Nightmare

He was late for the examination. He should have reached by 2 PM. It was already 2.15PM and he had still not reached the examination centre. Fear was seeping into his mind. He tried to walk briskly but for some reason or other his feet did not seem to follow his intent. He cursed himself.

‘Why did I choose to walk? I could have taken out my scooter. I think I own a car. At least I could have come by the city bus.’

He kept walking without reaching anywhere. It was getting dark. That made him nervous.

‘I won’t reach the examination centre. I will miss this last opportunity too, just because I can’t find the place where I have to go.’

He looked around himself. There was nothing familiar about the place he was walking through.

‘Where am I?  I have never been here. I must be dreaming. Yes, I am asleep and dreaming. I don’t have to write any examination. I already have a decent job. This is only a dream. Yes, yes I am dreaming. I must wake myself up.’  

A sense of elation rose somewhere within. He tried to get up and break out of the dream.

‘No, I am not asleep. It is not a dream, I have to write this examination and I am late, as always. What a nightmare it is to write an examination?’

He kept walking, worried that he was getting late for the examination, worried that it was getting dark and that he will never find the place.

**

Sun arose and everything about the morning was fresh and cheerful. But he found it difficult to leave the bed. He was dead tired as if he had walked and walked for miles.

The car and the brief case

When he left his office it was already dark, rather unusually dark. The security lights had also been switched on. “Am I late today?” He rushed to the spot where he had parked his car.

He kept going around the office building but he could not locate his car. He recalled that he had parked it near a Letter Box. Yes, it was a Letter Box hanging somewhere on the wall. Or was it a Letter Box somewhere on the footpath outside the building. Yes, he had parked his car on the road.

Suddenly he realized that his brief case was not in his hand. But he was sure that he was holding it when he left the office. “I must retrieve it. ATM Card, driving licence, identity card, credit cards, everything is in that brief case. I think the cheque book is also in it. What a mess I am in.”

“But where did I park the car? Why is it so dark? There was a Letter Box somewhere here. Which side of the building did I park the car? If I can at least find and retrieve my brief case I will not have to go to the Police Station. I can go back in a bus. There are no buses plying on the road, why?”

The thoughts were like an endless running stream of water that he could not control.

Then an alarm went off somewhere in the office building.

He woke up with a start. “Thank God,” he said to himself greatly relieved.