From Cambodia to Japan

It’s Wednesday, and, according to my schedule, class starts from first period. I never like first period class. Early start time deprives me of my needed sleep. Well, today I woke up rather late to the sound of my second alarm, so I knew I got to rush to school.

Despite the cold morning of autumn, I found myself sweating hard as I sped my bike down the road then up the hill and up the hill till I got to my school, which is located on a hillside.

School today was unusually quiet. There were a handful of bikes on the parking site where normally you’ll see hundreds of them left there. There were even fewer cars. Not a soul, a single soul. The school looked as if it was deserted. I guess I was the earliest person to be here today.

Strangely quiet. The scene reminded me of the Langoliers, a short novel by Stephen King, in which a plane carrying a group of passengers accidentally travels back into the past. I was wondering if I had just slipped back through time while speeding my bike up the hill.

Not likely. The trees, the air and the sky were lively, fresh and clear- not as dead as the scene described in King’s novel. Besides, I could hear voices of sport trainers from the school’s playground which meant I wasn't the only person in the school.

Still there was another possibility: something wrong with my watch. Maybe it went faster than usual. I rechecked my watch. Nothing wrong. I was just right on time.

Now I began to suspect that today might be national holiday. So I checked the calendar in my phone. “Autumnal Equinox Day(秋分の日)”, it said. Well, that's it-national holiday. All I could utter was: “Oh, #$&%!!”