“Oh, no, I’m getting late,” I murmured as I observed a perfect diagonal being forming on the analog watch face.
I grabbed my stylish, multi-compartment, solid-colored, water-resistant yoga bag, slung it over my shoulders, sprinted towards the main door, and quickly exited the house.
“Stomp, stomp, stomp,” the silent staircase had become accustomed to my sprinting strategy of descending two steps at a time.
Sunrise had just begun as rays of sunlight were peeking through the perforated wall. I was about to reach the third-floor landing zone, but I tilted my head to the left to avoid an ongoing family feud between a set of black wires as they gently swayed due to the morning breeze. Not far away, a white plastic cord duct intervened as a peacemaker, trying to avoid the altercation.
“Well, that sure needs to be fixed,” I told myself as I continued descending the staircase. A plastic bag that was practicing its newly found love of flying, my journey to the ground floor was dull but peaceful.
“Please close the door!”
“Please close the door!”
I reached the ground floor, and I saw the milkman carrying a wheatish color cloth bag entering the upgraded elevator. The elevator’s newly installed multi-lingual voice commands could pierce through two concrete floors. The automated sound faded as soon as the milkman closed both elevator doors.
I descended the last few steps of the building to exit the building’s main entrance. I was instantly greeted by a fresh breeze of air accompanied by the brightening sunlight rising on my right.
“Chirp, chirp.”
“Tweet, tweet.”
Birds were peacefully singing songs as our society garden beamed under the early morning sun, courtesy of a recent haircut given to the towering coconut trees surrounding the area on three sides. The usually packed parking lot was nearly empty, except for a couple of dusty cars parked on either side of the garden entrance.
I sprinted ahead and turned left near the watchman’s den, made using sky-blue roofing sheets. An ancient-looking table outside the cabin supported a long-book register that captured visitor information. Besides the cabin, a lamppost stood tall as it observed the day-to-day happenings of the society courtesy of two surveillance cameras.
As I darted towards the main exit gate, I was greeted by a fresh dust breeze.
“Woof, woof.”
“Yip, yip.”
“Oh, no, now what?” I asked myself as my speed instantly slowed.
The overall cloud of dust had somewhat settled, but the road outside the gate was filled with rubble.
“Zoom, zoom, zoom.”
I saw a black dog franticly darting around near the entrance. “Woofie doesn’t seem alone,” I whispered as I heard my heart racing at the speed of knots.
On one side, the road workers across town had been on a repair mission for the past few months as they worked hard to meet their deadlines. As I reached the gate, I saw Woofie’s three more furry friends, Whitey, Fluffy, and Nosey, on the right. Woofie was running around as though singing a famous poem by Mr. Khuswant Singh.
It’s dug over here,
It’s dug over there.
It’s dug on this side,
it’s dug on that side.
Wherever it’s not dug today,
The digging will begin there tomorrow.
“Swish!!”
Woofie ran past me a couple of times as I tightly held the straps of my gym bag. I walked in the center of a wooden plank as either side of the road had been dug. Whitey, an off-white colored dog, was calmly sleeping in the jaw of a yellow-colored excavator. Nosey was manually excavating the pile of mud while Fluffy, a pristine black dog, was standing there as though guarding the construction materials and equipment.
The road was partitioned with the support of a green net as Woofie was running from one side to the other on the undug side of the road.
“Woof, woof,” calmly barked Fluffy as I saw him run towards me.
I nearly skipped a heartbeat as Fluffy reached near me, but he stood in the dugout facing the green net. I quickly took a right as Woofie continued to sprint on the other side.
“Interesting,” I whispered as I saw Fluffy and Woofie run in opposite directions on either side of the partition.
My heartbeat instantly returned to normal as I said, “Huh, who knew the dugout can be used as a fun game.”
Fluffy and Woofie continued to play hide-and-seek as I dashed towards the main road to catch an autorickshaw and reach my yoga class on time.