True Story Bro!

It was only 10 a.m. and yet I was already feeling groggy. The temperature of the previous few nights really had not helped me get my much needed rest. I figured that since I only had to be at work around 2 p.m., I could just about catch 40 winks and still make it to work in good time. I turned on my good old powerful fan, pointing it to myself in an attempt to counteract the effects of the temperature. I then proceeded to sleep, not thinking to arm my trusty old alarm clock. After all, I did not believe that I would sleep for more than an hour.

Yet sleep more than an hour I did. In fact, I was shocked to wake up and find that it was getting dark. Then again, was the sun actually rising or setting? I quickly looked at my clock. It read 7 o' clock. Lovely numbers to read off your clock when you need to figure these things out, yes? I could not even be sure if I could call my workplace or my manager to explain why I was not at work. I mean, what if it is really morning and the centre has not opened yet?

I checked my handphone. Seemed like no one had attempted to call me. Strange. I would have expected the manager to repeatedly call my handphone if I did not turn up for work. I was not going to question my good fortune, though this did seem somewhat odd. Anyway, I figured that I would wait a few more minutes to see if the sun was actually rising or setting.

My stomach started doing a royal rumble. I was mighty hungry, no doubt about that. At the minimum, I had not eaten lunch. A quick look at the skies and the setting sun confirmed that I was not due to eat breakfast yet. Figured I should go hunt for some food at one of the food joints near my home. I got myself ready, then headed out towards my usual eating joints near my home.

I walked to the bus stop and realised that there was no one there. The bus must have just left. Bother. Now I had to walk another 500 metres to the next bus stop, where there would be more bus options for me. In any case, I saw a double decker bus 166 approaching just as I arrived at that next bus stop. Lucky me. Took a quick trip down two stops, and arrived at the row of shophouse eating places.

It did occur to me that I should call my manager right about this time. The fact that he still had not called me was just too surreal for me. I had this strangest notion that all was not correct about this whole entire day. Everything had played out normally so far, yet there was this strange feeling that I just could not shake off.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sight of my friend Raymond. He was right ahead of me, though facing away from me. As I called out to him, he turned around and saw me. A look of surprise appeared on his face. Before he could say a word, I quickly explained that I had just got up from sleep and had missed work completely. Raymond just chuckled politely, then invited me to join him for dinner. Of course that sounded good to me.

As we walked down the row of shophouses, I started to tell Raymond of how I thought the day was very, very unusual and in fact, outright unreal. He gave me a puzzled look and said, "Unreal? What is so unreal about today, Rahim? All seems well to me.". At this point, we stopped in front of our friendly neighbourhood 7-11 store. Though I would have normally walked right in, I felt compelled to tell him my story instead. So I related a story that had happened to me about 22 years ago.

"Well, when I was in Junior College, I had this incident that happened to me. I had gotten up one morning, did everything that I would do in a typical morning. Brushed my teeth, took a bath, got into my school uniform, ran after the bus and headed to school. Everything seemed REALLY normal. Even remember that I had to do a worksheet for my physics lesson. Truly a perfectly convincing morning. The second period of that morning was a free period, so I went to the canteen and joined my classmates."

"About 15 minutes into that, I had this girl, whom I was quite crazy about, asking me to accompany her to her locker. There at the locker, she asked my why I was always so nice to her. I do not know what overcame me, but I just told her that I actually had feelings for her. She looked shyly away, smiling, then admitted that she had liked me for quite some time too. If I never knew the feeling of elation, I had just learnt it there and then. Just at this point, I suddenly woke up and found myself in my bed, the sun had not risen yet, and the day had not started yet. I had just dreamt about an entire morning and learnt that none of it actually happened. It was like, what the hell man?"

"You know what is the funny part of this story? Minus the obvious tears I had that morning, the feeling of today is exactly the same as when I woke up that day. Interesting isn't it?"

As I was relating this story to him, he was smiling in amusement, almost knowingly. After I ended my story, he smiled to me and nodded, saying "Very good Rahim! Very, very good!". Everything then disappeared in a flash of light.

At this point, I found myself struggling to break out of my sleep. I knew I was in my own bed but my body did not seem ready to wake up in it yet. After a bit of a struggle, I managed to wake up. There I was, in my bed, in my own bedroom, staring at my own fan. The fan was still tenaciously doing its best to keep my temperatures down. I sat up, looked amusingly at my humming fan, and told myself rather proudly, "I knew something was wrong. Throughout that entire dream, I had been hearing the humming sound of my fan. That's what gave the whole thing away." Heh, I was not about to be fooled twice. I have to admit that I felt really smug about that.

It seemed to still be the afternoon. I checked my clock, and this time it read 1 o' clock. Had obviously slept more than I expected, but at least I was not yet late for work. I got up, grabbed my towel, and headed towards the showers to wash up a bit.

As I stepped out of my doorway, I saw my mother sitting at her door - literally, sitting on the floor at the foot of her door. Not her normal behaviour, so I asked my mother what she was doing there. She mumbled something about some people doing some installations in her bathroom. I did not quite catch what she said, so I proceed to peek inside her room. There was a lady there, in the bathroom, installing some kind of electronic device above the bathroom sink. Could not quite figure out what that thingamajig was, but did figure that I did not have to be such a busy body. Had to head to work quickly, though I really found this scene all so strange. In fact, I looked at my living room, and found that it was sparsely furnished, very unlike my usual living room.

Then, I just HAD to hear the familiar sound of my girlfriend's cat. My girlfriend had fondly christined that sound a "murr". Her cat would normally give off that sound when pleased. Problem is, that cat was supposed to be at my girlfriend's house and not mine! Then, to top it all, my own cat appeared right at my doorway. While most would think I would be happy about that, one must understand that my own cat had passed on two years ago. The obvious truth then struck me. "Really??", I exclaimed, "I have not actually woken up yet?? SERIOUSLY??"

Needless to say, everything then went away in a flash of light. There I was back in bed again, facing my good old trusty fan. Still humming away happily there. The clock now read 12.30 and the sun was high in the sky.

Sweet, but the real question had to be, was I truly awake this time?