Time Freeze — Veronica Leal 2021

With a final, desperate heave, she yanked the woman three feet to the left, out of the truck’s path. They both tumbled onto the sidewalk, the woman still frozen, still reaching for the air.

Not with a bang, but with a hush . The hum of her apartment’s refrigerator died. The distant wail of a siren on Madison Avenue was cut mid-cry. Outside her window, a pigeon hung in the air, one wing raised, a single droplet of water from a leaky gutter frozen in mid-fall, sparkling like a diamond. time freeze veronica leal

“You had a little more time,” she said. With a final, desperate heave, she yanked the

On a whim, she twisted it.

Then she saw the accident.

The young woman—her namesake, her blood—blinked. She looked at her empty hands. She looked at the truck. Then she looked down at Veronica, who was still sprawled on the sidewalk, the broken watch smoking gently in her palm. The hum of her apartment’s refrigerator died