Time | Teen Ink

Time MAG

November 7, 2007
By Anonymous

Every morning I wake up to the normal sun shooting through the left window, blinding me as I try to open my eyes. My dog, Donald, barks up a storm. He insists that every morning at exactly 7:04, he has to go outside. It really is starting to push my buttons. Can’t that damn dog just take a rest?

After I go outside for exactly 2.5 minutes, I realize I have to deal with my boss in exactly 48.6 minutes. I sit and moan for two minutes. Any more I would be late and any less I would be early: it has to be exactly two minutes. Afterward, I do my normal six-minute shower, three-minute shave, two-minute brush of my teeth – just like the dentist told me – and five minutes to figure out what I am going to wear ­today. That leaves me 4.5 minutes to sit and read The New York Times and moan about having to drive 20 minutes to a job that I can’t stand. Once I arrive, it takes 2.1 minutes to hear the lame story about what Ron, the guy two cubicles down, did last night and four minutes ’til I get to hear my boss complain that I never do anything right.

Spending 9.34 hours at my job, driving 26 minutes home (I hate traffic), taking two minutes to take Donald out and only getting 24.7 minutes to myself before lying down in my hard, cold bed and not falling asleep for another 12.5 minutes can really drive someone crazy. At least that is what my therapist tells me. But in fact it does not make you crazy; it makes everyone else crazy for not wanting to know how much time they actually have.

The thing that will make you crazy is if something goes wrong. Something that has been happening the same way for exactly 12.56 years. When that one thing goes wrong, all hell breaks loose. For instance, if you wake 45.8 minutes late because there is no damn dog barking for you to take him out. Which causes you to be late to work, because you have a 20-minute drive and only 2.4 minutes to get there. Then you ­decide in exactly 24 seconds that you have to call in to work saying you came down with something. But after the phone rings for eight seconds, the secretary tells you that something bad has happened and there will be no work today. You wonder for only one minute what could have happened, but then go and take a shower.

The shower is much longer than the normal six minutes. It takes two more minutes to wonder what is the red goop dripping from your body. Then it takes you two more minutes to realize that you probably just cut yourself shaving.

After 45.8 minutes of watching TV, you wonder where Donald is and what really happened today to call off work. You ponder this for 12 minutes, scratching your chin, noticing the red goop is also under your nails. You find that disgusting, so you walk steps, which takes you three seconds, to go wash your hands, for two minutes, in the bathroom that you never use. You look around for four minutes, noticing there is also red goop all over the walls. You quickly – so fast you can’t count the time – open the shower curtain.

In about seven minutes you realize you have to clean up. But suddenly there is a knock on the front door lasting for about four seconds. But you have to ignore it, you don’t have time, you have to clean up in six minutes. But wait, six minutes is too long. You need 4.5 minutes, but that’s too short. The knocking is getting louder and faster, every three seconds, it just won’t stop. You can’t stop either; you have to clean up, but the knocking ….



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This article has 332 comments.


on Sep. 2 2016 at 3:54 pm
Screen_name: BRONZE, Phoenix, Arizona
1 article 0 photos 5 comments
Nice story! You can definitely tell you spent good time on this.

on May. 23 2016 at 5:37 am
BackroadDiaries, Carter, Oklahoma
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Don't take life for granite, that's what tombstones are made of." -Hank the Cowdog

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6:34

I can feel the panic in the narration, good job!

on May. 1 2016 at 10:57 pm
taymmarie BRONZE, Bradenton, Florida
4 articles 1 photo 7 comments
This is absolutely incredible, and honestly, I'm kind of obsessed with it. I'll definitely be saving this one!

on Jan. 12 2016 at 7:17 pm
The_Edge SILVER, Teaneck, New Jersey
9 articles 0 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Wisest is he who knows he does not know."
-Socrates

Brilliant! One of the best works I've ever read on TeenInk!

on Sep. 7 2015 at 11:07 am
prettypuppy88 SILVER, Suffolk, Virginia
5 articles 0 photos 2 comments
Oh. OH. Wow. Ok. That's awesome.

on Aug. 17 2015 at 12:15 am
AlexKShorts PLATINUM, Vienna, Virginia
20 articles 0 photos 2 comments
I think this is a great piece, I'm still trying to figure out what the ending could mean/represent though!

on Jun. 6 2015 at 10:17 pm
BananaBriana GOLD, Bunker Hill, West Virginia
13 articles 1 photo 12 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Why assume that to look is to see?" ~Piccasso

Oh my gosh, this is amazing! I loved how you had the time down to the exact second, I could not get over that! I just love this!

on May. 15 2015 at 7:02 pm
TheEmcee55 SILVER, Sisters Oregon, Oregon
7 articles 0 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Whatever you are, be a good one."

