Chronos

About Time

Heopens his eyes and the glare of the sun through the blinds makes himregret that decision. He twist around under the polyester sheetslooking for the sleep that has long left him. Putting his face intothe pillow he lets out a whimper of defeat and turns upright. He rubsthe sand from his eyes as his Superman alarm clock goes off next tohis bed, just like every day before only a couple seconds late. Heputs both feet on the ground as he stretches his arms out and up ashis mouth swallows the yawn of a thousand lost dreams, almost chokingin the process. His bed smells of salty fish and the whiff of hisfilthy shirt sends him aback.

'Hashe even showered these past few days?'

Thethought is quickly drowned out by relaxing ticks of the clock hangingnext to the wooden door frame. He rustles his dirty brown hair as hewalks to the bathroom with eyes half open. In the mirror he can see aman he barely recognizes anymore. Who'd have thunk that in his midtwenties he would still look this good. He plays around with hisreflection for a while as he does the daily duties and begins hisroutine. Brush teeth, take a piss, shower, stop to drop a deuce,continue shower, prepare waffles, regret the waffles, nice half anhour of Facebook on the couch and get going. Days melt into eachother as he threads the path laid out for him. Today something caughthis attention. As he was eating the waffles he painstakingly toastedand searching through random posts he saw one from his friend Michaelabout how horrible his commute was every morning. Weirdly enough hehad never had problems getting to work on time. He always woke up at8am and did the same things to arrive at 8:30am at work. Michaellived 5 minutes away from him, in direction to work, and yet wascomplaining about waking up every day at 7 and still not making it by9.

'Musthave a slow process for him to take that long'

Hethought as he took the final bite of his waffle that always sent himrunning to the porcelain throne.

Today,he decided to throw on a navy blue sports jacket that fit nicely inhis slim body, along with dark brown khakis and a white shirt. Hestraightened out the few wrinkles with his hands and went on his way.He stopped for coffee on the way in his favorite spot and went on towork. When he arrived his boss was just arriving as well.

"Goodmorning Mr.Rocksteady." he said pleasantly

"HeyTim, early as always huh?" he said giving a small wave

"Nowthat you mention it..." he paused and reconsidered "On secondthought, forget it."

"What'son your mind Tim? Anything I can help with?"

"Notreally. I was just wondering what time you got up in the morning toget here every day."

"Itry it to be between 6 and 7 since I live about half an hour away."

Timstopped walking alongside him and was mouthing numbers as hestructured the math in his head.

"Well,that's not right..." he whispered

"Anythingwrong Tim?"

"No...Idon't think..."

Asurge of cold spit out from his brain down his spine and as itreached the bottom it shot back up in searing heat. He felt his backburning and his head was warm to the touch. He knelt over in pain asMr. Rocksteady noticed and approached carefully.