Prologue
I was screaming. I was screaming underwater. I was screaming underwater. It took me not more than five seconds to realize that its okay. I had been doing that from 10 years, 4 months and 1 day. 15 minutes and 29 seconds. As I realized that, I also realized that I had subconsciously counted the time.
25th April. That day I was turning 6, and I was taking a bath without any supervision. In a bathtub full of water. The place where my thoughts were clearer and I could think about marrying Noddy without anyone asking me where I was lost. There were people outside decorating the house for my birthday and I was thinking about my sky blue frock.
I never noticed that I fell asleep in the bathtub, and I sank further, further and further .
2 hours later, I woke up. An average human being should have died long back. My nose and mouth had been submerged underwater completely, and my skin was wrinkly. I opened my eyes wide, and screamed and screamed till I saw that it wasn’t bubbles escaping my mouth, but a shrill, scared noise of a child. I stopped. I kept quiet. I climbed out the bathtub and finished the rest of the bath with the shower.
I glanced at the water with my scared electric blue eyes and wondered why there was a face there when I opened my eyes.
I stopped screaming when I realized that the same face from 10 years, 4 months and 1 day had disappeared from the swimming pool. For the first time in years, I felt a sense of displacement in water.
