False Start

The alarm goes off and my eyes open. It's 5:30 a.m. and time to begin another day. I jump out of bed and turn off the beeping clock. The television is still on and I shut that off, too. I pull a pair of socks from the dresser drawer and lope into the bathroom, turning on the light as I enter. As I shut the door, I glance at the bathroom clock on the counter. I stop abruptly and squint at the digital numbers to be sure I'm reading it correctly. When I'm groggy and not wearing my glasses, my eyes tend to play tricks on me. The clock claims it is 1:36 in the morning. "That can't be right," I whisper. I step out of the bathroom and squint at the bedroom clock. Now it also reads 1:36. Something weird is going on. I shut off the bathroom light and go over to the clock to check the alarm. I push the button and the green numbers change from 1:37 to 5:30. How odd, I think to myself, but that's as far my thinking goes so early in the morning. With a shrug, I reset the alarm and return to bed, half in confusion, half in relief that I still have another four hours of sleep before the day begins.