Tick Tock

 

Ambassador College, the infamous cattle car, one bedroom, sixteen men; I had a top bunk. Colin was in the bottom bunk. We had some pretty strict alarm clock rules. Rule number one was no snooze alarms. Sixteen people? That would have driven us all around the bend. The second rule was that if you had an alarm go off, you had to shut it down within a reasonable amount of time. We had one student who struggled with that. The solution was that his friend would shut off the alarm for him, grab him by the ankles and drag him to the study where he could wake up at his usual pace.

I started off with an old alarm clock I brought from home with me. The off switch was on the back, and all I had to do was park it carefully against the wall. As soon as it went off, I'd be airborne, hit the floor, and push the clock against the wall. Worked great as long as everyone understood to keep the landing pad clear when it sounded. I did land on someone once. Getting slammed early in the morning by a two hundred and ten pound semi-conscious young adult is not a good way to start the day. No problems until my alarm clock went bzzzt and died.

Somebody in the dorm blessed me with a replacement, and I accepted it with some misgivings. It was hard to turn off, and I imagined myself leaping into the void, locating it, and then bashing it repeatedly against things to kill the awful racket it made. I thought I was smart by taking it to bed with me. I figured, if it was lying right next to me, I could drag it under the covers, muffling it while I found the off button. 

Some time in the wee hours of the morning, my mind registered that I'd just bumped it off the edge of the bed. On that side, there was a partition between me and the next bunk, but there was a small gap that went all the way to the floor. That's where I'd pushed it. I knew I had to find this stupid thing because it was set for an early start and no one was going to be happy with me. I crept down to the floor because I figured it went all the way down and wiggled my way between the boxes stored under the beds and started groping around for it. I wasn't having any luck. I stopped and listened. I could hear the guys breathing, my heart pounding, and the ticking of clocks was coming from everywhere. I strained to try to sort through the sound, and I continued to grope around. I was ready to give up and just plan on facing everyone's wrath in the morning. One last thought: maybe it didn't go all the way to the floor. Sure enough, I found it lying on Colin's pillow right next to his head. I am so glad it didn't hit him. I went out after that and got myself a clock a little better suited to my purposes.