother frowned at Byron. "We really should get up. I'll call Lucy. "
? Byron's mother Diana is a fashionable person, while James's mother Andrea Lowe is condescending like a black-haired giant in front of Diana. James sometimes says, "You have a beautiful mother." Byron blushed at this time.
? When Byron and Lucy are having breakfast in the restaurant, Diana is talking to Byron's father on the phone. He calls at the same time every day. Byron knocked over the milk glass bottle in an argument with Lucy. "Nobody moves." Diana quickly cleaned up the broken glass. "Hey, you're bleeding." Lucy shouted. "Nothing." After packing her things quickly, Diana took Byron and Lucy and set off in a shiny new Jaguar: "It doesn't matter, we can catch up soon, and the British are never late." Diana said.
? Wrangham Tower is a George-era building. There are no villages around, only lonely houses, gardens and swamps. The smog covered the Jaguar like a hood. As far as they can see, the road is blocked by cars. On their left, a burnt-out car showed a black outline. "We're going to be late." Lucy sighed. Diana turned around and drove straight into Digby Road. The children were speechless with surprise. "Father said that we must never go this way." Lucy covered her face with her hands.
? "This is a shortcut through low-rent housing. I have been here before. " Mom said. In fact, Digby Road is worse than Byron imagined, and some places have not even been paved with asphalt. Suddenly Byron saw a beautiful thing: a tree shining in the fog, dotted with pink flowers, and a little girl riding a red bike appeared under the tree. "What time is it?" Lucy asked, "Will we be late?"
? Byron glanced at his watch and froze. The second hand was walking back. He screamed, "Mommy, it really happened. Stop the car." He poked at his watch and tried to explain to his mother. At the same time, he realized that the glowing tree, the girl riding a bike and the backward second hand all happened at the same time. A sudden stop, "Jaguar" came to an abrupt end. Byron looked around and couldn't find the girl any more. He knew that something terrible had happened and his life would change forever.
? Second, Jim
? Jim lives in a camper near the new residential area. Every morning he crosses the swamp and comes back at night. He wiped the table in a redecorated supermarket cafe. At night, Jim walked on the icy road with his boots on the fragile grass stubble. He can distinguish the neon lights in Cranham village.
? When he was almost twenty years old, he was found here, wearing only underwear and shoes. He gave his clothes to the tree and slept in the wild for a few days. He was sent to a mental hospital on the spot. "Hello, Jim, hello again." The doctor said to Jim, and then he was forced to receive electroconvulsive therapy. That's what pain is. Jim knew that everything he met was not a mess, but something else. This is not only hurt, but related to what happened forty years ago and everything he lost.
? He walked along this road to the residential area, passed through rows of new houses, walked into a dead end and saw his camper flashing in the moonlight. How did I get here? Jim asked himself. There used to be two of us.
? The wind blew and said nothing.
? Third, the amulet
? During lunch break, outside the auditorium, James began to tell Byron what he had read in the newspaper about leap second. Byron's mind constantly emerged the idea of human intervention in the natural order. Time unites the world and makes life orderly. James and Byron are a strange couple. James is thin and pale. Byron is tall, stupid and fat.
? At the moment after the accident, he suddenly felt nothing. He sat waiting for his mother to understand what had happened. Maybe she'll get out of the car screaming. He sat there waiting for the little girl to get up from the road screaming, but nothing happened. Byron's mother restarted the car. He couldn't believe that she just drove away, leaving the little girl where they had just knocked her down. Then he realized that it was because his mother didn't know about the accident at all. She didn't see the car hit the girl. His heart beat so hard that his throat ached: "Go, go, go!" " "He shouted, they must leave before anyone finds them.
? They drove smoothly along Debbie's road, as usual. Only Byron waited nervously for someone to stop them, but this never happened. Diana parked her car in a tree-lined street, sent Lucy to a girls' school, and then said to Byron, "Are you okay? Time to go, baby. " He trudged to school, and he had to find James as soon as possible.
? Outside the board, James counted: "2, 4, 8, 16, 32". Byron asked him why he counted. "I want to verify whether it can be doubled, so as to ensure safety." "Is it safe?" "Yes, I don't want to resigned. The scholarship exam is coming, and the pressure is getting bigger and bigger. I will look for the lucky clover. Now I have a lucky beetle, which was given to me by menstruation. It comes from Africa. " Byron's eyes hurt. "Have you noticed that they added those two seconds today? At eight o'clock, 15. " After a silence, James asked, "Are you sure? Why didn't they tell us? " "I'm sure I saw it. But I don't know why they didn't tell us. " Byron wished he had a menstrual amulet from Africa.
