Ride The White Pony

 The Butterfly | Main | Cat calls Â

March 31, 2004

Left, right, wrong

There is a loud wall clock in my classroom.
A constant, rhythmic tick that has driven me out of my mind.
I swear it's getting louder.
My heartbeat has matched it.
I'm breathing in time.
One. Two. In. Out.
I can see people around me, speaking.
Their lips are moving, but I can't hear a sound.
Just this confounded clock.
They're all talking to me. They're trying to tell me something. I know it.
I can't hear you! I scream, It's TOO LOUD!
I gesture wildly at the clock, arms flailing. It seems to have no effect.
The ticking of the clock is deafening.
It's reverberating in my ears so loudly that they start to ring. They start to hurt.
I clasp my hands over them to try and defend them from this oratory attack.
HEY! I finally bellow over the din, Can someone turn that FUCKING THING OFF?!?

Silence.

All eyes are now on me.
Stares of confusion and concern.
The clock is shattered on the floor.
Shards of glass all around. In my hand. I'm bleeding.
I'm breathing hard, the sound echoing off the walls.
It bounces through the silent room, more conspicuously than the ticking clock.
Drawing attention to my idiocy.
I want to crawl under something big and hide. But there's nothing.
I start to hyperventilate, looking around frantically, eyes wide with panic.

A little mouse comes scurrying out from somewhere and jams a sedative into my arm.
He depresses the plunger. My pupils dilate, I relax.

The buzz of the classroom resumes.
I can hear voices, chairs scraping the floor, people laughing.
The clock is back up on the wall, in five or six pieces. Still working.
I can't hear it at all now.
I breathe a sigh of relief. Everything is ok now.
I direct a grateful glance at the mouse, now perched on the corner of my desk smoking a cigarette and playing solitaire.

He winks at me.
"Don't worry," he says as he flips over an Ace, "Works every time."

Posted by kati at March 31, 2004 12:44 PM

Comments

Posted by: didofoot at March 31, 2004 01:55 PM

Posted by: Cody at March 31, 2004 07:11 PM