How to Stop Time

Tom’s mother plays the lute, gently singing, escaping into the music. His mother stops playing and says, “You do not change” (51). Tom is 18 but looks 13. She worries about others noticing Tom’s lack of aging. She suggests he quit working for the local roofer, Mr. Carter. Tom considers the irony of being hired at 13 because he was tall, broad, and young and now to be in danger because he isn’t growing as fast anymore. A terrible wailing sound halts their conversation. Tom rushes outside to see what’s happening. His mother tries to hold him back. He sees John Gifford staggering down the road, vomiting violently. Blood pours out of his ears, nose, and mouth. He collapses on the town green, dead. The baker’s wife, Bess Small, stares at Tom accusingly, telling him to stay away.

In class, Tom tries to discuss witches. Tom begins reconsidering his choice of becoming a teacher. Prior to Sri Lanka, Tom was living in a small fishing village in Kópasker, Iceland. Prior to Iceland, Tom spent years in Toronto. He was lonely in both places. Teaching “was just a pretense” (55). Perhaps everyone else is also pretending something—like Shakespeare said, “all the world was a stage” (56)—and the secret to happiness is finding the part that fits you best. Tom thinks teaching may be the wrong part. Tom explains that believing in witches makes things easier. They provide an enemy and an explanation. He goes on about witchfinders and laws passed by monarchs against witches. Tom’s headache flares up. A student asks how someone was determined to be a witch.

Tom describes his mother as moralistic, a lover of “food, music, the aesthetics of nature” (58), deeply religious, fragile, tough, and stubborn. She follows the teaching of Calvin. Tom knows none of that will save them when the witchfinder arrives. William Manning, the “pricker” or witchfinder, arrives with a Justice of the Peace, Mr. Noah (58). Manning grabs Tom’s wrist and points to a splotch of discoloration and declares it is the devil’s spot. Tom says it’s a flea bite. Turning to Tom’s mother, Manning demands she undress. She refuses and insults them in French. They mistake it as the devil’s language. Tom’s mother only undresses when Manning holds a dagger to Tom’s throat. She stands there naked as Manning pricks her shoulder, forearm, and navel with his dagger. Manning claims her blood is darker than normal. He accuses her of killing John Gifford with witchcraft to keep her son youthful. Tom tries to defend his mother, but Manning knocks him unconscious. Tom’s mother also has a flea bite, which seems to confirm her involvement in witchcraft.

These events often haunt Tom’s dreams. This was the turning point of Tom’s life. He wishes for the time before these events, when everything was simple and he was normal.

During his lunch break, Tom heads to the supermarket to buy lunch. He gets stuck at the self-checkout when the machine requires an employee’s assistance. No one is around to help. Some students in line at the register recognize him from school. Tom’s head starts to ache.

Back at school, he runs into the French teacher. She recognizes him from the park and stops to say so. He starts to feel claustrophobic, “as if this world is never big enough to hide in” (63), and keeps walking.

William Manning presides over the witch trial. Tom’s fate will be decided by his mother. If she drowns, she is innocent, and Tom is free. If she survives, she is a witch, and both will be sent to the gallows. As she is taken to the chair in the river, she calls out to Tom, “You must find your purpose. Do you promise to live?” (66). Tom promises. She is strapped to the chair and hoisted above the river. Manning orders them to begin. Tom watches as his mother disappears under the water. They pull her dead body out once the bubbles stop. Tom instantly regrets his promise to live, blaming himself for her death.