Time to see the TIME

Martha loved to sleep. She would spend most hours of the day lying in bed just doing nothing except either listening to her favorite songs and daydreaming along with them or sleeping. Her parents were really not happy with her daily schedule and what bothered them the most was the fact she was growing fat too. She never indulged herself in any physical activities. Lately she has been more difficult to deal with as compared to when she was in her teenage years. Her parents were perplexed.

Martha was a dreamer. She loved making air castles but was never too determined to make them real. Her favorite place in the whole world was her bedroom which had all the things that she really needed to be at peace. These things included her huge teddy bears with whom she would cuddle up and sleep every night and a huge bookshelf which was stuffed with her favorite romance novels and these novels were often a reason for her day dreaming. While reading her favorite books, she used to drift into a world where everything was perfect and imagine that she would also meet her prince charming one day and then everything will be just picture perfect as those stories claimed to be so. She hated her course books and didn’t want to study at all. All she wanted was to make her prince charming, wherever he was, come as soon as possible so that she could live in the world she used to imagine day in and day out.

One fine day, Martha found herself at the entrance of a huge auditorium which was jam packed with people inside. There was no one to be seen on the stage except a giant clock illuminating a bright light. It had a big round golden dial with brown colored hands. The clock seemed to be floating in the air and the aura that surrounded it was mesmerizing. Its never ending rays were enlightening the dark corners of the room. She heard people screaming their own name and howling “Give it to me, please”. It made no sense to her.

Ultimately when the clock began to speak there was an automatic pin drop silence in the hall. “For all those, who need an extra day of their life must prove here that he/she has utilized each and every moment of their life purposefully and the very reason he/she desires an extra day for should be strong enough to win my heart” the clock said. She now understood that she was dead and felt a pit in her stomach to throw up. Immediately she had an urge to see her parents but alas! It was too late. Now she would never be able to see them, meet them and tell them how much she loved them.

She went forth with her hand raised to be granted a chance to prove herself. When asked to describe her life, all she could come up with eating and sleeping nothing substantial besides that. Disappointed with the answer the clock refused to grant her with the last one day of her life. She cried and requested him so that she could bid adieu to her parents but her plea was falling to deaf ears. Defeated, she felt a scorching pain in her chest while moving towards her seat. A deep darkness was engulfing her and she felt suffocated. Slowly, her eyes closed slowly and then all at once.

With a sudden shock, she woke up gasping for air trying to interpret what happened just now. Her forehead adorned the sweat drops which glistened in the dim light of the lamp. She looked at the clock immediately with fear, it has been only five minutes since her mother called her out for some work but she ignored her deliberately and went off to sleep.

Without wasting any more time she quickly jumped down the stairs and gave her parents a bear hug. She promised to be good girl to them and resolved never to waste a single more minute away from her parents in addition to make her life meaningful while she has been given the chance.