He remembered it like it had happened just a few hours ago. Every second had etched into memory, into some part of the brain where memories were stored in some unexplainable way. If you think about it, this is not very much more remarkable or less complicated to explain. The difference is that we all know that we can remember things by letting a lump of liquid-filled tissue store the information.
Everyone can remember.
But not everyone can use those extra moments that are present every day, every hour and every minute. No one knows how many can do it. There has been several attempts to make an estimate by counting the known cases within certain areas and then compare with population, education and genes. But there are no uni-vocal answers.
Thomas Thompsson had a theory of his own. He considered every human on the planet possessed the ability deep within but only a few could use it as a skill. During his travels around the world he had met people that on rare occasions had been able to do things that even the most experienced VIP:s had trouble pulling off. But it happened under very special circumstances and they failed to reproduce their actions on command. Perhaps it was one of our primitive instincts and the need for it had declined as civilization progressed and thereby slowly grown away from our repertoire.
Thomas could clearly remember his own first visit in the time of the shift of minutes. He remembered the red digits on the display of the clock radio and looking back it was easy to explain. At the same time it was a perfect example of the connections behind the phenomenon.
It was during the days between Christmas Day and New Year's eve, he was seven years old. He was sitting in the dark, in his room, playing with some toys that had been given to him a few days earlier. When he talked to others at theWalterman Farm about their experiences and memories of the First Time, there were noticeable many that talked about the time before and after Christmas. Perhaps it had something to do with the season of the year or maybe it was because this was a time of happiness and relaxing, especially when it came to kids.
Anyway, he was sitting there and it was pretty dark in the room. Or rather, it became totally dark when the ceiling lamp blinked two times and then went dead. The only thing visible in the room was a distant light, through the window, maybe a street lamp or possibly the neighbours. Thomas and his family at that time lived in the country where the sky was really black at night and not polluted by the lights of the city.
There was another light source in the dark. His clock radio was glowing with red, square digits and it was showing 19:19. Kind of funny. He used to notice those moments of the day when the digits formed special patterns. Like 11:11 or 22:22, at which time of the day he should already have gone to sleep. He stood up to go and find dad so he could change the light bulb.
But his right foot got caught in the cord of the clock radio, just as it had done many times before. Once he had tripped over the cord and pulled the clock radio into the floor so that it went completely dead and his father had hand it in to have it repaired. Now he felt that the clock radio was sliding over the little bedside table, tipping over the edge and falling towards the floor.
But as he turned around, with an instinct to catch the radio before it hit the floor, the clock radio was hanging upside down. But it was hanging free in the air, outside the little blue bedside table where it had been standing and where his mom would put the water glass when he was ill. The digits on the clock radio was also up-side-down and instead showing 61:61.
He just looked at the radio as it was floating there in mid-air. Thomas stared. Even the cord was hanging weight-less in the air. He tried to move towards the clock radio but it was not easy. It felt like when he was trying to run at the bottom of a swimming pool although the resistance was even stronger. He felt no panic, more amazed and surprised.
His arm moved slowly forward. It felt like an eternity, but concurrently time stood still at the display of the clock radio and it was still hanging in the air. He had to struggle to move the rest of his body towards the head end of the bed and finally he reached it. He reached for the clock radio and could feel the plastic against his finger tips. Simultaneously he saw the clock turn and showing 02:61 before it fell to the floor with a crash.
The radio started playing "Feels like the First Time", the hit song by Foreigner. Every time, which was not very often these days, he heard that song he remembered his first time. When the music came pouring out of the one lousy speaker of the black clock radio he realized how quiet it had been during the moment that time stood still. He had not heard another sound besides the beating of his hearts slightly enhanced rhythm.
He lifted the clock radio from the floor and turned it right upside-up. It said 19:20 but soon switched to 19:21. That was his first experience with the 61st second. But far from his last. He never bothered to tell his parents or his younger brother, it was a secret he kept to himself from that moment on.
His family still knew nothing. They had been told that he had left England to go to Sweden to work as a teacher at Waltermans Farm, outside a town named Helsingborg. Sometime he wished that he could tell them. He had hoped that perhaps his own brother had the same ability. Maybe he had, it was not easy to know who knew and who did not.
He knew that those who came to Waltermans Farm to study were the most talented. Those that much like Thomas already as children had the ability to get into that the Second 61, not only at shift of the minute between the one thousand fifty-ninth (1159) and the one thousand sixtieth (1160) minute of the day but at any shift of minute between any of the 1440 shifts that occurred every day.
It was kind of an Elite school. Some of the pupils came from other countries and lived as in a boarding-school, more or less official. Others went to public school in the city or one of the neighboring villages and only came to the Farm in the afternoons to learn more and to meet others with the same unique skill.
Thomas considered himself being on the Good side. He wanted to explore the 61st second and what it could do for the world. He hoped that the pupils of his would become good citizens who used their ability in a good way. Many of the elders talked about how the youngsters did not understand what power they possessed while many of them had abilities that overshadowed those of earlier generations. The elders thought the children lacked respect for Second 61 that could be dangerous in many ways. In a time that was marked by celebrity there were endless examples of people using their ability to get advantages that in the end meant celebrity but over all fortunes.
Thomas knew himself that there were magicians that used the 61st second to perform certain more advanced tricks. He also knew that it was extremely risky to use the talent for that purpose. What they taught at school was exactly what had been taught for hundreds of years - keep a low profile and never expose your talent to strangers.
He had heard rumours of a struggle for power that was rising in the world. There were a number of different societies that to a diversified degree had knowledge of Second 61. Not everyone shared the opinion of how the powers should be used and there was no one that had natural right to rule over the others. Some of the elders worried that a mobilization of evil forces was coming. Sometimes they would talk about ancient legends that predicted a future showdown between different clans.
This was one of many things spinning around inside the mind of Thomas as he pondered about whether to accept the position as headmaster of the school. Or if he perhaps should join the intelligence agency that had its headquarters a few miles away, in an anonymous building in the middle of the city. Both alternatives were exciting and interesting. Soon he would have to make a decision.
THE END
Translation of a Story about Thomas Thompssons first time in the 61st second.