Perfectly still
It was the first Friday of April and it was unusually cold for this time of year. There was no rain, but the clouds blocked the sun and the wind blew fiercly at the crowd gathered at the train station. The bell signaled that the train was about to depart and the crowd around it was slowly dispersing.
The cars were whizzing by, trying to get home and away from the wind. Alicia had her coat wrapped tightly around her, but she was still shivering. The wind cut against her face, only half shielded by her black hair. Her train was late and she would have to spend another 20 minutes on the platform, shielded only by the other people around her.
Alicia was never a big fan of winter. She usually stayed indoors and the only reason she was out here was to buy supplies for a school project. She wasn't supposed to be here. She didn't want to be here. She closed her eyes in hopes it would all go away.
Alicia had always had a way of dealing with things by sheer will. She would wish for the rain to stop and pretty soon the coulds would part and the sun would seep through. She would dislike a schoolmate and they would change schools or schedules or something else happened that get them out of her way. She had always attributed it to luck, as if someone was looking out for her.
That Friday, she would learn that it wasn't true.
Maybe if I just want it hard enough, the wind will stop. She kept her eyes closed, but listened. She listened for the whistle of the wind and felt for its piercing cold. Seconds passed. Nothing. And then - it all stopped.
She opened her eyes slowly, carefully. A peek through one of them, frist, but it a moment, they both opened wide in disbelief. Not only did the wind stop, but so did everything else. The cars weren't moving, the people stood in mid-step and the piece of paper that was flying towards the bin now stood suspended in mid-air, as if it were held there by invisible strings.
Alicia paled. She tried pinching herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Ow! That hurt! Seconds passed. Then minutes. She walked around, but still nobody moved. The wind had stopped completely and the temperature was appropriate for and April day.
Hours passed. Then days. Alicia was all alone in a city full of people. All frozen, perfectly still.
A month passed. Alicia was roaming the streets, lonely and desperate. In her mind, she was still trying to deduce what happened, but it didn't make sense. And then, she gave up. There was no point in trying to make sense of it all, she just wanted to wake up from this nightmare. She wanted to feel the wind again.
In her attempt to find the logic, it never occured to her to just try and wish it away. It would be too simple. But there was no harm in trying, right? She closed her eyes and with her whole heart, she wished things were back as they had been. Seconds passed. And then she felt the wind.