Midnight Dilemma | Creative Nonfiction

Mistake? To me, everything I do looks like a mistake. Ah, those are the feelings when I get depressed about something, and everything seems wrong to me. Well, what exactly is a mistake to me? Maybe the big chunk of hive that I had sent to the wrong address once? Decisions that went wrong? Judgments that were wrong to spoil friendships? Many more to throw here.

📸 Kelly Sikkema

Well, it was 2019, and I was expecting to sit for a very important exam. Usually, if my exams are out of my city, then I try to reach there a day before because I prefer to take some rest before any exam, perhaps a sound sleep. Due to some problem, I had to prepare for a three-hour journey just seven hours before my exam. As per the plan, I will have around four hours of free time to relax. It wasn't an ideal choice, but I was left with no option.

So it was around 3.00 am when my train was scheduled to leave. Usually, it always came late, so as it was very late at night, I wasn't finding any vehicle to ride me to my destination. I was in dilemma whether I should keep waiting or start walking. Yeah, it wasn't very far, but I was expecting a rickshaw to appear. Usually, it doesn't take this long because there are many rickshaw pullers who ride at night for some extra fare than the usual rates.

By the time my dilemma was over, it was too late to make a move, and I started walking. The mistake was that I waited too long, and as I was late, I thought of taking a shortcut through which way there were zero chances of getting any vehicle. I thought of walking quickly without delaying anymore for the rickshaw. I should have taken the main road in case I get a vehicle while going.

Unfortunately, I reached the station 5 minutes late than the scheduled time, and in the past record of months, it's the first time that the train came to this station exactly at the scheduled time, not even a minute late. I have missed the train so what to do now? As an alternative, I had to pick a bus which was going to leave two hours from now. That means if it reaches my destination on time, I would have barely one hour in hand; I was getting tense, as the traffic jam was one of the biggest factors to think of.

Fortunately, I was at my destination in time; there was a very small gap between my appearance and last bell to enter the hall. Wanna hear the surprising news? The train I missed had an engine failure midway and had to delay for more than five hours to reach its destination. Can you imagine the situation I would have ended up in there?

So the mistake I had made while waiting too long for a vehicle and taking the shortcut to reach in time resulted in missing my train, which eventually turned out to be a savior from missing my exam. Suppose I had traveled by train. I would have surely missed the exam. Fortunately, the bus reached within the scheduled time. That was surely a hectic day that I couldn't forget.

Join this week's Creative Nonfiction in The Ink Well: Prompt #26