SEVEN SECONDS IN HELL

by Wilkinson Riling

Garret Lipman was thinking he must know how Adam felt in the Garden of Eden when Eve tempted him with the apple. After all, the fruit was plucked from the tree of knowledge and insider knowledge meant everything to a young day trader at Goldman Sachs. It wasn’t just the attempt at insider trading that had placed Garret in his current predicament. As with most things in his life, it was poor decision making that put him in a situation where he had no idea how to extract himself in this singular moment of time where he finds himself staring into a shock of blinding light. All Garret could think about were the events leading up to this very pulse pounding second.

Garret lived in a Mid-Town apartment that could just as well have been called a walk in closet with futon and hot plate. With a rent of $2,200 a month for the 13th floor walk up, and his $100,000 dollar a year income as a junior trader, Garret didn't feel he was exactly crushing it. To make matters worse, his alarm clock failed. He awoke already late for his job in the financial market thirty minutes away by subway train.

Garret owned one used Armani suit, charcoal gray, with two ties of similar gray tones, two Van Huesen white dress shirts and a pair of boot-black Velasca shoes with complimenting socks. His current wardrobe hung from the frame of his ten speed bike mounted to the wall, a relic from his days as a bike messenger. Garret could not remember the last time he trucked the bicycle down the long flight of stairs to take it out for a spin.

With no time to shower, several articles of said clothing were already on him as he bounded down the stairwell rushing to get to work. The suit jacket was the last to join the rest of his ensemble as he powered out the front door of his building and raced toward the subway. Today was supposed to be a very big day.

At work that day, Garret was going to manage the Sunshine Index Fund while his boss was conferencing out of town. It was called the Sunshine Index, as it was made up from the portfolio’s of residents from the state of Florida. The fund represented government workers, teachers, nuns and retirees, even law enforcement pensions. His job for the day was to do nothing, simply watch the fund. Again, do nothing, unless he saw any wild or even subtle fluctuations that needed to be brought to his boss’s attention, then he was to contact his boss immediately.

On any given day Garret was useless without his coffee. He would have to buy it now and drink it on the train. Luckily, the fact he was already thirty minutes into rush hour meant there was no line. He snagged his Venti ignoring that they wrote “Gary” on the cup. If there was a Gary back there, he was shit out of luck as far as Garret was concerned. He was already through the turn-style high stepping for the waiting subway car.

The activity by the subway car was like a frenetic beehive as commuters were disembarking or piling in with a simultaneous herd mentality. By the time Garret arrived, the doors started to close. He yelled for someone to hold them open, but the office workers just stared at him, a zombie look upon their faces. They were off to the type of jobs spent in cubicles of monotony that give one the feeling of being among the living dead. The train pulled away as Garret skidded to a stop. The lid to his coffee flew off spilling hot coffee on his wrist. Garret moved the dripping coffee from hand to hand like a hot potato. In his balancing act, some coffee spilled onto his dress shirt leaving a stain.

“Dammit!” Garret was about to unleash a tirade of swear words one might hear from a sea captain with Tourettes.

“Late for work?” The voice was sultry with the hint of a teasing tone.

Garret spun on his heels, spilling more coffee. On the platform, against the wall, stood a small old-fashioned wooden kiosk painted blood red, almost like a phone booth from hell but slightly larger. On the display, several electronic gizmos were offered for sale. Everything from burner phones to smart ones, including tablets and watches. Garret was sure this booth wasn’t here yesterday. He was surprised he was able to take in all of his minute observations at a glance especially since the booth was manned by a woman. Not just any woman.

This young woman was absolutely stunning. Relaxed, she posed on her chair by the kiosk like Mrs. Robinson in the Graduate. Garret guessed, standing, she’d be about 5’9 with sensual curves lacking any sharp tangents. Her breasts were easy to describe; perfect. Her body seemed to be in motion even though she was sitting still. Her hair, wine red, hung past her shoulders. Garret stared into her eyes unsure if he was detecting a yellow ring within the reptilian green of the irides that orbited her pupils. When she smiled, her ivory white teeth shone, two canines peaked out from inside her cherry red smile.

