Missing Time

I woke up to a very strange morning. The cool winter breeze was blowing and birds were chirping which made room for a typical morning but my bed surprisingly was upside down and was stuck to the ceiling! I remember that distinctly because I did try to manually swing the fan a little bit, just for fun. Then I could hear my alarm ringing which, contrary to everyday, didn’t sound annoying at all today. I may have tried a dance step or two too while I was up at the ceiling. Then by the support of the walls, I manoeuvred my way down and was standing on the floor alright which gave me a strange happiness. I am sure I had to go somewhere because I completed my morning chores quite deftly and put on my favourite pair of jeans and got ready. I also noticed that I had this black watch on that I loved, which was gifted to me few years ago by my sister, but I had lost it somewhere. So it was quite strange to suddenly find it wrapped placidly around my wrist. I hugged my mother and kissed her on her cheek like I do before going anywhere but peeking in the drawing room was the slight view of my bedroom where my bed still stood upside down. But I gave an assuring smile to my mother and bid her goodbye.

I started walking down the road and to my surprise most of the people who were walking by were people I had already seen or met in college or school or somewhere else in the past and I exchanged greetings with all of them. I could hear some of my favourite songs playing in the background and I knew this day was going to be great. Just as our life slowly graduates from one phase to another, I felt like crossing the street to reach a place which seemed like a spot reaching which the background music would fade away. It looked like a peaceful place and I was instantly intrigued. When I tried focusing on it, it appeared like a spherical source emitting a mystical white light which looked chaste yet extremely powerful. Soon as I put my step forth, a big car arrived. It was resplendently black in colour and I don’t remember what model it was but it was the most extravagantly beautiful car I had ever seen in my life. I even tried to look through its tainted glass but I couldn’t figure out who or what, sitting there killed me!

There was this sudden realisation and I am sure I felt a thump in my chest, which happens when you hear a sudden, tragic news. Yes I was dead. But then how can I feel myself thinking, talking and living right now – is what I couldn’t figure out amidst the eerie fog that had appeared and obliterated the white light completely. I realised somehow that I had to think fast to make it happen; and so it happened.

The canvas got painted with my thoughts that seemed to pour down as innocently as a tear. I saw my family having lunch together. They were happy seeing which brought a big smile to my face. Next stop, friends. Soon a carnival began with songs that I couldn’t understand, but sounded groovy yet divine in my head, and numerous people I had never met, dancing and having a gala time. It was as if the stars had descended on the ground. Soon a person grabbed my hand and drew me towards a crowd and we started dancing. Grooving together there, were all of my best and close friends and I felt like I would explode with exuberance. I couldn’t stop smiling and at that moment, I knew I didn’t have anything to tell them because I felt they already knew – it was the time to feel what wasn't felt – dance, laugh, sing, revel in that time that was so unpredictable. At that point I didn’t feel I had a single regret, complaint or shortcoming to be sad about at all. I could see all the people I had known or met at some point in my life dancing and being happy together and there was nothing more I could have asked for.

 Then another hand pulled me to a pretty face and I knew this would be a lover’s dance. We danced together, close, and waltzed to each and every corner of that terrace we had ended up at, where I otherwise used to visit at evenings or under moonlight to think about the stuff going on in my life. But there was no worry now – not even to see the lover’s face; I felt like I had already seen the world, like I had already touched the zenith of happiness, I felt it was time.

And then my phone’s alarm rang and I found myself curled up in my bed which looked perfectly normal on the ground now. I rose from the bed and I had this slight pain in my hand and when I looked at it I saw the marks that a watch leaves when you tie it tightly on your wrist. I had a sudden urge and I rushed to the terrace of my place and after a while of scanning every corner I found something on the spot which I think was roughly above the ceiling of my room where my bed had gotten stuck. It was my lost black watch.