Waking up thrice

 Walking leisurely in the early winter morning, Mrunal looks at the migratory birds perched along the fence of her colony park. It's a beautiful day, and a rather early morning, she's usually curled up in bed at this hour, and as these thoughts run through her mind she sees her bestfriend Niharika pull up on her shiney, teal blue scooter. It's seeing Niharika, that Mrunal's brain goes into assessment mode making her wonder as to why she was up, a sense of urgency suggested because they had to reach someplace very important by 9am. 

"Omg, I'm just gonna take five and get dressed. So sorry about the delay." Mrunal started in a panic.

"Relax, I am earlier than I promised, we were supposed to leave by 8:30 there's enough time. I need you to help me pick out a few things first." Niharika explained with a sense of underlying urgency.

"Going with you first and then coming back home to get dressed would mean we get late for our 9 o clock appointment". Mrunal thought out loud with her mental calculations doing the runs in her head for ETAs either way, including the traffic induced delays.

"Okay, then go get dressed asap." Niharika requested Mrunal who seemed to be lost in her calculations.

"MRUNAL ! NOW!" Niharika repeated her words with an airy gesture suggesting Mrunal to scoot and get on fast. 

*********

Mrunal woke up with a gasp, looking around only to realize she had spent the night on the living room sofa and it was 8:20am in the morning. Absent mindedly Mrunal rushed to her closet to pick out her clothes to get dressed before Niharika shows up at the door. Inside her room, Mrunal threw around her clothes, haunted by the options she had available. She could either wear her mustard colored suit to which she was unable to locate the scarf (dupatta) or henna green, unable to decide she sat amidst a pile of clothes with her finalists taking pride in her confusion. She stared hard at both the outfits, not sure which one to pick. Just then, Niharika stepped into her house, asking her why she wasn't dressed and ready to go. Mrunal could not believe her eyes, Niharika not only on time, but also dressed in an ethnic outfit. Still unclear, Mrunal kept perched on her bed, looking back and forth between Niharika and the outfits she had selected. She wasn't sure of the occasion and seeing Niharika didn't make the choice any easier. Seeing Mrunal's confusion, Niharika looked around and was able to see a speck of the evasive dupatta that was making Mrunal's choice difficult. Pointing it out, Niharika asked Mrunal to pull it out of the pile of clothes and pick speed. It was already time to leave.

***************

Mrunal, Mrunal, . . . . Mrunaal! 

Haan? What? Mrunal woke up in her bed, feeling rather disoriented. Looking around she realised she had been woken up by her brother who was looking for his charger that unfortunately Mrunal had been clutching onto in her stupor. As she came to her senses, Mrunal realized everything so far had been a dream only and that she finally was in her own home and there was no event she had marked for today, nor was Niharika expected to visit. Another weird part being the fact that Niharika did not own any scooter, let alone a teal blue colored ride. Still feeling a little off, Mrunal turned to the wall clock in the drawing room, and checked for the time. It was the time that surprised her the most, it was exactly 8:35 am in the morning, almost in sync with the time in her dream sequence. 

Was I actually waking up in different times of different lives or what? Mrunal cold not help but wonder, given her inclination towards science fiction and theory of multiverse thanks to her obsession with Doctor Strange.
It was not a rare occurrence for Mrunal to have these Inception like dream episodes, rather it was her discussion of such scenarios which made her friends recommend her this movie to her. Watching the movie again she could not help but wonder if all that she saw in her dream episodes could actually mean that Inception was possibly a real story too.