Aaron’s mother asked him to check for the clothes she left hanging in the terrace.

Then out of nowhere, he met with the hard hitting realization - he had forgot to remove the 100 rupees note from his shirt pocket. It was painful enough to jolt him awake. Slowly accustoming to the dim light due to the rainclouds, Aaron woke up. Confusion was painted all over his face. One could argue that he was dumbfounded about the darkness in early morning, but they are severly mistaken.

Taking the phone he placed earlier on the bedside table, he pressed the Power button to check time.

17:02 Saturday January 3, 2020

Then he slowly came to the realization that he was deep asleep after the school had announced a half day. Earlier in the afternoon, all the schools, colleges and other institutions were alerted about the impending strike of a possible heavy rain scenario. In order to avoid any possible problems, all of these institutions announced half-a-day leave and everyone were sent to their homes.

Early January had everyone trembling in the cold air flow. Not that there was anything special about it. But it did feel a bit odd for Aaron. Putting on the T-Shirt he hung up on the shirt hangar, Aaron stepped out of the room. He was still feeling weird.

He picked up the remote on the sofa in the living room, adjusted himself to sit cozilly on it, and tuned to the news broadcast.

…there has been reports from the Shoreside that no major activity was spotted on the sea. The predicted rainfall hasn’t arrived yet, but the clouds are starting to loom over the town more and more. Every minute the light levels are dropping and people are starting to doubt whether the night has begun already….

None of the entered the brain of Aaron. He was focused on the temperature reading displayed on the bottom right corner of the channel.

19 degree Celsius.

The reason for his weirdness became clear. On a chilly January, when clouds are blocking the rare sunlight, he felt totally fine. It was as if he got transported to a part of the world where people were relaxing on the beach, taking time for their sunbaths.

He then opened the Weather app on his phone and checked the temperature.

20 degree Celsius

One degree doesn’t make a change though, and Aaron wasn’t dumb enough to get swayed by it. He made his way to the terrace where his Mom was picking up the clothes. After seeing the sleepy Aaron, Mom made sure he was conscious enough to hear what she had shouted to wake him up. Then she sent him on his way to pick his clothes hanging on the other side of the staircase. Aaron walked through the wall of sarees and reached the extraction point. He removed the plastic clips that were holding his decolored school shirt and picked them up.

Then his hands went to the pocket. A shock ran down his spine. The 100 rupee note was not there.

Looking at the sky, he gulped. The guilt of losing the money? Nope.

He noticed the irregularity with the sky. Compared with what he had witnessed from his room, it looked several shades lighter. Curiosity and fear ran rampart in his mind. Unable to contain it any further, he picked all of his clothes and ran down the staircase, ignoring his mom helplessly shouting for him to stop.

He then went straight to his room, and checked his clothes for any alarming changes. He found none. Then wiped the dust off his laptop and booted it. Outside, he could hear his angry mom’s voice.

She called out Aaron. He placed it on the bedside table and went outside his room.

She then asked a question, with her anger in peak, which calmed down Aaron instead.

She asked about why he had placed a 100 rupee note on the pocket and clarified him that she picked it before washing them in the morning after he went to school. Aaron told her about the school project their class were preparing, and that 100 rupee was his part of the total fund requirement. His mom was relieved but lectured him about the importance of money.

Aaron then asked her about how cozy he was feeling in the cold. For once, an expression of concern was visible on her face as she felt the temperature on his neck. She then told him that he was having a mild fever. Then, as if the light bulb had glown over her head, she questioned him whether it was the reason he went to bed right after just a half-a-day school. Aaron was speechless for a minute.

After he came to his senses, Aaron asked her about the cloud cover clearing up.

She explained him that it was usual behaviour of clouds clearing over time, and exclaimed that even she was surprised about the absence of the heavy downpour that everyone was expecting. It was then Aaron checked the time again.

18:14 Saturday January 3, 2020

He sheepishly smiled to his mom after realizing that he couldn’t even notice how much time had gone by. He then scolded his stupidly curious brain about making a matter out of nothing. After that, his mom went back to the terrace to bring the clothes she had left unattended.

He then came back into the room, and adjusted the laptop screen. Since there was no need to research about any parallel world irregularities, he decided to watch YouTube. He turned on the mobile hotspot, and proceeded to establish the connectionn on the laptop.

Looking at the time displayed on the laptop, his jaws dropped and his hands stopped moving.

17:38 Saturday January 3, 2020.

to be continued….