A Morning's Tale

The alarm clock goes off at 6:45 am, and shakes Miranda out of her restless sleep...She scampers out of bed and desperately tries to find the clock...Within half an hour, Susannah and Dominic are woken up, dressed in their bright school-dresses and shining black shoes, and are eating their cereal with hot milk...Amazingly, they are not making any fuss today and are gulping down their food with no complaints...At 7:30 am, they are ready to go to school in Miranda's new Mazda...The children are dropped off, and Miranda drives towards the City at full throttle, and when she approaches her office swerves into the parking space...She gets out from the car, and waits at the intersection for the lights to turn green...

As she watches the cars fleeting past her, the world suddenly seems to have frozen to a stand-still...For a long moment that seems like an eternity to her, everything becomes immobile...She feels that she is in some dream, and tries to force herself out of it, but to no avail...She feels like screaming out but she cannot even part her lips to squeeze the cry through them...The people on the pavement, the clouds in the sky above, and the cars in the street in front of her have now all grinded to an abrupt halt...It is one terrible never-ending moment...

And then, someone pats Miranda on the back : 'Hi Miranda, ready for another day?...Are you all right? You look like you have seen a ghost!'

Miranda finds it hard to believe that she has finally come back to this world. She splutters : 'Oh yes, I am prepared for another day.'

Miranda and Julianne enter the office. It is time to get ready for yet another one of those days.