6am. Alarm started beeping. She woke up as usual, reached out for the snooze button, but decided against it. Barely feeling recharged after a weekend of Korean drama marathon, she felt a pang of guilt, and a rising nagging feeling that she should head to office earlier than usual.
715am. She took out her access pass as she approached the gantry. The beep echoed in the hollow lobby. It was still early and apart from some cleaners combing the area, there was barely anyone else. There was a sense of familiarity and in a strange way, comfort for doing the same routine for the past fifteen years. Once she entered the office, she headed straight to her desk, it was exactly how she left it last Friday at about 1030pm. The pile of reports that were finished, and a smaller pile that was left unfinished. Her little plant was about the only life form that greeted her with leaves showing signs of dehydration. She made a mental note to water it later. Turning on her PC, she listened to the purring sound of the machine booting up, at the same time sensing that it seemed more chilly than usual. She felt herself shiver a little, and inadvertently rubbed her palms together to create some warmth. Logged in, checked emails and listed the tasks for the day ahead, and braced for more adhoc ones.
930am. She barely noticed the noise around her. Footsteps, phones ringing, conversations from the other workstations nearby, nor the smell of breakfast and coffee. She was fully concentrating on the tasks at hand and the 10am deadline. In between, she allowed the regret of choosing Korean drama over coming to office to work on Sunday to seep in from time to time.
1000am. She looked up from her computer for the first time that morning, finally taking in her surroundings. Then, the phone rang. It was her manager, asking her to head towards the conference room. She asked if she needed to bring the reports along with her and was told it was not necessary. She stood up for the first time in almost three hours, straightened the imaginary creases on her knee length skirt, and made her way to the conference room.
1030am. She exited the conference room, pale faced, her hands clutching the brown A4 sized envelope close to her chest. All of a sudden, she realized why the office felt colder than usual, why it was noisier than usual. Fifteen years… what will she do now? She used to have dreams, dreams of a life of quality, dreams of freedom, dreams she had abandoned as she buried herself in that cubicle for 12 hours a day and then justified that watching Korean drama was the only way to reward herself for working so hard. Dreams she forsaken for the promises of a promotion, pay rise and running a small team. Promises that she now knew were empty. Fifteen years of her life that she will never ever get back.
All of a sudden, everything seems to be fading into the background and for some reason, she could hear a constant beeping sound, and it got louder and louder…and it jolted her up from her bed… Soaked in perspiration, it dawned on her that she was dreaming… She caught herself panting hard and told herself, it’s only a dream, it’s only a dream…and turned the beeping alarm off. It was 6am.
715am. Arrived in office. Turned on computer, water plant, made coffee, checked emails, checked to do list. Took a deep breath, and placed fingers on keyboard.
930am. Felt people talking behind her. Phones ringing. Hearing words like “that’s a shock… oh no, what happens next?…” and dismissed as discussions about some Korean drama. How come this felt a tinge familiar ?
1000am Her landline rang. It was her manager, asking her to go to the conference room…..
Dreams do come true…
The question is, are you still dreaming of having a dream? Which dream?
Under (the) Covers 