Stop (No Mas Pausas)

Okay people, first and foremost, this story is not mine. I just wanted to help a friend and he needs to have this story translated into Spanish asap. It's sort of a requirement--for school if I'm not mistaken. I think it's a good story and if you or maybe you know someone who can help us get this translated, please tell me by leaving a comment.

We both know little Spanish and that's why we really need some help.

Thanks!!!

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“Not because you can stop time does it mean you can stop my frustrations!”

Lia’s suitcases are almost packed, she’s leaving tonight. She just has to finish work and pay the bills before her brother fetches her and her stuff back to San Juan, away from Ikko and all his city-made complications. Ikko can’t bear it too. He’s shooting across the rooms and heading towards their apartment’s door looking to escape to work. He brushes alongside her.

“One thing I can do is I can live without you,” he shouts and turns, imposingly, angrily, and most bitterly.

“I can do that too,” she answers tearfully, reluctantly, and most regrettably.

In one motion, she whirls. He catches her eyes with his own and instinctively, he sees what is coming… Ikko concentrates, his mind racing like he is looking for a secret combination to a lock, knowing full well that when he does this, he can freeze time. The world stops.

Lia’s hair is suspended in air as she was turning to Ikko in a sudden motion. Ikko admits, this girl, wrecked as she is today, is as beautiful as the first time they engaged in conversation on a bus. Two inches from her tiny head, Ikko spots a teardrop; it was flinging itself towards the dirty kitchen top. Had he not stopped time Ikko would not have seen it, he would not have known her sadness, her pain. But he had to do it, or else that pain would become his own. He knew that through those sad eyes, she was going to say the words he dreaded the most. He touches the tear and it evaporates in the air, then he motions himself away from her.

                Lia holds back. These are words she does not even want to say, and it is a good thing she didn’t. But she reviews the room, in front of her Ikko was supposed to be standing. But he isn’t there. She takes a deep breath as she moves to the window. She could see Ikko’s figure walking away from their building, almost casually. In the same way that he always ends their fights, he escapes by stopping the time, and walking away from her with nothing resolved. Tears fall. She thought she has gotten used to it. She finishes packing and getting dressed. Tonight, she’s leaving him after all.

                Ikko does not head to his office, but goes instead to the building next to Lia’s workplace. He takes the stairs to the fifth floor as it is unrented and empty, and the elevator is programmed not to stop there. This place is dusty and empty, except for a stool, and some buckets of paint the workers have left behind. But the windows are exceptionally clean, as he tends to them. Then on the floor he picks up three cardboards, in them the words: LIA TE QUIERES CASAR (lia marry me)? Across the window was Lia’s office. He used to send tulips every Monday, sometimes yellow, sometimes white. One day, he is going to send her a pair of binoculars along with the instruction to look at the building across the street. Then her officemates (whom he instructed) are to replace the tulips with hundreds of red roses. When she sees his signs, he will stop time and race to her building to put a ring in her hand then wait outside her office doors where no one is looking before allowing time to continue. She knows of this secret power. More importantly she knows when it ends permanently. He confessed once that the moment he decides to commit permanently, he loses this power. At that time it seemed to make sense. Today, in this empty room, it is just killing him.

                Now, Lia is walking towards her office. She is in deep thought, one that had been bothering her for many weeks now. Is Ikko contemplating on keeping his powers? He only has to stay uncommitted to her to be able to do this. Lia loves Ikko, but this worry affects her moods, maybe even her feelings towards Ikko, and recently their relationship began to sour. They fight more often and he has stopped sending those Monday morning tulips. Tonight she is leaving him. She is sad. All she wanted was his love, his full attention, and no more of his cheating the time.

                She may not have said it, but Ikko knows those words were coming, because he deserved them. “I’m leaving you, Ikko.” He’s trying to remember her voice say something else, but all he hears is “I’m leaving you, Ikko” along with those angry yet sad eyes. This morning was her breaking point. And he deserves it. He takes the paint and writes something else on two of the cardboards and places them on the window. Lia sees them instantly and turns to who wrote them, they lock eyes.

                There she is, motionless. Her curious look says that that she still cares for him. That alone makes Ikko happy. If only he can make this moment last forever. But she’s moving on, so should he. He takes one last look at her, and then proceeds to the roof. He moves to the ledge, he can’t see her anymore, but life has to go on. Time cannot always wait for him.

                For one moment she was staring at Ikko, the next he was gone. She knows he had stopped time again. She should be angry for leaving her behind again, but the words on the boards made her worry. LIA LO SIENTO (lia im sorry). What was he going to do?

                Ikko is dropping a few coins from the roof top, so that the people on the ground will leave him some space to fall, and nobody else will get hurt. But people start to take notice of the figure standing 20 storeys up, they realize that he is going to jump. A lady shrieks and people are alarmed.

                Standing by her window, Lia hears people screaming. People from the commotion below are pointing to the sky. She follows that direction and sees a shadow jump. It’s getting closer and closer, and she quickly recognizes his face. The face of the person she loves, of the person she promised to love forever, even if he can cheat that “forever”.

                He does not mind the hundreds of windows with shocked faces in them. Nearing the 5th floor, he catches glimpse of the woman he swore to love and protect, with all the power he has, both natural and superficial. She was screaming: NO!, but he can’t hear her. He can’t hear her. He wants to know what she’s saying for sure. He is nearing the floor. Ikko closes his eyes.

                Ikko is running on some stairs. Panting and sweating. Many times, he has prolonged moments to an eternity. This is the one that he can’t. He realizes something: his power is running out. Then he realizes something else; something more important…

                Lia loses sight of the man free falling in front of her. She closes her eyes in disbelief. Shivering, she looks at the street where people are gathered. Some are still pointing to the sky, some are covering their eyes. She looks to the sky again. Nothing. She looks at the street floor. Empty. Could he have? …

                The door flings open. In rushes Ikko, searching for her. He runs and wraps her in his arms. Tears now stream from his dusty face. His embrace says it more than those signs in the other building did –he is truly sorry.

                “I can’t do it,” referring to what he said to her in the morning, and what he realized as he was losing control of the time.

                Still shocked, Lia returns his embrace. “I can’t leave you, too, Ikko.”

                For the first time, without magic, Ikko felt like time has stopped.