Waking Dream

“No!”, I yelled… I was in bed, lying on my back, clutching on to my Looney Tunes blanket. I brushed off the sweat from my forehead, with a handkerchief, and glanced at the clock, “Ugh it’s time already.” I mumbled. I quickly got into my work clothes and took the stairs out of my apartment. I had missed my carpool that day and I couldn’t see a cab anywhere. My workplace was twenty minutes away if I walked. I hung my coat on my left shoulder and made my way to the office.

The day was extraordinarily grey because of its cloudy weather. Things seemed quite similar to the dream I had the previous night. I greeted the same old man with the white cap, caught the same orange ball that a young boy wearing a red shirt was playing with, I tripped over the same footpath at exactly 8:31 am. Things were really weird that day…

The office was exactly the way it was, dull and boring. The receptionist had gone out on leave, hence there was another man at the job today, “Just like it was in my dream!” I thought. Work was the same, boring paper work. We kept the radio on at work, usually the news frequency, everything around us was boring, deliberately I think. “And today do look out for the solar eclipse that will take place at 4 pm”, the radio announcer said. You guessed it, I had seen it all in my sleep.

“Am I psychic? Is this all just a coincidence?”, I thought. The very idea gave me shivers because last night’s dream wasn’t a happy one. I didn’t really enjoy my job but at the same time, I didn’t have much choice. My performance report said it all. It was 4 o’ clock and the sky had turned into a hue of dark orange. Everything seemed eerie. My workmates were talking about an upcoming football match, exactly what my mystical dream had foretold but that wasn’t all.

My boss walked in the cubicle section which was pretty unusual. He had a grimace on his already frowning face, his eyes were directed at me. I knew what was coming, I had seen it all. “No!”, I yelled. I was back in bed, on my back with a sweaty forehead clutching that Looney Tunes blanket, my hand already reaching for the handkerchief.

-Shaan Bhatt, 11A