Time-Trap

The alarm rang. Bill woke up, tired. He sometimes hated this clock. It was Monday and yesterday he had been up quite late. He went up from bed and turned the alarm off. His flat was relatively small but enough for his needs. After having dressed and eaten his eggs and musli he went out on the street.

He was in a rush as usual. He was jogging through the crowd in center of the New York city, he had to catch the bus. He almost run over an old lady crossing his way and he apologized. The bus was then two minutes late and he stepped on. His boss would not be pleased of having him late again. He might loose his job. As an editor on Time he was pretty well paid.

While on the bus he took up his additional sandwich which he had kept in the pocket of his jacket and ate it. He estimated the time and he would just make it.

The bus stopped and Bill took off half running. It was only a couple of 100 meters to the Time production building. He entered the port code and went in, went up the stairs and entered in.

The nice secretary was sitting on her desk and said "Hi, Bill". Bill responded and went through the corridor to his office. He had several articles to edit and he was behind deadline.

Always this stress, Bill thought, while he opened up the new e-mails. He had received another five jobs to edit and all for this week.

It was a busy morning and would be an even busier afternoon. He had been eating lunch at the cafeteria on the corner of the same street together with Julia, the nice secretary, and she had asked him, "what about eating on the 'Jack and Jones' at five a clock"?

Bill was now considering it, Julia was nice but he was not sure if she was in his taste. He had told her that he would think it over.

He found himself again daydreaming. Ok, now it is production time, he had to finish this other four articles for printing tonight.

He was very busy and went on with full speed the whole afternoon. He didn't want to overwork, at five he wanted to be finished. He even skipped the coffee break at three.

The time went fast and it headed for five. At five past he finished his last job and then became aware of Julia. He actually didn't want to go with her. He wanted to do his usual, go to his favorite Pizzeria and then go home.

Maybe he could have "forgotten" it and gone home unseen." Just when the thought came up he heard Julia's glad voice "Bill ..., I am waiting." He damned himself but let himself meet her. He somehow accepted to go with her and they went together to "Jack and Jones". He personally didn't like the place.

He didn't speak much on the "date" and went home. He was walking alone through the park.

While coming home he went to the sofa and turned on the TV. He saw a boring predictable film and just after it finished Hot News came on and was speaking about a disaster that happened on Treeroad. Eight children killed in an accident with a truck. Bill listened to the briefing with disgust, he was very familiar with Treeroad as he usually was passing by there each afternoon. He changed channel before any pictures or film recordings went on as he didn't like it.

He continued his reading before he fell asleep. Tomorrow would be another stressed day with tight deadlines.

The alarm clock rang and he got disturbed from his peaceful dreaming. He went up and turned it off. He dressed, ate and went to go to the bus. Today he was not so late. He was walking the same way as usual and then he saw the same old lady as yesterday crossing his way. She was slow walking and when he came to her she didn't seem to recognize him. Bill felt it was strange but when he thought of his grandfather, who was senile and didn't sometimes remember the events of the day before, he was no longer puzzled. The bus was again two minutes late and again crowded.

Bill felt strange, this was not usual. While entering the building he saw Julia sitting at her desk and saying "Hi, Bill". Bill was so puzzled that he didn't even answer.

He entered his office and loaded his new e-mails. There were nine new, just like yesterday and when he opened up the first one he was astonished to see that it was exactly the same one he read yesterday. He closed it and read the regarding lines of the other new e-mails and yes, it was all the same and per the computer they had not yet been read. When he saw the time and date of arrival it was written Monday, but today it was Tuesday, how could it be. He looked at his watch and it displayed Monday. He didn't trust it. He opened up his work of yesterday but it was not there. There was no way of catching up the backlog, the deadline was Tuesday 4 PM to go to the printer as usual. Bill was worried.

He then went to his partner Joe in the office beside him and asked quickly: "Joe, is it Tuesday today?" Joe looked at him and responded: "Bill, it is Monday." he was then laughing a bit and Bill went back to his office puzzled.

He started to redo his work of yesterday but it was hard. He couldn't accept it. Bill tried to figure out how it could be.

All the work he had done yesterday was gone and all the people he had been in contact with didn't remember him. He struggled while redoing the work. His thoughts was fixated on what puzzled him. He decided that he could not stand another Monday tomorrow, what a life it would be.

Maybe he was supposed to do something but didn't do it. The idea made sense and the first thing he decided was not to speak with Julia.

He worked faster then yesterday as he knew already exactly what he had to do as he had already done it yesterday. But he could not stand the thought of having to redo it each day, what a misery that would be!

The time was heading for 12 and he decided not to go to the cafeteria on the corner. It was time to change. He went instead to Mcdonald and ate alone.

It was a relief not to have to confront Julia.

He went back earlier than usual and managed to remain unseen by Julia.

Bill was now carrying on with his work and made a decision, he would go to his favorite Pizzeria at exactly 5 PM as he had planned to do yesterday.

He was now more eager in his work and was looking forward to what would happen when he took this other path in his life.

He finished all his work he did yesterday at 15:30 and took his coffee break. He deserved it. He told Joe who was sitting beside him that the new film tonight is really boring.

Bill managed to complete one more job before five and he then went exactly at five out. He was rushing through the corridor and when he passed Julia he said: "Sorry, but not today.". He went out of the building and on the way to his favorite Pizzeria. He was laughing when he realized what the meaning of "today" could have.

Bill slowed down when he understood that he was ahead of the time than usual. It had to be the same, just like a normal Monday. He slowed down a bit and then cept on as he would have done if he would not have known anything.

He was walking beside a road and everything was normal.

A big truck was slowly passing him beside on the left of the street. He looked at the truck and then he suddenly saw that it went over something that caused a blowout. The truck was continuing to move steadily forward, uncontrolled, and Bill looked ahead. The street light for the cars turned in that moment red and a group of children was waiting to walk over. Bill instantly realized what would happen - the truck would not be able to get under control and stop with a flat tire. Bill collected all his energy and was running for his life. He would prevent a disaster if he made it go right and was running faster than the truck, he ran like he never had done before.

He knew he would make it to warn the children in time not to cross the road and suddenly he realized what had happened to him.

- The End -

Time-Trap

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