Project Gutenberg's The Day Time Stopped Moving, by Bradner Buckner

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Title: The Day Time Stopped Moving

Author: Bradner Buckner

Illustrator: Thomas Beecham

Release Date: October 26, 2008 [EBook #27053]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE DAY
TIME
STOPPED
MOVING

By BRADNER BUCKNER

_All Dave Miller wanted to do was commit suicide in peace. He tried,
but the things that happened after he'd pulled the trigger were all
wrong. Like everyone standing around like statues. No St. Peter, no
pearly gate, no pitchforks or halos. He might just as well have
saved the bullet!_

Dave Miller would never have done it, had he been in his right mind. The
Millers were not a melancholy stock, hardly the sort of people you
expect to read about in the morning paper who have taken their lives the
night before. But Dave Miller was drunk--abominably, roaringly so--and
the barrel of the big revolver, as he stood against the sink, made a
ring of coldness against his right temple.

Dawn was beginning to stain the frosty kitchen windows. In the faint
light, the letter lay a gray square against the drain-board tiles. With
the melodramatic gesture of the very drunk, Miller had scrawled across
the envelope:

"This is why I did it!"

[Illustration: Dave Miller pushed with all his strength, but the girl
was as unmovable as Gibraltar.]

He had found Helen's letter in the envelope when he staggered into their
bedroom fifteen minutes ago--at a quarter after five. As had frequently
happened during the past year, he'd come home from the store a little
late ... about twelve hours late, in fact. And this time Helen had done
what she had long threatened to do. She had left him.

The letter was brief, containing a world of heartbreak and broken hopes.

"I don't mind having to scrimp, Dave. No woman minds that if she feels
she is really helping her husband over a rough spot. When business went
bad a year ago, I told you I was ready to h