Thief of Time - Time stopped

It was barely open a few inches when he saw, beyond, the slow ooze of lightning run down the rod and into the heart of the big clock.

The clock struck one.

Time stopped.

Ti-

Mr Soak the dairyman was washing bottles at the sink when the air dimmed and the water solidified. He stared at it for a moment and then, with the manner of a man trying an experiment, held the bottle over the stone floor and let it go.

It remained hanging in the air.

'Dammit,' he said. 'Another idiot with a clock, eh?’

What he did then was not usual dairy practice. He walked into the centre of the room and made a few passes in the air with his hands. The air brightened. The water splashed. The bottle smashed although, when Ronnie turned round and waved a hand at it, the glass slivers ran together again.

***

The Thief of Time - p236-237