Time Is Ticking

*Tic-tic* The clock went as we raced to finish our Latin examinations before time was up. Pens scratched across paper as everyone was finishing up. I decided to take a look around at people’s numbers. It was a new thing that had been put into society a few years ago. Every person had a number floating above their head. No one really knew what they were for, only that the number kept going down with no way to stop it. Most people were pretty sure that was when they would die. I mean, it only made sense. What else could a countdown above your head possibly mean?

“Emmy?”, my teacher called, shaking me out of my thoughts. “Are you ready to hand in your examination?”

I looked around and realized that I was the only one still in the room. Blushing deeply, I ran up to the teachers desk, gave the teacher my test, and ran out of the room. How embarrassing. I should pay attention to my surroundings more. As I walked down the hallway, I saw girls staring at me and whispering.

“Emmy?” A girl in the form above me said with a worried look on her face. “Are you feeling alright?”

I gave her a quizzical look. “What do you mean, Shirley? I feel fine. What makes you say so?”

“Your number,” Shirley said, looking at me with genuine concern, “it’s getting pretty low”

“What?!” I said, looking up at the number floating above me. As I processed what I saw, my face began draining of color.

I was at three. I knew my number was higher this morning. It was as if it suddenly jumped forward.

“I think you should go home,” another girl from Shirley’s class told me.

I nodded slowly and began making my way to the office. On my way there, I felt all eyes on me. No one’s number had ever been this low. Everyone was both curious and terrified about what would happen when time ran out. I came to the office, visibly shaking.

“Do you need something, Emmy dear?” The secretary said, looking down at her list of things to get done.

“Can… can I please go home?” I asked.

“Whatever for, sweetie? Are you not feeling well?” She finally looked up at me, and all I could give as a response was point at my number.

The secretary's face turned solemn. “I see,” she said “you can go home now, don’t worry about signing the register, I’ll take care of it.”

After going back to the classroom to collect my things, I quickly rushed out the door before the next teacher would walk in. We had arithmetic next, and I wondered to myself if I would ever sit in an arithmetic lesson again. The sound of my shoes echoed through the empty hallways as I made my way to the front door.

As I began my walk home, I tried to calm myself down. It couldn’t possibly be a bad thing if your number went down, right? Maybe it was just a countdown until you would stop having homework. That wasn’t too bad. The numbers usually went down by the day, so if my calculations were correct I only had 72 hours left. Left for what? I still didn’t know. I guess I would know soon enough.

At that point I saw the sign on my street. I turned the corner and raced up the steps to our flat. After turning the key in the lock, the door creaked open. That sound had always bothered me, but I didn’t seem to mind that time. It felt like a minor inconvenience compared to possibly having my life on the line with a countdown to my end right above me. I put down my things and went upstairs to my room. I wasn’t feeling very hungry. I opened the door with the sign my little sister had scribbled. “Emmy & Sophia’s room, please knock” When I came in, everything was a mess. Little dresses and dolls were everywhere. I cleared off my bed and sat down. I guess I would have to wait two more days to figure out my fate.

Two days later:

I haven’t been to school in a long time. Well, it was only two days, but it felt like an eternity. I couldn’t bear the stares I would get if I were to go. I sent my best friend Layla a telegram letting her know that I wasn’t sure if we would see each other again. Layla and I were friends since we were really little, but when she moved to America, we promised to write each other letters every week.

“Just don’t forget us little people here in London when you leave for that huge country!” I had told her as we hugged one last time before the cabbie finished loading their luggage into the boot and she would head off to the dock.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought of never seeing her again, but I tried to keep my mind off of it.

After there was one day left, the countdown had started going down by hours, and then minutes. With only five minutes left, I tried to think happy thoughts, even though I was sure I knew what would happen when the countdown turned into zero. I would die. Surely there was no other possibility. Would I explode? Disappear? The suspense was making me scared and I began breathing heavily. The countdown was up to seconds. Only thirty seconds left. Twenty…ten…five…three…two… I closed my eyes tightly. One… zero.

I opened my eyes slowly. Looking around, everything was black. It was just me surrounded by a void of darkness. Suddenly, I heard a sound. Breathing. I turned around and saw a nice looking lady coming towards me smiling.

“Congratulations, Emmy,” she said. “You did it.”

“Did what?” I asked “am I dead?” “No, Emmy,” the lady chuckled. “You’re here for a very important reason. Follow me”

I followed the lady through the seemingly never ending darkness.

“By the way, you can call me Madam Wernaby” she said.

We went on and on, and eventually came to a small wooden door. Madam Wernaby opened the door, “after you,” she said.

As I entered, I saw a bright room with large tables and many people roaming about. The room had a pleasant atmosphere to it.

“This is the peace management realm,” began Madam Wernaby, “this is where all those who are worthy and have a gentle heart are brought to maintain peace in the world”.

“What does that have to do with me?” I asked. “Why am I here? Why was there a countdown?”

“So many questions,” said Madam Wernaby, “that’s a sign of a curious mind who is ready to help,” I blushed, and she continued, “you were chosen because of your amazing peace-keeping capabilities. You are always ready to stop an argument. Always ready to resolve a fight. The countdowns were put into place by the peace management realm to keep track of who was ready to come here to help once someone else retired, and those with longer countdowns are less suitable for the job. “Once a few of our members had to unexpectedly leave, we were short staffed. That is why your countdown suddenly jumped forward”

This was a lot to take in, and all I could do was nod.

“This society is top secret, which is why the reason for the countdown is kept unknown,” said Madam Wernaby. “Come, let me show you what to do”.

I followed Madam Wernaby through a long corridor. Everyone we passed smiled pleasantly at us, which made me feel more at ease. We reached a door with a sign that reminded me of the sign on my bedroom door, “Emmy & Layla, peace consultants” . I wondered who Layla was and if she would be just as good a friend as the Layla I knew. One could only imagine the shock I felt when I walked into the room and saw Layla sitting right there!

“Hi Emmy!” Layla exclaimed, hugging me as tightly as she had when she moved years ago. “Guess what? My countdown finished and I didn’t have time to tell you, but now we’re here together! Isn’t that exciting?”

“Of course!” I replied, still not fully processing what had just happened in the past hour.

“Layla will help you get started,” said Madam Wernaby, leaving the room. “I’m sure you’ll both do great!”

Layla excitedly ran through all the steps of our job. We were the ones who were tasked with figuring out how to solve tough arguments between people who weren’t talking to each other for a long time. Papers came through a crack in the wall with different cases from all over the world, and Layla and I had to come up with a solution for how to make things right again.

Layla and I were a great team. We would act out the scenarios with the details we were given and figure out from there what to do. One time, we were given a case of two tailors who used to be friends. Once they realized that they had opened up their shops three streets down from each other, they began fighting about who should get to keep their business. Each day, one of them tried sabotaging the other’s business, such as by hanging up a sign that said “sorry, we’re closed”. The other would wait in his store all day wondering why there were no customers! Layla and I figured out that each one specialized in different areas, and people came to either of them depending on their need. All that had to be done was get them to understand that neither was taking away the other’s income!

Once we were done, we handed in the solutions that we came up with and the ground team went down and fixed the problems. With the two of us working together, we solved the most cases of anyone on the team! We were promoted to executive peace consultants, and we were sent the toughest cases that no one else had been able to solve. We always came up with amazing solutions, and it was such a fulfilling feeling knowing that we were helping keep peace in the world. Although at first it had felt as if my time ran out, in reality, it was only beginning.

The End