The city is a wax museum of obscurity. There are cars in the act of swerving. Individuals with hair and faces locking in abnormality. The subtleties of such a place offered momentary distractions for him. He forgot about his sister only to be drawn back to the thought of her as a wave to the beach. With each crashing of his thoughts upon the reality of the moment, I could make out the pained looked as understanding slammed against his face.

It was quite a walk across town to Cart’s. We passed people who had been frozen while bustling to and from very unimportant chance meetings. Such devotion and effort spent on the pursuit of moments of fleeting interests but their faces spelled out their current luck. Men whose faces showed the pride of their evening associate or the desperate look of hopelessness, Women who were tired of more than just the walk but the whole thing altogether, people who couldn’t care less about anything aside from themselves and were disgusted by anyone who would dare talk to them, they were all there.

What was that? His exclamation was as startling as it relayed him being. I saw a bright flash behind that girl with the red dress on. Of course it had to be the girl with the red dress on that he would see it with first. She was beyond attractive and bordering on worshiped by the men that were following her. Low cut on the top and high cut on the bottom her dress would have made any individual interested in women think of fighting for her. But it was here face that gave her away. Very pretty but also very aware of that exact fact. She knew she was good looking and that was enough to make any carnal attraction fade.

But it wasn’t just her looks that caught his eye. It was a flash of light, yellow to be exact. I had seen it too, but then again I had seen that exact flash behind everyone. Do you know the saying that your past follows you? Yeah he said examining the woman, perhaps a little too closely. Don’t touch her. She will be able to feel it. His hand was inches away from touching her and not exactly on the hand. Perhaps he had spent a little to much time away.

How could she feel it if time doesn’t pass? Don’t know how, they just can. I took a seat on a bench next to a pair of teenagers that were looking wide-eyed at the buildings and people around them. Just don’t touch. Now have you heard of the saying… He interjected his answer. Okay, well the saying has more truth than you know. Each person here when they move leave a trace of themselves, momentarily behind them. You cannot see it when time is active because it is too quick but it is there.

So. He impatience hadn’t cooled. So, I continued, if you are outside of time, so to speak, you can see their past. You just have to learn to look for it and at it without looking for it or at it. Easy to say and difficult to understand. He beat me to it this time. That flash you saw was a moment in her past. You saw her past. What was it that I saw a flash of? Her on a beach. What was she wearing? I shot a glance his way to let him know that his question wasn’t appropriate.

So you could look into her past and watch her undressing and stuff. That is very inappropriate. You shouldn’t think like that. I am not saying you do, I am just trying to figure out the limits of this whole thing and it seemed like a reasonable question. I suppose if you stayed her long enough and concentrated hard enough you could. But I don’t do that.

And right now there is a girl somewhere showering you could stop time and stop in for a peek and she wouldn’t ever know. I am not going to continue entertaining this particular line of questions. There are a lot of good uses. Like stopping bad things from happening and helping people. But if there are people like you who use this for good there have to be people who use it for bad don’t there? I mean you have to have met one right?

My face drooped. He had figured out the bad before the good. That was not promising. I met one person once who did use it for ill. And another who thought he was doing good but the power was consuming him. It will be easier to explain to you when you we get there. Now come on. But you never thought about using it for anything that others might consider bad? I fight with it every day. I hope I don’t ever lose the fight.

We turned the last corner and the red neon glow of the sign was tangible, almost. When you stepped through the light it cut the line and left a hole in the ray. All the windows were tinted enough to keep you from making out what was going on inside other than silhouettes of people. I stopped short of the door. Remember when we get in there, don’t do anything unless you clear it with me first. His head nodded but his gaze was fixed on the door.

My hand came to rest on the door handle. This is going to be hard. I hope you are rested and ready. Discipline, be disciplined. We stepped in.