Out of Time

11:00:00 A.M. Friday, November 12, 201l, location unknown:

            A man sits at an enormous computer, pushing seemingly random buttons on an endless keyboard. He toggles a switch; the loud echo of the click it makes echoes eerily throughout the dimly lit room. Numbers flash on the screen—a countdown. Only two hours and fifty minutes, the man thinks, a demented smile growing on his face.

11:00:5 A.M, James A. Garfield High School, Tennessee, USA:

            Brrrrrring! The lunch bell rings at exactly 5 seconds after eleven, like usual. Harvey G. Harris jumps out of his chair and lands in the doorway in what seems like a single, fluid movement. He sprints through the halls, quick as a bullet, and nearly running into a freshman that risks walking out in front of him. The daily race to the cafeteria has begun.

11:01:15 A.M:

Within a minute, Harvey has situated himself two spots from the very front of the lunch line. Ughhh, spinach again, he thinks to himself, but duly spoons the sickly vegetable onto his Styrofoam, lunchroom-brand tray.

11:22:38 A.M.

            Harvey sits with his best friends at their usual lunch table, located on the side of the cafeteria nearest the restrooms. The sound of flushing toilets can be heard in the background. On his left sits a singing Jerome Taylor, former Frisbee star, to-be opera  star, current best friend. Harvey does not like opera.

11:31:04 A.M:

            It takes Harvey nearly ten minutes to convince Jerome that music is not his calling. Mark, their half-Irish/half-Chinese, redhead friend, moves so that he is sitting three seats away from them. Clearly Mark doesn’t enjoy opera either.

11:37:18 A.M:

            Harvey’s stomach grumbles, and he starts to feel nauseated. He probably shouldn’t have had the spinach. He makes a trip quick trip to the restroom.

11:50:06 A.M:

            The cafeteria goes silent as the bell rings, signifying the end of lunch. Harvey drags himself from the lunch table and off toward his English class.

12:12:12 P.M:

            Harvey looks down at his watch to realize that it is twelve seconds after twelve- twelve. A voice in the back of his mind tells him to make a wish. He wishes that his half-deaf, senile teacher, Ms. Mawkins, would spontaneously combust.

12:13:00 P.M:

            Ms. Mawkins is still alive. In fact, she’s positively beaming as she rambles on about Sophocles and Ancient Greece.  Harvey yawns extremely conspicuously.

12:38:19 P.M:

            Ms. Mawkins has passed out a worksheet. There is a list of fifteen words, and the instructions say to find, for each, a word with which it rhymes.

12:43:28 P.M:

Harvey finds himself stuck on consult. He decided to take his worksheet’s advice and consult his neighbor’s worksheet.  He silently laughs at his stupid joke, and finds that the blonde-haired, nutcase sitting next to him has written occult. She may be crazy, but this is all he’s got, so he writes it on his paper

12:48:01 P.M.

            Harvey hands his paper in to the teacher. Ms. Mawkins shoots a delightful smile at her “star pupil”.

13:00:05 P.M:

            The bell rings for third period. Harvey is up in an instant and out of the classroom in another.

13:02:15 P.M:

            Harvey turns into his Spanish class to find Mark standing by his desk. Mark reminds him that they have a group project due next week that they need to work on. They decide to meet each other on Saturday.

13:05:09 P.M:

            Señora Hammond walks into the classroom exactly fifteen seconds after the bell rings. She glares angrily around the classroom, zoning in with her hawk eyes on talking students.  She gives detention to two guys in the back who hadn’t noticed she’d come in. The class becomes totally silent.

13:26:58 P.M:

            Harvey starts to zone out.

13:27:42 P.M:

            He is woken by the swift and loud rap of a ruler on his desk. He looks up to see Señora Hammond standing over him with the measuring instrument in hand. “Detención” she declares. For the first time in Spanish class, Harvey doesn’t have to ask what something means.

13:48:02 P.M.

            Señora Hammond doesn’t have a clock in her classroom, so Harvey stealthily pulls out his phone and checks the time. He ducks as the teacher routinely moves her eyes around the room. She doesn’t even notice.

13:48:30 P.M

            The sound of someone knocking on the door echoes through the room. Señora Hammond opens the door to a student from the class next door, requesting a set of rulers. Harvey smirks as the box of rulers are set in the student’s hands and removed from the classroom.

13:49:00 P.M:

            Harvey starts to zone again, but random act of kindness by his neighbor saves him from drifting off again.

13:49:15 P.M:

            Harvey doesn’t bother to stifle his yawn—it’s not as if he can get into trouble for being tired.

13:49:45 P.M:

            He can’t wait until three o’clock, when school gets out for the weekend. He starts a mental countdown: only an hour and eleven minutes.

13:50:01 P.M.

            Harvey hears a loud click.

13:50:06 P.M.

            It was just a pen being dropped.

13:50:07 P.M.

            The last thing Harvey remembers is the roaring train in his ears and blinding white of his vision, before the world shifts to black.