Waiting

Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

I stared at the clock, out of sheer habit. I'd been doing that since the past half hour or so.

Five minutes left.

My wait seemed endless. I could not stand it. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Four minutes and thirty seconds. Sigh.

Concentrate on something else. Something other than the time, something you can see, something you can hear, I told myself. The distant noise in the background. Think about that. I didn't mind the noise anymore. I was attuned to it. The noise was a habit for me now. It happened everyday.

15 seconds had passed. Whoever said this was true. Thought, not light is the fastest thing on Earth.

I looked at the sheets of paper in front of me. And the two blue coloured books. I was really hoping that they would miraculously reduce to ashes, probably because someone set fire on the them.

Three minutes.

I took a swig of coke from the bottle I was holding. I was growing more impatient by the minute. Correction, impatient by the second, because it was too bad that the minutes were going too slow. They were slower than the people on the movies who run, more of crawl, in slow mo when they try to catch a gun falling from the sky - so they can kill a maniac.

Now, I have thought enough (crap). I'm so darn sure. I know it is. I look at the clock again. Its just been 42 seconds? What the hell? I cannot believe this. There has to be something wrong with the stupid machine.

A chill ran down my spine. I was cold. I tried to imagine myself in a nice, sunny and warm place. Probably Delhi. The Delhi summers, of course. Delhi is a place I still miss. It is a place full of colours, culture, art and architecture of all kinds, the largest variety of people, and my favourite, full of mouth watering Punjabi food.

Smiling inwardly, I looked at the clock again. 30 seconds left! Wow. The time had suddenly started flying, to my great amazement.

Twenty seconds.

I was bursting with joy, in a matter of a few seconds, I would...

Ten

Nine

Eight

I can't wait, I can't wait. I realized that everyone around me too was looking at the clock.

Five

Four

Three

Two

One...

There was a shrill, loud noise. And in the room I was if there were decible meters in our room, they would probably break. Not because of the short shrill noise, but because the distant buzz in the background had gone up some 100 octaves.

Phew. Finally. Now I can fly, soar, jump, walk, run. Whatever I want to. For the next 3 months.

I was saved by the bell. School's Out!

Ishita