“Perhaps I can help you with that, Garret.” It wasn’t a whisper, but felt like one.

Garret almost dropped his coffee. “How do you know my name?

She placed an elbow on a knee and her head into her hand while the other waved him off. “Oh, I know a lot about you, Garret Lipman. For instance; I know you work at Goldman Sachs.”

“Who are you and how do you know me?” he said with a mix of intrigue and growing unease.

She smiled, tilting her back for a laugh. “Your access card, silly. It’s hanging around your neck.”

Garret looked down, snapping up his access card that hung from a lanyard. With it, he gained access to the elevator that took him to the seventieth floor and Goldman Sachs trading center. Feeling silly, Garret shook his head. “Just the same, you’ve got pretty damn good eyesight.”

“I do, and I can see that you are late. I have just the thing for you.” The woman turned to some items hanging from peg holes and removed a smart watch. She spun back to Garret with a smile the Chesire Cat would envy. She continued, “A special watch, for a special man.”

It was a golden AppleWatch with a honeycomb band and bejeweled frame. Garret thought it must easily be a thousand dollar watch. It looked even more stylish than his boss’s $10,000 Rolex, definitely an eye catcher.

Garret stuttered. “I can’t… I’m sorry, you know my name, what’s yours?”

“Eve.” Eve gently took a hold of Garret’s wrist and lay the watch across. “It’s perfect.”

“I’m sorry, Eve. I can’t afford that.”

“Of course you can, we have a very generous payment plan.” She started to attach the watch.

Garret pulled his wrist away. “No, I’m sorry, I can’t. I have to get going. Like you said, I’m late.”

She cooed. “You’ve got ten minutes before the next subway train arrives. Let me show the watch’s amazing features.”

“I can’t…”

“Relax, Garret.” Her voice gentle as a mother’s kiss. Garret felt all the anxiety escape his body via his shoulders. Eve set his coffee down and took hold of his wrist once again.

Garret never felt her slip the smart watch on, he only realized it was in place when he looked from her eyes back to his wrist. His mouth formed to whistle as he took in the beauty of the device. The gold band sparkled and the jeweled framed screen was a rich obsidian color. With her thumb, Eve pressed a button turning the watch on. Garret was already well ahead of the watch in that department. A half dozen electronic icons took their place on the watch screen like soldiers awaiting orders.

“This watch can measure your heart rate.” Eve pressed the heart icon. A diagnostic graph appeared showing his pulse rate and O2 level. “Right now it’s pretty high, wouldn’t you say?"

Garret’s cheeks flushed red. He was lost in her eyes. He gathered himself. “I did just run for the train, y’know.” He continued to search for an explanation. “…and I am late for work.”

“Ah yes. About that. Check this out.” Eve’s thumb dialed the digital crown of the watch. One app closed, a second app, showing a quarter moon graphic, opened. “This app measures your sleeping patterns, You can get an idea if you’re getting the right amount of sleep. Plus, check this out…” She tapped the screen. “You can set an alarm and the phone actually taps you awake.”

Garret felt a tapping vibration on his wrist from the watch. “I’ll admit that’s cool, but this is way out of my budget.”

“You work in finance right? This app gives you up to the minute stock readouts. It connects to the same high speed frequency trading systems companies like your Goldman Sachs are connected to. It’s state of the art.”

This tidbit got Garret’s interest. He took a closer look with Eve encouraging him. ”Go ahead, ask it about a stock. Just speak into the watch.”

Garret raised the watch to his mouth. “Okay… Apple Inc.?” Instantly, a stock readout appeared giving a real time animated trading price. Garret noticed a graph in the corner of the screen. “What’s that?”

Eve grinned. “I told you it uses the same HFT that the big financial hedge funds use. It taps into their AI infused algorithm and predicts a future price in nanoseconds.”

