...no reflection

2012 was indeed the end of time. Science unwrapped its mystery and put a bomb into the classic flowing of time. It only took 28 years, 3 months, and 6 days to have the seconds replace all currencies in the known universe.

People were told at birth their amount of time as it was emerged from the unified field - and with that wealth in their pocket they knew how precious their life could be. However statistically speaking, short lives proved to be so much more valuable.

The determination to add value to your time was what humanity needed. Capitalism, communism and other fundamental politics, religions and spiritual movements - all were shattered. Some adapted, some became history.

Our hero’s time wealth was just the average - but he was determined to make a fortune out of it.

He woke up very early that day - couldn't sleep. He knew he was wasting precious time laying in bed and said to himself:

"if my thoughts of her will turn into a real love, the price of these seconds will go so much higher".

True, people's time was the currency and it was auctioned at the same time.

A 5 year old kid turned into Mozart like musical genius - his seconds were priceless - made a fortune selling the moments he composed his first opera. From time to time a useless Oblomov was auctioned too and sometimes his seconds were skyrocketing. Someone paid something like 80 days per a single second of a useless person’s life. Soon those guys were out of fashion, only high adrenaline junkies and super stressed office people were buying those kind of seconds until the Buddhist monks flood the market.

Everyone was having plans to fraud the stocks - to sell the casual seconds at a great price. The risk however was huge - prisons were made out of time now - no more walls required, nothing much - you were locked within a year, a month , a day or even a second for eternity or for a specific amount of time. And it seems that being locked within anything less than a month was brutally terrifying.

Oh boy... his mind was wondering like that - woke up at 7:13:05 thinking of her was ok but thinking of humanity was a bad spending. She said she will call when she wakes up. He sits close to the telephone and makes plans. Outside the time is marvelous - sunny and warm, just perfect.

He hopes she will call before breakfast. Hours later he is convinced that she is sleeping as a form of investment.

Let's see... it's about 3 pm now, usually it's bad to sleep that much in a day, especially a sunny one, but if she didn't call, there must be a reason - however he was afraid to think of the value of his own time - the day was still young - it only takes a second of true love in a day to raise the price and the day value to the sky. And if they can sell just that, the next day they can have a small eternity together. They will buy some nice time and make it nicer. Or... if they really trust each other, they can buy seconds from a troubled couple and turn them into harmony - and selling that back would just give them the freedom of not thinking about time anymore.

4:26:16 - she calls. He's worried and happy. She has a small thing to do and she'll call him back in few moments. He gets on his feet - decides the perfume he'll wear. The damn buttons on his shirt are loose now and he's afraid he'll look cheap.

He's messing with his hair - time flies so fast when you face a mirror - and mirrors are known to drag down the prices of seconds. He looks at the time - it's been 2 more hours and she didn't give any sign.

He's calling her - no answer.

It's time to make something with his seconds - he's afraid his mom, his boss or ex lovers will inspect his day and will be shocked to see how he wasted it. He goes in the car and drives around, thinking what to do - hoping to stop the decline of his life, of this day.

She calls - she can see him later - all other talks are risky - he can still save the day. He's grabbing a very late lunch - the Saturday is almost over. He tries to find the address of the meeting point. Ah… that road is blocked - he makes the detour. She's sending a message: Where are you - i miss you.

His heart seems in peace now - a smile crawls back to wipe the worry. It's incredible how a small sign, a smile can turn a painful waiting, a huge amount of worries and fears, a full day spent locked in your mind into a burst of life.

Parking takes forever - he still has to walk a lot. It's almost midnight - he starts running.

He sees her, waiting. He pretends to slow down his steps not to look so desperate. Few steps to touch her. Her phone rings she starts talking.

They are face to face but she's on the phone... she smiles happy to see him while keeping a heavy conversation on the phone. The conversation seems to forget about the price per second.

His watch tics the 00:00:00 hour. His day is auctioned. His price is down. So down that if she'll spend time with him now, she'll lose some great value. Judging how radiant she is while dealing heavy stuff on the phone, it's clear for him that her price is at peak levels.

She reads the problem in his eyes, while still on the phone. She twists her eyebrows in an expression trying to say - it's ok... don’t worry... but he stares at her talking, and slowly steps back. She's twisting her eyebrows again. He's not that impressed and keeps walking backwards. Eyebrows again, yet the phone conversation becomes tense. She has to focus her eyes at nothingness to support it.

He takes the opportunity to disappear.

Running away to his car, he feels like he lost a life, a love, and more important ... hope. In a way to pity himself he puts these very moments on sale. Keeps running, looking away from his day, from his life, knowing his pain is real, hoping this has some value.Nobody buys.