On the morning Gwen woke with the ability to manipulate time, it was already too late. She didn’t immediately realize she could stretch or compress time—that would come later. At first, all she knew was Dianne was gone, and she wasn’t coming back.

She was dreading having to tell her younger brother Kyle, who’d been crashing at her place. At least she could be sure he hadn’t heard last night’s fight.

When she reached the kitchen, she found Kyle had made breakfast. Her favorite, eggs benny with a side of fruit. Great, she thought. He knows. He must’ve seen Dianne leave.

Kyle put the food down in front of her, then signed, “I’m sorry about Dianne. What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Gwen signed back. “Long story.”

It was at this moment she first noticed something was different, perhaps because the ASL for ‘story’ was so similar to the pulling motion necessary to stretch time. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes stretched into hours, and while this was fascinating on the one hand, it made Gwen feel nauseated and panicky as well.

She pinched her fingertips together as the disorienting wave passed—accidentally using the precise gesture needed to compress time—and everything went back to normal.

“What the hell was that?” Kyle asked, looking a little green in the gills.

“I don’t know. I think I just . . .” she couldn’t finish. In lieu of words, she tried again, first making a motion like pulling taffy, and the moment stretched out again. It wasn’t so much that things were in slow motion, it was more like they had extra time. Time in which to figure things out. Gwen pinched her fingertips together and time compressed back on itself.

“Cool,” Kyle signed.

Gwen considered the situation. It seemed all the worst moments in life stuck with you interminably, while the best ones zoomed by so fast you could miss them if you didn’t pay close attention. Now she had the power to do something about it.

This wasn’t time travel. She couldn’t go back and fix things with Dianne, but she could affect the moments going forward.

“If you could relive a special moment from your life and stretch it out to really have a chance to soak it in, what would you choose?” she asked Kyle.

“Loss of virginity, hands down,” he said. “That definitely went faster than I would’ve liked.”

She laughed. “I’m serious.”

Kyle shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe those summers we spent at Aunt Amy’s beach house?”

That was a great idea. “Pack your bags. I’ll call Aunt Amy. See if the beach house is free.”

• • • •

On the drive up, they listened to drum music like when they were kids, the volume loud enough so Kyle could feel it, hand pressed against the side speaker in the passenger side door. With his other hand, he kept rhythm on his thigh. Gwen couldn’t remember the last time they’d done this.

Almost without thinking, she made the pulling motion and time stretched out before them. The drive was normally a couple of hours, but this one would stretch to days. The rhythm of the drums rising and falling, carrying them through this moment.

Kyle turned and smiled at her.

Adult life had a way of rushing by. There weren’t many opportunities to slow things down. Now she could. This went on until they got hungry, then Gwen pinched her fingertips together and suddenly they were arriving at the beach house, unpacking, calling Amy to tell her they’d arrived safely.

Then they were at the beach. Gwen stretched time again as they went for a walk, searching for sea glass and fossils.

“You think that place with the good chowder’s still around?” Kyle signed.

“Let’s find out.” Gwen compressed time, and they were suddenly there, sitting in a booth as the server placed their order in front of them.

“Thanks,” Kyle said and signed. The server returned his smile.

“I think she likes you,” Gwen signed to him.

“Who can blame her?” he signed back. They both laughed.

“Thanks,” she said, fingertips to chin, then away. “Today could’ve been a pretty bad day for me, but you made it bearable. It’s been too long since we got to hang out like this, just you and me.”

“Let’s not let so much time pass without doing it again,” he said.

Gwen nodded. Then she stretched time while they shared a meal and watched the waves outside roll in.