Garret was impressed. “I can do that from my desk because we’re tapped into huge proximity server farms. Seeing that ability on this watch is incredible.” Garret noticed another icon. It was the image of a clock face circled in red with a slash cutting through the center. “What’s this?”

“Don’t touch that...” Eve warned. Garret looked at her confused. Her smile morphed into the kind of look a person gives when sharing a secret they only know. “…Until I show you just how special this watch is.”

She stood and sidled up closer to Garret. He could feel the warmth of her body. “This button allows you to pause time. For seven seconds to be exact.”

A bell went off in his head. Garret’s skepticism leapt forward. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I see I’m going to have to demonstrate. May I?” Eve held her hand out for the watch.

Garret gave it over. She slid it on. “It really is sharp looking, isn’t it?” Eve took a step back and placed a finger to the watch. “Okay, ready?” Garret nodded. From his point of view, Eve disappeared. He looked left and right, where had she gone?

“Right behind you.” Her sultry voice said invitingly.

Garret turned to see she was smiling like a kitten who just caught a mouse. But he wasn’t buying it. “It’s a trick of some kind. You… you hypnotized me.”

“What about your coffee?” She pointed to his coffee cup on the kiosk counter. He turned to look. One second it was there, the very next, it vanished. He spun back around to Eve. She was taking a sip. “Mmmm. Espresso macchiato. Nice.”

Eve stepped forward handed Garret his coffee and placed the watch back on his wrist. “Why don’t you give it a try?” She said, taking the drink back.

Garret held up the watch and readied to press the icon. He was nervous and confused.

“Go ahead.” Eve encouraged. “It can’t hurt you.”

“What do I do with seven seconds?”

“You’ll figure something out, I’m sure.”

With that, Garret pressed the app. He watched the smartwatch countdown in large red numerals go from seven to one.” He hadn’t moved. The countdown ended.

Eve sighed. “Try again, Garret. This time make use of that time.” She pointed to the watch. “Remember, time is money.”

Garret pressed again. He looked around the station. People were frozen mid walk. Papers floated in space. Everything was still and quiet. Then, looking at Eve, he could only think of one thing to do. Garret stepped up to Eve and stole a kiss. He stepped back as the clock ran out without a second to spare.

Eve noticing no change other than an eye blink seemed exasperated. “Garret, this isn’t going to work unless you do something with your time.”

Garret smiled and held up his coffee cup. Before the last few seconds of his time traveling expired, he had thought to take it back. He took a sip.

Eve was pleased. “Do you believe me now?”

Garret did believe her and his mind was already racing ahead. What he could do with an extra seven seconds on the trading floor could make him a billionaire and a Wall Street legend in a very short amount of time. These thoughts were interrupted as the next train arrived at the station.

“So would you like the watch?” she asked.

“Very much so.”

“Take it. It’s yours. Go. You’ll miss your train.”

Garret was lost in a cascade of dopamine enriched thoughts. In his brain he was already filthy rich with the sensual Eve as his girlfriend, or one of many, he couldn’t wait to get to work.

The doors to the car were closing. Garret pressed his smartwatch. Time froze. In five seconds he was aboard the train. Another two and the doors closed. He looked back. Eve was gone. The kiosk was gone. He checked to make sure the watch was still there and he hadn’t been hallucinating. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Eve.

She was frowning. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

He figured she must have followed him on board. “What?”

Her frown reversed. Eve held up a red pen and and a sales receipt. “You forgot to sign the sales contract.”

“What? How much is the watch?”

“Why don’t you worry about that after you make your first million?” She handed him the pen and paper and offered him her back to use for him to sign the contract. “Oh, and Garret? We offer no warranty.”

Garret signed the form. Eve used his back to stamp it with a notary stamp. The train arrived at the next station. Eve folded the contract and placed it safely between her ample breasts. “This is my stop. Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Lipman.” She stepped off the train. “And remember what I said, time is money.”

With that the doors closed and Garret Lipman was off to a future that, at times, would feel like it was coming seven seconds at a time.