? That Jaguar was a gift from my father after my mother got her driver's license. Now it has become her enviable capital. The mothers were surrounded by two cars, and Diana kept holding a handkerchief and frantically wiped the fingerprints off the car.
? Byron has been in a trance in class, and he can always see the little girl, curled up in the back window and crushed under his red bike.
? Fourth, the tasks that must be completed.
? Jim got on the camper and the ceremony began. He welcomes everything he has: doors, faucets, potted plants, tea towels, etc. This ceremony has been repeated 2 1 time. You must complete this ceremony, go in, say hello, come out, go in, say hello, come out. It is safe to complete 2 1 time, otherwise it is not safe. No one knows this part of Jim's life. He seldom associates with people. Because he is still at school, he has few friends. Since the closure of the mental hospital in Lishan, Beshi, he is eager for friendship and love, and is eager to know and be understood by others. But after completing these ceremonies, he had to glue every crack in the camper. After all this, he was exhausted and didn't have much time to communicate.
? When he sealed every gap, it was like staying in a tight package. Suddenly, he realized that he had finished everything, and a sense of relief came to him. The church bell across the Klum swamp rang twice. He doesn't have a watch, which has been useless for many years. There are still four hours of sleep.
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? Five, flexible acrobatic actress
? James Lowe once told Byron that magic is just playing with facts, not lying. What people see mainly depends on what they are looking for. He explained through painting that the woman who was sawed in half at Billy Smart Circus was actually a flexible acrobat, and when people didn't see her, she would huddle herself up.
? After school, Diana and Lucy wait for him at the school gate, and make an appointment to have coffee with other mothers next Wednesday. Everything seems normal. No one would have thought that just a few hours ago, she hit a little girl and left. Going home through the intersection of Digby, Byron had to sing to hide his anxiety.
? Back home, Byron always wanted to ask about the accident, but he remembered that his mother didn't really know what she had done. Byron took the opportunity to sneak into the garage to check the jaguar. There is no sign of damage to this car. He checked it again and again to make sure it was in good condition. He breathed a sigh of relief and walked out of the garage.
? Byron can't eat anything at dinner time. He wants to know what happened to the girl, whether her parents or neighbors found her and how badly she was hurt. Byron went out to talk to Lucy while his mother was washing the dishes. He found her sitting cross-legged on the terrace slate, with four snails arranged according to the shell size and crawling speed.
? "Are you okay? How do you feel about what happened this morning? "
? "What's the matter?"
? "That's where we passed. Have you ...? ... see anything? "
? "Oh, I don't like that place. I didn't see it. I was like this at the time. " She covered her eyes with her hand.
? He explained that it was very important not to tell dad that we went to that place when he came back at the weekend. "What if I forget?" Lucy's lips trembled. He was afraid that she would cry. At that moment, he felt that he had grown up and Lucy was still a child. He knows something that she doesn't. "Everything will be fine, I promise you." He told the truth like a father and then kissed Lucy on the forehead. "You have bad breath!" Say that finish, Lucy turned back to the house, at least two snails were trampled by her.
? That night, he watched the news, and there was nothing about the little girl. Then he slipped into the forbidden area of his father's study, picked up a pen and paper like James, drew the route their car passed in the morning, and drew a circle where the accident happened. He folded the paper and put it in his trouser pocket, and tidied up the things on the table to make sure that his father would not find him in his forbidden area. After all this, he had a whim, kneeling on the floor, his upper body fell to the ground and curled up into a little girl in the morning. If the little girl is all right, she will get up from the ground and make a noise. Maybe the police are looking for his mother.
? "What are you doing?" Diana looked at Byron at the door of the study and asked. Byron began to roll, as if playing an interesting game, and his mother smiled. "I think I can go to school by bus or taxi tomorrow as before."
? "We have jaguars, dear."
? "Yes, but this car is brand new. We should not use it. Besides, my father also said that women can't drive. "
After a short silence, my mother said, "We deviated a little from our usual route this morning," she said quietly, glancing at her watch casually. "Oh, my God, it's time for you to take a bath." She said so much this morning.
? The next week, as usual, day after day, no one came to catch his mother. On Wednesday, the gauze on her hand was taken off, and everyone forgot that morning, even those two seconds. Only Byron remembers that times have changed. His mother hit a child. Byron saw it, but she didn't. Although it is not her fault, although no one knows about the accident, it will definitely have some kind of result. He listened to the sound of clocks walking around the room and listening to them tick with time.
? One day, someone will pay the price: if it is not now, it will be the future.