Short Story: Eye Opener

This morning when I woke up, everything had changed. When I opened my eyes, I found myself waking up on the same bed that I went to sleep on, except that it was nearly three times it's size. The room looked huge and so did the wall clock in front of me. I had to literally jump off the bed and in the process I ended up twisting my ankle.

The walk to the bathroom felt like morning walk. It took all the energy I had woken up with to twist the enormous knob on the big white bathroom door. Once finally inside the bathroom, I slowly pushed the heavy door shut and hopped on to the big toilet seat with all my might. Luckily there was a plastic stool that I used to reach as far as the tap on the washbasin and washed my hands. The next challenge was to hold the heavy tube of toothpaste steady because it felt like a few kilos. I brushed my teeth somehow and hobbled out of the bathroom - once again struggling with the knob on the door. All this hard work had made me hungry.

I stepped into the giant dining room and saw a bunch of big ripe bananas on the elephantine dining table. There was no way I could reach them no matter how much I stretched on the tips of my toes. I slowly pulled one of the giant chairs closer to the table. The challenge now was to somehow climb up on the chair.

Five minutes later, huffing and panting, I was standing on the chair. It took some of my remaining strength to pull a banana out from the bunch, and in the process I ended up half peeling it. Afraid that I would get a rebuke for being so clumsy, I decided to cover the bunch with a place mat lying on the side. As I pulled the placemat, oblivious of the giant bowl of cereal resting on it, milk spilled all over the table and on my clothes. Luckily for me, it was just about warm and noone was around to notice the mess.

Finally just as I was about to gobble up the banana, it slipped from my hand and fell on the floor. I jumped off the chair, picked it up and climbed back on it. All this took another six minutes.

I was close to tears. It was so exhausting. Every thing around me looked large and intimidating, every place looked farther and higher - beyond easy reach. All the routine tasks that I would normally finish in a few seconds, without even knowing I was doing them, seemed like little challenges in themselves.

Just when I was figuring out a way to open the heavy door of the closet that housed my clothes, I heard a shrill sound.

It was the 6:30 AM alarm. I woke up with a start. The room was normal. So were the bed, the door, the furniture, the painting and the clock. Every thing was as I had seen it last night. I had been dreaming.

"Thank Heavens!", I sighed.

That morning when I walked my five year old daughter to the bus-stop, I made it a point to walk shorter steps, I was more patient when she took an eternity to wear her shoes and I felt proud of the unkempt head of hair she walked out with after she insisted on combing her hair on her own. Afterall, I had seen life through the eyes of a little child a very short while back.

What an eye opening experience last night's shut-eye had been!