Requiem For A Slice Of Time

“Wake up, wake up, wake up, it is a brand-new day, wake up” the alarm tone kept repeating itself with increasing decibel with every passing five seconds.

It was one of those special occasions when I knew when exactly I got up from my bed. I was puzzled for a few moments whether I was still dreaming because I never put the alarm. I won’t call myself lazy, but it was just not my habit to get up early in the morning. Eventually, I realized it was a real alarm as the sound became noise and I needed to jump out of my bed to cut it off. My heart was beating like a drum after the jump. “6 o’clock in the morning, who gets up at this time,” I thought with my eyes half closed. It must be my dad who had put this alarm for me because for the past few days they had been complaining about my low grades. I was not even an average student but still lucky enough to get promoted to next classes by not so fine a margin.

I was shit scared when I opened my door. All the windows in the dining space were wide open and even the main entrance was not locked as a glimpse of rays could be clearly visible. Though I never knew when my parents used to get up during our lunch conversation, my dad, time and again, used to scold me for not setting the alarm to get up sharp at 7 am with them. I stepped back into my room and started searching for my wristwatch to check the exact time. I was under the impression that the alarm clock might have become slow and any malfunction might have cropped up which could have triggered the alarm as well. But when I watched my wrist watch it was 6.05 am indeed.

I stepped out of my room and went near the basin and stared at the mirror for a while. Something was different about me today I realized. While brushing my teeth I realized my mom was already in the kitchen with her usual stuff. She must have noticed me, but she did not say a word about me once in a blue early rise. I was rather surprised by her silence. So, after brushing, I went to her and asked “Who set the alarm? Dad? “

“Why you turned it off yesterday?” asked my mom while chopping the salads.

“I never set the alarm, but it was set at 6 today. I told you, people, not to disturb my morning sleep.” I said with a feeling of disgust.

“Beta wake up, you are still not fully awake,” she said with a loving smile and continued.

“Your alarm always rings at 6 and sometimes you get up even before your alarm rings. Then I have to turn it off when you are in the bathroom.” her words confused the hell of my mind.

“That’s a nice joke. I never get up before 9 until you wake me up” I said in a serious tone. It was really getting on my nerves. First, I am not in the habit of getting up this early and then there is proper timing for jokes. Not that I loved my parents less, but I never overacted my love for them.

“Are you feeling dizzy? Or is it some of your social experiment?” she looked serious this time and checked whether I had a fever or not.

“Go to bed and get sleep. I will wake you up later” I realized she was not joking.

“I will not be able to wake up to go to school if I sleep now” I dismissed the proposal.

“What rubbish is this beta? Why are you scaring me off? You don’t have school today, you said on Friday that your classes will remain closed for 2 weeks for better preparing of exams as always”, she answered in an astonishing tone which felt weird. I was feeling very weak and I did not know what’s going on with me. “Stop this mom. I can’t take it. Why are you lying?”, I yelled at her.

She understood the gravity of the situation and took me to the bed and told me to take a cover and try to sleep and she went downstairs in search of my dad. I could read her face she was scared and so was I.

I clearly remember my exams were in December and it is October end now. Just to be reassured I checked in my mobile and that’s when the hell broke loose. It was not only December first and it was 2015, one year and two months ahead of what it was yesterday. I simply could not believe my eyes and this life of mine. I dialed the USSR code to check my balance on the phone because they show the current date there. Not a single hope was left then.

I was literally freaking out. I got up as soon as she left and stood near our dressing table and watched myself trying to figure out what certainly went wrong with me. I realized my beards are coming out for the first time. Last time I checked my face was a few days ago while applying face cream for winter. I realized I really needed to take a deep sleep because it seems I am stuck in an unknown world with known objects.

I knew it was a dream, but I did not know how to wake up. I have seen in movies how you can live within dreams and even heard of lucid dreaming, but this did not feel like a dream. Because to live in your dream we need to get overdosed drugs I thought, and you cannot control it.

My mom came back with my dad and they were discussing in the open dining room and I could hear my mom’s anxiety as she was a prime witness of the turmoil that I am in. But my dad did not pay much heed to it. He described it as a social experiment which I often do as they said. I clearly remembered I never did any social experiments that I have seen Youtuber do on people to get a real reaction from people and it seemed like it is a natural occurrence in this house. I don’t remember what else I did but praying God's mercy I went to a silent sleeping. I got up and was scared to check the date whether things have changed or not. Whether I have really woken up or not. My hand was as slow as it could get. I pressed the button on my phone that was lying beside my pillow. I still read the same. One year and two months of what it was yesterday.

Sleep is always the balm of any problem. I laid down on my bed and I could still hear the voice of my parents in the dining room. I thought of not scaring them anymore. I got to find out what really happened. Maybe I have done something which no one has done before. Maybe my memory is lost maybe I have traveled through time. But I got to find it out myself without scaring people off. When you are in trouble from within it is necessary to keep your outside pleasant.

I went up from my bed and headed to the dining room near the basin. My parents asked me whether I was alright, “Absolutely”, I lied.

“Why were you behaving so weird and saying a nonsensical sentence in the morning?” she mom asked being quite worried.

“I was experimenting something”, I lied again clueless of what I was saying.

“Don’t do these stupid experiments again. I was so scared. A wild thought of a soul possessing in you and even memory loss crossed my mind”, she exclaimed.

“I knew all his tricks” my dad replied with laughter that served the conversation to end there.

After washing my face again and again with a splash of water, I went through different things. Like my copies and notes which did not make any sense to me. I never had so many notes and copies. I never took studies seriously. Even one copy was filled with the social experiments I have performed and their results. In the drawers, I found my results which were weirdly pleasant. I had topped in the class continuously from class five onwards.

I sat down on the floor and my head was spinning. I sat there with hands on my face until my mom called me for breakfast. At least something was goldish, it is the breakfast I always eat my favorite ‘Aloo Paratha’ with sauce and salads. For a moment I felt good and my mind became calmer.

Once I finished my breakfast I started surfing the net if this was possible. There have been instances of time travel, but nobody described what they went through or how their life changed. But there had been evidence of memory loss where a person forgets part of his past without any clue amnesia, but the causes did not match. But I always had déjà vu experiences where what I had seen things before they ultimately happened. I knew at the back of my mind that I dream about it. Like a bike accident I had, I clearly remember seeing a cat crossing the road and to save it and applied handbrake and the wheels skid instantly.

Other than that, I was always normal and easy going except my marks and laziness.

I called my best friend in my school Alisha, the first thing she said was “Why did you call me?”

“No actually, I need your help in a personal matter,” I said.

“Sorry I don’t want to be involved in your personal matter and please don’t interfere in mine. In case you have forgotten let me remind you that we had a deal of never talking to each other again in life because you interfered in my life and insulted me and Akash in front of the whole class.”

I immediately cut the phone. I need to figure out how to go back. I needed help. I sat back and tried to recall if I had done anything unusual last night that had landed me in here and then the worst happened. The story to be continued.