Time Wrap

It was 7 a.m in the morning. Shirley woke up with a different kind of a feeling. She felt really light and relaxed. She surely had a goodnight’s sleep. She was feeling so fresh and good that she almost forgot about the tiff she had with her mother the previous night. Shirley’s parents got divorced when she was in 4^th grade. As per the laws, her mother got her custody. She was allowed to meet her father every weekend. Shirley’s mother was an activist and a socialite. She was always busy with her work, NGO and parties. She loved her mother but lacked the support and love from her mother that an adolescent usually needs. The previous night she had found about her mother’s affair with a middle aged businessman. Well, instead of her mother telling her about it, it was the newspaper which told her about it. She was wide awake when her mother came home that night. It was 1 a.m and her mother had come from a page 3 party. She was clearly drunk and it was her businessman friend who had dropped her home. After he left, Shirley asked her mother about the affair and her mother refused. In no time Shirley started screaming at her mother telling her all the things that she shouldn’t. But it wasn’t her fault, every teenager needs a normal life and not the kind in which people talk rubbish about your parents behind your back. Every girl sees her mother as her role model in a lot of things, but Shirley saw her mother as a person whom she shouldn’t be as a woman.  Shirley started accusing her mother as a drunkard and the one who spoiled her childhood. She blamed her mother for divorcing her father who was, according to Shirley, a “decent” man. Shirley was crying and accusing her mother of all the things that she shouldn’t have done. She said that her mother was an embarrassment to her. Instead of comforting Shirley, her mother started yelling at her at a higher pitch. Soon the argument turned into an ugly fight and Shirley somehow lost control over herself and fell down. The next day she woke up at 7 a.m.

She recalled the events but they seemed like a memory that was too farfetched. As if that thing had happened months or years ago. She smiled and she thought that yes, morning did make everything better. She washed her face and brushed her teeth and went down to have breakfast. Her mom, like the other day had already left for work. Her mother always used to wake up late when she had come from a party. Well, good riddance, she thought. She did not want to talk to her. Shirley picked up the newspaper, it was the same old trash and gossip. She again saw the news about her mother’s affair with the businessman. She tossed the paper aside and went for bath. After getting ready, she went out for a walk where she met her neighbor, Uncle Frank, he was mending his car, Shirley asked him and he said that some hooligans have tried to puncture the tyres and cut some wires. Weird. Shirley walked for a while and went home. She saw TV, some south Indian film which was dubbed in a terrible Hindi was being shown, where the hero was some kind of a dacoit turned into a gentleman. She then had lunch and slept. In the evening, she went to meet her friends at a café which was newly opened. Just before a day. She came back and waited for her mother, it was late and at 1 a.m again, her mother entered, drunk. She again put up a fight with her mother and said that she was tired of this every day’s drama of the businessman dropping her mother home from a party and her mother coming home drunk.

The next day she woke up at 7 a.m. As usual, she washed her face brushed her teeth and went down. Her mother had left early. She picked up the newspaper and the same headline of her mother’s affair with the businessman flashed. “Don’t they have anything creative??” She tossed it away. Feeling annoyed she went for a walk. Uncle Frank was repairing his car. Shirley asked him what had happened and he said that some young boys have punctured his tyres and cut some wires. Shirley asked, “Again?”. Uncle Frank gave her a surprised look and she walked away. She was still having a bitter taste of the news headlines flashing every day. She went home and switched on the television. Some south Indian film was on, she realized that it had been the same one that they had showed the other day. She thought that television broadcasters have lost creativity, why would they show the same movie again and again. In the evening her friends called her at the newly opened café. She came home and again her mother came at 1 a.m drunk, with the businessman dropping her. Shirley yelled at her and gave her a warning that if it continues for one more day then she would run away.

Next day, Shirley woke up at 7 a.m. waking up early without an alarm clock had now become a routine for her. She stepped down for breakfast. Her mother had left early as usual. Shirley had her breakfast while reading the newspaper. It looked familiar. She turned to the headlines quickly and saw the same headline of her mother’s affair with the businessman. She saw the date, it was that of 3 days ago. She called her house help and asked him to get her today’s newspaper. But he said that the newspaper was of today’s date. She saw the calendar and checked her phone, it was indeed the same date. Shirley got confused. She went out for a walk. She expected to see Uncle Frank, he was repairing his car as expected. She asked him that what was wrong and he gave the same answer. Shirley then asked him, “Why is it happening every day? You must file a complaint to the police.” To which uncle Frank said, “no, not every day, it is just today, but if it continues then I will think about filing a complaint.” “But uncle, since three days I have been looking at it” said Shirley. “No, yesterday I was out of town dear.” Shirley opened her mouth to argue but turned it into a smile and walked away. There was something seriously very wrong. Some pieces of this jigsaw puzzle were missing. She went home and saw the same dubbed film on the television. In the evening when she went to the café, she asked the owner that when was it inaugurated. The manager answered that it was inaugurated just before a day. She re-confirmed it but got the same answer. She saw that her friends had been wearing the same clothes in the past two days. Each day had been the exact copy of the day before. She had seen an English film called “50 first dates”, in which the girl gets a memory loss and she lives the same day again and again. But it was a drama set up by the people around her, she asked her friends and they laughed and said that she should go home and rest and not think about movies. She clearly remembered the events of the previous day, unlike the actress in the film. NO. She was not suffering from some memory loss. Then she thought that it was a dream. She pinched herself and bit herself on her hand. But it pained. She decided that she would have to find some conclusion to this repetitive mystery.

At night when her mother entered she was as expected, drunk. Shirley kept quiet and left the house. From the backyard window, she wanted to see what happened. A few minutes later she saw her mother arguing and yelling at someone. She could not see who that person was, maybe her maid. She sneaked inside and to her utter shock, she saw it was herself, standing in front of her mother. It was her oswn dimension, saying the same things that she told to her mother the previous day. She waited for a few moments and saw her mother pick up a vase in anger and throw at her dimension. The dimensional self was hit hard in her head and lay on the floor. Suddenly things became more vivid. A forgotten memory came like an electric shock to her brain. She remembered each and everything.

She realized that it wasn’t a memory loss, she was not living the same day due to it. It wasn’t a dream. Everything had a presence of stark reality in it. It was herself. Caught in a time-wrap. The day she had been hit by her mother in anger was the day that she had been living again and again. She was already long dead. Three days prior. But she was shocked when her mother had hit her, she was unable to accept such a thing happening to her and she was unable to accept her death and so she was caught in the same day. It took her sometime to realize the facts and accept them. As soon as she accepted the reality she was liberated.