Tuesday, 7th February, 7:15 am.
As usual, you are crammed in the back of an Omni van with a couple of other kids who go to the same school as you.
As usual, they are having an animated discussion about certain demigods and the like, and hardly notice your presence in the Omni.
As usual, your headphones are jammed into your ears, and your music player sends yet another wave of sleepy Britpop music your way. "Great," you think to yourself, sardonically. Falling asleep is, quite frankly, the last thing you want to do right now.
You tilt your head and stare at the sky for the rest of the journey.
On your way to school, you always pass through a stretch of road with towering apartment complexes from the nineties on either side, and an old movie theatre, walls plastered with racy posters, that is forever playing some, cheap, seedy b-rated movie.
Today, however, something's different.
When you look up at the bit of sky above the theatre, you notice pigeons. HUNDREDS of pigeons; and they are constantly flying around in circles.
The birds look like they're all part of a wild, massive roller disco party, spiraling up and up towards the sun. Not wanting to miss out on the merrymaking, more and more pigeons join the gathering from the nearby billboards and apartment balconies.
It is a magnificent sight, and for a moment, you notice absolutely nothing else. The cackling of the kids in the van, the whirring of the wheels and the din of the traffic shrinks to a dull hum; time just seems to slow down for those few seconds. You seem to have a moment of clarity, sans the drunken excesses and the disgusting toilet cubicles.
And as fast as it all happens, it just ends. Nobody else seems to have noticed what you just witnessed. The Omni flits down the road, and all the sounds seem to return to normal, leaving you to wonder about the je ne sais quoi of life, the universe, and flying pigeons.
Strange.
As usual, you are crammed in the back of an Omni van with a couple of other kids who go to the same school as you.
As usual, they are having an animated discussion about certain demigods and the like, and hardly notice your presence in the Omni.
As usual, your headphones are jammed into your ears, and your music player sends yet another wave of sleepy Britpop music your way. "Great," you think to yourself, sardonically. Falling asleep is, quite frankly, the last thing you want to do right now.
You tilt your head and stare at the sky for the rest of the journey.
On your way to school, you always pass through a stretch of road with towering apartment complexes from the nineties on either side, and an old movie theatre, walls plastered with racy posters, that is forever playing some, cheap, seedy b-rated movie.
Today, however, something's different.
When you look up at the bit of sky above the theatre, you notice pigeons. HUNDREDS of pigeons; and they are constantly flying around in circles.
The birds look like they're all part of a wild, massive roller disco party, spiraling up and up towards the sun. Not wanting to miss out on the merrymaking, more and more pigeons join the gathering from the nearby billboards and apartment balconies.
It is a magnificent sight, and for a moment, you notice absolutely nothing else. The cackling of the kids in the van, the whirring of the wheels and the din of the traffic shrinks to a dull hum; time just seems to slow down for those few seconds. You seem to have a moment of clarity, sans the drunken excesses and the disgusting toilet cubicles.
And as fast as it all happens, it just ends. Nobody else seems to have noticed what you just witnessed. The Omni flits down the road, and all the sounds seem to return to normal, leaving you to wonder about the je ne sais quoi of life, the universe, and flying pigeons.
Strange.
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