The next morning found her standing at the bus stop. It had
been about 10 minutes, but to T it seemed like an hour in the
sweltering heat...It was a hot humid day in May when hot air rose
from the street and the glare from windows of the cars stuck in
traffic gleamed silver. She glanced at her watch again, it was 10:30
am again, the watch had stopped working yet again...She sighed in
defeat, what's the deal with her and her watches, every single one of
them would give up on her after a while....she was sick and tired of
getting them repaired, for they would stop before long....She was
wondering whether she ought to catch the train, she must have missed
her bus...her thoughts were interrupted by the wails of the madwoman
who lived on the pavement by the bus stop, she wasn't really in pain
she just liked to curse at people passing by as she went about her
chores, like chopping vegetables or cooking or cleaning, T could
understand her misery, who would be happy living out on the street,
living your live in front of strangers and in such heat!!! But she
couldn't really sympathize with the woman now when she was screaming
obscenities at everyone on the street...Suddenly she spotted a red
blur about a few feet away from her, she hadn't missed her bus
after all....
Travelling
to work had never been very interesting somehow for T (though the air
conditioning inside was a big relief from the heat), she listened to
the radio and stared out as images kept flashing by her window. She
never had any real conversation with her fellow travelers, everyone
seemed to her like they belonged to an army of drones...so she was
surprised when a man with graying hair at the temples sitting right
behind her asked her what time it was, she couldn't hear him at
first, but he made sure she did, by tapping on her shoulder to catch
her attention. She was at first a little flabbergasted as she glanced
her watch to realize once again that time had stopped at 10:30 am for
her, she smiled sheepishly at him, “I am so sorry my watch has
stopped, I'll take it off...” she added almost to herself fumbling
at her catch of the watch, the man smiled back at her, “Time has
never been my friend as well, don't worry...”, she smiled feeling
uncomfortable, what an odd thing to say! She frowned, putting away
her wrist watch for good, she hugged her backpack to her chest and
settled herself in the seat, “When did you first notice?”, the
man was looking at her with a curious expression, “Excuse me?” she couldn't help
being curt, pulling the headphone out of her right ear, what did he
mean? He looked piercingly into her eyes, “When did you first notice
there was something wrong with time?”, T was completely taken
aback, what a psycho! “I am sure I don't know what you mean...my
watch stopped working this morning”, she shrugged her
shoulders. He seemed satisfied with what she said, and relaxed back
in his seat. She sighed, maybe it was the heat, driving people crazy,
mad women on the streets screaming and mad men inside the bus asking
god knows what! T forgot about the man as she listened to Cindi
Lauper softly singing,
“Then
you say - go slow,
I fall
behind -The second hand unwinds...”
It almost
took an hour for her to reach her destination, getting out in the
heat was quite a daunting task,
she took out her umbrella as she got down the bus. When the bus
passed her by she saw the man with graying hair at his temples
staring at her through the glass, she looked away feeling uneasy, what
was that all about? Her phone started ringing, she glanced at the
number, couldn't recognize it, decided to let it ring...enough
talking to strangers for a day!
She
didn't have much to do at work. It was a long tedious day, everyone
went about their business as usual....it was much later that
afternoon when she was hit with the same bizarre feeling she had been
feeling for quite sometime now...looking at the series of tube lights
down the corridor as she was filling her water bottle from the cooler
everything seemed unreal somehow, as if floating in mid air....she
shook her head, maybe she was feeling dizzy because of the mid day
heat...she could hear the clock ticking the seconds away on the wall
facing her...it was a strange moment, suspended in time when nothing
seemed real...and then it was gone, like a faint spell of
dizziness....her phone started ringing again, it was the same unknown
number, she frowned at the screen, didn't pick up again...She left a
bit early that day, thought of repairing her watch again...the shop
was just across the street near her office, in fact she got most of
her watches from that particular show room itself, but these days she
spent more time on repair jobs than anything else...she often thought of
buying a new watch, one with the latest design and all, lovely and
sleek but never got around to buying one. The woman at the counter
knew T quite well, she smiled at her and raised her eyebrows, “you
want to repair it again?, T smiled wistfully, “Well..I don't know
what else to do!”. She went ahead with the paper work putting the
faulty piece of machinery in a plastic container, asking T to
wait....T sat herself on the couch thinking why didn't she buy
herself a new watch? What was so hard about breaking routine? In
recent times, all her days seemed the same, all merging into the same
shapeless mass, there seemed to be the disturbing undercurrent of
things being meaningless, unreal...What if the man on the bus, the mad
woman on the street were the anomalies in the otherwise perfect
mundane system, anomalies which disrupted the smooth nothingness that
her life had become...The woman at the counter was calling her name,
T seemed shaken by the trail of her thoughts...
“How
much?” T asked reaching for her watch, “No charges my dear.”
The woman smiled at her sadly, “Some things can't be fixed.” T
stared at her, what did she mean? She mumbled her thanks and went on
her back home. The evening was much cooler, a gentle breeze soothed
her prickly nerves...the city enjoyed a brief spell of respite from
the heat, although the next day would be as hot as it was today and
the day after would be the same....a repetitive cycle that she seemed to caught in,
like a glitch in time....She couldn't shake this thought that
something seemed off with her world lately, something was not quite right....She went to bed that night trying to make sense of it all
but her brain was too tired to function and soon she was fading into
the darkness....
The
next morning found her standing at the bus stop...It had
been about 10 minutes, but to T it seemed like an hour in the
sweltering heat...It was a hot humid day in May when hot air rose
from the street and the glare from windows of the cars stuck in
traffic gleamed silver. She glanced at her watch again, it was 10:30
am again, the watch had stopped working yet again...She sighed in
defeat, what's the deal with her and her watches, every single one of
them would give up on her after a while....she was sick and tired of
getting them repaired, for they would stop before long....
“If you're lost
you can look - and you will find me
Time after timeIf you fall I will catch you - I'll be waiting
Time after time....
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time....
...Time after
time"