This really could be the prologue to a novel... Great Job!!!

on May. 15 2015 at 11:20 am
SkyTekile PLATINUM, Tetonia, Idaho
30 articles 3 photos 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Gandhi

This is really, really interesting. I love how this is written--it leaves so many possibilities, and the way you obscure what exactly is happening is really, really good. The reader creates a bond with the words--something only the greatest of writers can do. I'll save this one to my favourites, thank you. :)

on Apr. 1 2015 at 3:42 pm
I love the whole timing aspect!

on Nov. 20 2014 at 10:52 am
Enigmapleet BRONZE, Calicut,kerala, Other
3 articles 0 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
Believe in yourself.........

I THINK THIS IS AN AWSOME WORK

on May. 28 2014 at 10:54 pm
theatregirl PLATINUM, Lathrup Village, Michigan
30 articles 12 photos 209 comments

Favorite Quote:
"To thine own self be true," -from Hamlet, a play by Shakespeare.
"I have sworn on the altar of god eternal hostility against all forms of tyranny over the mind of man." - Thomas Jefferson

so supensful and creative. I hope there's an ending!!!! :)

on Apr. 14 2014 at 2:21 am
DreamWeaver BRONZE, Coarsegold, California
3 articles 0 photos 19 comments

Favorite Quote:
Writing is nothing more than a guided dream.
Jorge Luis Borges

I really liked this piece. It was creative and thought provoking. If you have the time, I would greatly appreciate you reading and commenting on my latest submission. Thoughts and constructive criticism would be invaluable to me. Great work(:  TeenInk.com/fiction/all/article/644215/The-Word-Keeper/

on Mar. 23 2014 at 5:35 pm
Hbkooy PLATINUM, Champaign, Illinois
49 articles 24 photos 20 comments
Wow, this story was so unique! I love how you made the main character so obsessive about time, and the end really makes you think! :)

ChrisK said...
on Feb. 26 2014 at 12:04 pm
ChrisK, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment
Great story. I love how you make it seem that when people have all the time in the world they actally have no time at all.  

on Feb. 7 2014 at 9:06 pm
SmallIdeas BRONZE, Boothwyn, Pennsylvania
4 articles 0 photos 13 comments

Favorite Quote:
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
Elbert Hubbard

This is great. I would be honored if you read some of my work.

on Dec. 11 2013 at 4:59 am
Jackiee36 PLATINUM, Reading, Other
27 articles 0 photos 12 comments

Favorite Quote:
Aim for the moon so even if you miss you'll still be among the stars

Hey great story, i'm not sure if i'm right but is the blood in the shower his dog, you should continue this with another story to elaborate on what happened because it's really good also please read and comment on my article thanks TeenInk.com/fiction/sci_fi_fantasy/article/578431/KOBi/

Budgee SILVER said...
on Nov. 15 2013 at 12:14 pm
Budgee SILVER, Fletcher, North Carolina
5 articles 0 photos 5 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere" Albert Einstein

I would also like to know who was in the shower and what happned at work??? 

Budgee SILVER said...
on Nov. 15 2013 at 12:12 pm
Budgee SILVER, Fletcher, North Carolina
5 articles 0 photos 5 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere" Albert Einstein

Man i wish you kept it going becuase it was so intreging. It was very well written and i hope next thriller you make (dont really leave the ending like that) but very nice peace. 

on Sep. 27 2013 at 10:37 am
Madisonblake8 BRONZE, Grover, North Carolina
1 article 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
Play for those who can't.

Dying to read this!!