One
day, I woke up feeling weird. Normally, when I wake up, I feel drowsy, sleepy.
However, today I was energized. I went into the bathroom and washed my face and
got ready to go to school. While I was putting in my contact lenses, I suddenly
saw another me, not in the mirror, but right next to me, putting in contacts as
well! “That’s weird”, I thought. My morning routine usually takes ten minutes,
but this time something was different. When I raced down the stairs, my mom
wasn’t there! And she’s always there in the morning!
I searched everywhere, but couldn’t find her! I was very
worried. Did something happen to her? However, a few minutes later, I heard
footsteps. She was coming. In the morning, a glass of milk is usually already
there. But this morning I took my own milk. As I took a sip, I heard my mother
say, “Did you even do anything up there? I am ALWAYS the first person
downstairs in the morning. What’s going on here?”
Extremely perplexed, I drank my milk nervously and waited
for Mom to prepare the rest of my breakfast as normal. Ten minutes later, Mom
said, “Breakfast is re—”
I had eaten my apple.
“—ad—”
I had eaten my cookies.
“—dy??!!”
I had eaten my egg and finished breakfast altogether.
“What is going on??!! Did you even eat anything?!” Mom
screamed. Suprise and maybe even fear was etched on every inch of her usually
placid face, as if she was worried that her beloved son was actually a
dangerous mind-reading, time-warping alien.
Bewildered, I went upstairs and brushed my teeth as slowly
as possible, but even then, I still took half the usual 10 minutes. I got in
the car and tried to think what the meaning of the extremely unusual situation was all the
way to school. When I got to school, I noticed that the people walking did not
seem to be moving, even though I could see their legs pumping up and down like
when a human normally runs. They were trapped in some sort of invisible
substance only I could move through. “Dude,
they’re going to be late,” I thought.
5th period Algebra 1 came. When the
teacher assigned the homework for the day, I normally don't finish it, so I take it home. Today, however, I
finished, barely! Flushed with pride, I went to turn it in. Or did I… Because
when I tried to do so, I was stopped by the teacher, who said, “Either you
didn’t complete it, or you cheated.” Confused, I said, “I did all of them!” I
even showed her my homework, all completed. “And besides you don’t have the
answer key written out yet, is that true?”. “Whatever the reason, it has been
only a minute after I assigned the homework.” said the teacher, now suddenly
looking very puzzled .
The rest of school came and went, but it was as if every
minute, every second was months and years and even decades. Soon, I was bored.
School is fine when it’s 7 hours, but may not be so if it feels like a century.
I also saw copies of me and other people talking, moving, and doing all sorts
of stuff that vied with the present. Soon, I was daydreaming, something that I
don’t normally do. And, no one believed that I did anything that I was supposed
to do because I did it unbelievably fast. This was really starting to bother me, but I
was getting worried that they were right.
By the time I got to the car after school… no, I saw multiple cars, each with a different Mom
in them. If I had traveled at the speed of light, I could've time traveled, which was what I think was causing all these clones. It took me ten tries
to get in the car set to the right date. We went home, but it felt like the car
was stuck in an invisible traffic jam, even though the needle on the
speedometer was cranked up to 60 miles an hour. When we arrived home, I went
out to get the mail. There, I saw a perfect clone of me, yet again, shivering, as
he had no coat on. I tried to give him my real coat, but when I did so, I was
somehow transported to next Monday. I’d had enough! “Oh God,” I thought. “I
gotta get out of here!” I tried everything I could to get out of the time
traveling. Finally, I found that I could push very hard on the clone and get
back to the present. I quickly did so, got the mail, and went back to my house.
A FEW HOURS
LATER…
I was doing my science homework. It's hard. I completed it
in an hour. Or so I thought. I looked up, and saw my mother pouring a glass of
water. She was standing there with her mouth open, oblivious to the fact that
the glass was overflowing. “I hadn’t even finished pouring this glass of
water,” she said, “when you finished!” As the day tore on, every second like
the time across the world, it happened again, and again, and again, until I
could barely stand it.
IN BED…
I was trying to fall asleep. I felt horrible about the day's
events, and I was still wondering how come this simple 24 hours seemed like
living through 1990.
I was drifting…
I was wide awake. I checked my clock and it was 8 o’clock on
Saturday. But it’s dark! I shouted for help. Mom came running in. “Don’t worry
son, it was just a story. See? That’s the back cover of the book.” She pushed
on the ceiling and light flooded in. It was then, that I noticed that I’m made
of ink. I’m made of words!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this story.
Here is to end with a quote: “It is better to take your time on some things
instead of rushing it through.”- the Tortoise, from Aesop’s fable the Tortoise
and the Hare.
