For years I have been trying to remember the title and author of a short story I once read during my adolescence. I was fairly certain it had been published in OMNI magazine, and I recalled clearly that it was about a couple who gain the ability to stop time whenever they maintain physical contact while in the loft bed of their New York City apartment.

I tried many times over the years to find this story by searching for various terms, with no luck. Until tonight. A simple Google search for: “the loft” “stop time” short story returned a Google Books result that I recognized instantly as the story I had been trying to remember:

“Rent Control” by Walter Tevis.

They have an excerpt of it on Google Books; it’s currently available as part of a collection titled Home and Beyond: An Anthology of Kentucky Short Stories. Which, not coincidentally, I am now adding to my Amazon wish list.

Thank you, Google Books.