I hope your week is going so, so well that it's supernatural, with lots of paranormally awesome coffee 😜 Once more, we've come to #spillthebeans ☕️ ...although sometimes dark forces co-fabricate to make our experiences with coffee a little strange...

Spellbound

I could've sworn that it was going to be an ordinary morning,one of those mornings that go by slowly while I drink my coffee with Horacia and think about the day ahead, but not..

I think the foreboding act was the disappearance of my new coffee beans; this happened as if by magic. At about 5 a.m., while I was rushing to the kitchen to prepare my precious morning cup of coffee, I managed to see them--my new coffee beans--on the counter, where I'm sure I hadn't left them; in that very moment, suddenly, I heard a voice I couldn't recognize at first, the alarm, said the voice. Gosh! I had forgotten to turn off the alarm; my husband was just falling asleep after a hard day's work that lasted until dawn. I ran back to the room and turned it off. My feet, quick and on automatic, returned quickly and on tiptoe to the kitchen; I stood in front of the completely cleared and sparkling clean countertop while going through a mental blackout that made me remain almost catatonic for a few seconds, after which I couldn't remember what I was going to do at all.

Without further reflection, I went back to the room, went into the bathroom, brushed my teeth and took a long shower--I had gotten up quite early--, but when I was about to remember that thing I had forgotten to do, something important that had escaped my mind, my second alarm went off, the one that told me “you're one minute away from being late.” How come? How long could I have been in the shower? ...Automatically and without second thoughts, I got dressed with the first thing I took out of the closet that I didn't have to iron, took the exams I had corrected the night before, pus hedthem into my briefcase, took the car keys... and off to work!

The idea of what I had missed earlier that morning haunted my head like a ghost that had forgotten its purpose. It turned into a haze that intervened the color of everything the urban scene showed to my eyes fixed on the road, the traffic lights, the faceless lady who crossed the street with her faceless dog; neither of them seemed to touch the pavement with their feet.You have forgotten something important..., said the voice again.

Once in my office, barely turning the doorknob, I look at my watch and realize I'm already ten minutes late for my class--Where was my time going?--A colleague bids me good morning; she has a steaming cup of coffee in her hand. I'm engrossed, watching her.The haze that has possessed my mind still doesn't allow me to think any thoughts beyond my bewilderment at what seemed a supernatural phenomenon shrinking my time. Was it just me? Was it not? But in the blink of an eye, the coffee was gone. How had Mariela been able to drink it so fast; it was so hot, but she was one hundred percent at ease.

I, on the other hand, was already 20 minutes late just out of the blue. A student shows up and asks me if we will have our class. I say yes; I tell him I'll be with them right away. Mariela, my colleague, looks at me astonished, and in a grimace of nervous laughter, she asks me who I am talking to. I don't look at her, I don't reply, lest I lose another 10 minutes without even realizing it. I leave without saying a word.

In my classroom everything went quite normally; I had to skip the first recess to pull myself together, because it had been a very strange morning. When I finally seemed to be okay, and it was only a few minutes before the second recess, a stabbing sensation in my parietal drilled my head from side to side. The boy who had picked me up from the office appeared at the classroom door to tell me that the Department Head wanted to talk to me. That's when I confirmed that the boy did exist and that I wasn't going crazy--perhaps,

Once I left the classroom and was on my way to see the Department Head, I suddenly remembered it: "Ah, my coffee! What starnge things can happen in this witching month." I detoured to the coffee shop and bought a coffee; it wasn't even five minutes after I took a long sip, I think, when all the mental fog began to dissipate, the throbbing pain subsided and this was the strangest thing: the boy disappeared before my eyes.

When I arrived at the Department Head's office, having fully restored myself thanks to finally having my coffee and asked the secretary for the Chief, she told me that he wouldn't be coming to campus that day because he had called in sick. All I could say was, “Oh?” as the voice echoed my own. I'd been listening to myself.