Mori

He

The bank was more crowded than usual. That didn’t help at all. He looked at the clock on the wall. 10:45. He joined the queue which looked the shortest, and started tapping his fingers on his thighs, as was his habit when he was in a hurry. The line didn’t seem to move at all, while the clock just ticked away merrily. Suddenly he heard a scream from the teller counter two places away from his. A small-made woman in jeans and a ragged T-shirt was waving a box in front of the teller. She swung it around at anyone who tried to get closer to her, and kept yelling something at the teller. He could make out the words ‘bomb’ and ‘cash’ over the assorted yelling of others around him. He broke into a cold sweat. This is how I’m going to die. The stand-off continued for a while, with the woman still yelling at the teller to take out the cash, and the teller paralyzed with fear. Finally the teller seemed to regain some sort of composure and started stuffing the cash into a bag. The shabbily-clad woman grabbed it, and placed the box in front of the teller. He watched as the woman slowly backed out of the bank, and then his eyes traveled to the wall-clock again. 11:35. His heart sank.

She

They returned from the trip to the port as scheduled. It had actually been quite an informative trip, and she was filled with the feeling of having done something good for the day. However, after she left the children in class and walked towards the office, she noticed some sort of commotion in the area. A lot of people were crowding around the Principal’s office. As she enquired around, she gathered that some parent had attacked the principal. Attacked?? And that no one was being allowed to school till the police got to the place. No, she thought, that that cannot be. She looked down at her wrist-watch. 10:50 already. The police were not expected for some time now. They were gathering all the staff in the office, so that the police could talk to them together and hence save time. Save time, how ironical. They all waited in the office for the police to arrive. When they finally arrived, they made the usual statement about how they would not take much of their time. She looked down at her watch and her heart skipped a beat. 11:45.

He

At the lab, it took all his will to keep his mind from wandering to the events earlier in the morning and concentrating on finishing the paper. This was it, eight years of single-minded dedication, towards a problem that was 8 decades old. When his close friend from college had suggested taking this up for their PhD thesis, he had never thought they would actually solve the problem. The most he had hoped for was to just try and understand the problem at all. And yet, here it was in front of them, the solution. Like so many others, its genius lay in its simplicity. He surveyed their final paper with a look of affection, and then turned to his partner and gave him a huge grin.

They agreed they would present their paper later in the evening. He ran out of the lab, it was 10:30 already. He figured he could drop in at the bank, draw some money, and surprise her with one huge bouquet. She loved surprises.

She

The children were being very well-behaved at the port. Today being a Saturday, they had decided to cancel classes for Standard VII, and take them on a sort of educational tour to the port instead. To see how the big ships and the containers worked. Children are always fascinated by big things, she thought. Just like he is by big numbers. She smiled to herself. The smart Navy man who was showing them around was explaining something about how they were planning to use trained dolphins and sea lions to help with port security. This was not officially announced yet, but they were soon going to. All this barely registered in her mind. All she was thinking off was dropping the kids back at school. And after that…

They

She sent the pen flying across the room in an arc, but it missed its intended target by quite a distance. She didn’t calculate the projectile velocity right, he thought. Wait, that’s not the problem right now. She’s really angry this time. He watched for signs that would show she had blown enough steam. So far she was showing none. She was still fuming at him for having completely forgotten about their dinner plan the previous night. And having come home at around 2 in the night and gone straight to sleep. And for having done that for the third night in a row.

He suddenly realized from behind the couch that the projectile attacks on him had stopped. He peeked over the couch to see her sitting on the table, head in her hands. He heaved a sigh of relief. From here, he could handle it. He went over to the table, pulled a chair next to her and said softly, “You know how my work is. I just get caught up in it so much that I don’t even notice the passage of time.” She looked up angrily, and he held his hands up defensively, “I know. I know you work too, and I know this is no excuse. But we’re nearly done with our problem now. Yesterday’s incident will be the last of its kind, I promise. All we need to do today is to compile the result. And after that, I’ll be the best boyfriend a girl ever had” he finished with a smile. He knew she could never hold out against his smile.

She nearly did, staring angrily at him for a full minute. And then, still staring straight into his eyes, she said “If that is all that you have to do today, you should be done by an hour or so, right? Around 10 o’clock?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

"Good, then listen. My school work shouldn’t take 2 hours of my time today either. So, we meet for an early lunch, at the place we were supposed to have dinner yesterday. Yes?”

Now he was on a sticky wicket. Sure, he had only one hour of work to do today. But then, he could never tell. He hesitated.

“I can’t go on doing all the waiting”, she continued “If you cannot do this for me today, then… I guess we should call it off. This whole ‘us’ thing, today.”

That one took him by surprise. “What? Whoa, let’s not go to such extremes here. Of course I can make it, by… 11o’clock? This time I’ll get it right, trust me.” He brought out the smile again. This time it had a bit more of the impact he had hoped for.

“Ok then. But remember, 11 A.M, sharp. If not…”