Wouldn't it be nice if once in a while everyone would just shut up and stop pestering you. Wouldn't it be great to have the time to finish a thought or spin a daydream. To think out loud without being required to explain exactly what you meant. If you had the power, would you dare to use it, even knowing that silence may have voices of it's own . . . to the Twilight Zone?

Chaos reins in her kitchen and her life, and all she can think of is getting some peace and quiet. Kids scream and husbands complain.

She finds the box during her morning gardening. Inside is a pretty necklace.

She tries is on and decides to wear it. After yelling “Shut up!” during a family argument, she finds out it can stop time for everything around her. She begins to have some fun with it. She eats her breakfast in peace while the rest of the family is “frozen”.

She takes her revenge on a rude woman at the store by stopping time and taking the item they fought over from her.

She stops some nuclear activists who won't take her "I don't care" for an answer, and lays them on her front lawn while they're in suspended animation. When she “unfreezes” them, they quickly leave, feeling afraid of her.

Then, one night the emergency alert signal comes on the TV, and she learns that they are under missile attack. Her husband is upset and crying, and to save him and the children, she stops time.

Finally realizing what she has done she runs out into the commotion on the street.

She finds that everyone and everything has indeed stopped. She can never “start” the world again, or it will be destroyed.

Last revised: Saturday, November 24, 2001