Garret arrived at work a full hour and fifteen minutes late. The stock market had been going through a flurry of activity. since early morning. The dow was climbing, expecting to reach 40,000. Garret’s computer was already on thanks to Simone, his boss’s secretary. Garret thanked her for not reporting him late and in his mind added her to his list of conquests to be made once he struck it rich.

He dropped into his chair and and immediately began to analyze the funds attracting the most activity. He set the Sunshine Index Fund off onto a side monitor.

There was a frenzy of activity in the commodities fund. A new pipeline was being voted on. Garret checked the algorithm and it seemed to be hedging upwards. He watched it tick up, then down a point, then up again. He waited for the next uptick and hit the time pause button on his smart watch.

Everything on the seventieth floor came to a halt. Garret’s mouse circling his pad was the only thing moving. It took him five seconds to move the Sunshine Fund into the commodities index fund. Time started again. Garret watched as the next uptick doubled the value of the Sunshine portfolio. Based on the size of the transaction, he had just made a ten million dollar commission. He hit the time pause button again and quickly sent the fund back to it’s original setting in its conservatively managed index.

At the end of seven seconds, Garret leapt from his chair and shouted out in joy. Everyone on the floor turned, then froze. Garret had pressed his watch again, taking his seat hoping no one saw his display of euphoria.

Garret then noticed volatile activity in the real estate index fund. The arrow was snaking up high then dropping low then back to high. Similar to the commodities fund but bigger dips. The algorithm on his watch predicted a spike upwards. Garret was ready to blow things sky high. He hit pause and shifted the Sunshine Fund over. Seven seconds later the graph began to trend south. It dropped lower and lower. Garret watched in horror, on both his computer screen and watch face, the value of the Sunshine Fund plummeting in free fall. Someone was shorting the real estate market.

Garret needed to stop the bleeding. The seven seconds were up and the losses continued. Garret went into a panic. Then realized, he still controlled time. He would just shift the fund to other hedge indexes and play it the same way as his first attempt. Garret looked at his watch. His jaw dropped. The power died. The watch face went blank. Garret was out of his chair leaving it spinning. He needed to find Eve.

The rest of the afternoon Garret searched the entire subway system riding train after train in the oppressive heat of the summer New York City transit system. After three hours, Garret found Eve at her kiosk in the Hell’s Kitchen part of town. Garret ran up waving the watch. “Eve! The watch! It’s got no power. I think it’s broken! You have to fix it!"

Eve held up the contract. “I told you, no warranty.”

Garret snarled, “You bitch! Do you know what you did to me?”

She sneered. “But what I can do is sell you a new battery, but this will cost you more. Your first purchase cost you your character, this will cost you your soul.” She held up the battery.

Garret had no time to argue. “Give me the damn thing.” Garret signed the new contract.

Eve placed it with the other contract between her breasts. “I love it when I get a repeat customer.” She inserted the battery and powered the watch up handing it back to Garret. “Time is money.”

Garret checked the stock readout. The Sunshine Index Fund had lost 3/4 of it’s original morning value. It was only 3pm. There was still enough time to fix this by 4pm when the trading day closed. Garret had one more thing he needed to take care of. He pressed the seven second pause.

Garret kissed Eve for a final time then crossed to the platform to wait for his train. The train was coming. Garret turned back and called out to Eve. She looked up. He held up the two contracts. Eve looked down between her breasts to see they were gone. Garret smiled. He had lifted them during his seven second farewell kiss. He tore them up scattering them to the hot tunnel wind.

The train was almost at the station when Garret heard Eve’s sultry voice in his ear. “Sorry Garret, all sales final.” She was right behind him.

Garret wondered how did she get there so fast? Eve held up her own AppleWatch and smiled an evil smile. With a mighty shove, Eve pushed Garret onto the tracks, the train mere seconds away from hitting him. He hit the pause button one last time. Garret Lipman spent the last seven seconds of his life with his most recent moments flashing before his eyes, wishing he had more time.