Expecto

There was a sudden chill all around. Silence quickly engulfed the banter. They all knew what this meant.

The foul darkness was approaching.

Everybody rushed back to shelter. And within seconds it appeared, the tall, dark, hooded creature. It moved tenaciously, to consume every inch of glee it could find around here.

He peeked, as the creature went over to the poor woman who failed miserably in concealing herself. Soon, all the positive energy would be sucked out of her.

He knew he had to something. But more so, he knew he had what it took to confront and stand up to this monster which was hell-bent on spreading gloom and despair around it.

In a decisive instant, he opened his coat to take out his wand. But it wasn’t there. He checked the pockets and looked all around in a sudden frenzy, only to realize he was standing over the wand. He shifted swiftly and picked it up. Waiting no longer, he pointed the wand towards the soul-sucking creature, which had begun feasting on its prey.

Alas! What was the charm he was supposed to cast? He couldn’t believe that his memory let him short at this crucial moment. He tried recalling all the charms he knew, with hopes of finding the one he needed. But to no avail. Only now he realized that he was fully exposed to the hooded figure, which seemed to have taken notice of him, and slowly started approaching him.

He desperately raked his memory to remember the one charm that could drive this dark force away. With every step the creature took forward, he felt his own soul being crushed and drawn away from him.

He squinched his eyes behind his round glasses, and picked his brain in a last and final attempt. And suddenly it came to him, as clear as crystal.

He straightened his wand, took a deep breath and shouted out with all his might,

‘EXPECTO PA….’

But before he could complete the charm, he heard a voice screaming back at him, even louder than himself.

‘PETER! PETER!’

The anger in the voice was almost palpable.

Peter opened his eyes to the flushed face of Mr. Gonsalves, standing right in front of him.

Mr. Gonsalves, the boss.

To his utter disbelief, Peter found himself standing one arm outstretched, with a pen pointed towards his boss.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ he bellowed.

Drops of perspiration formed on Peter’s forehead, like water droplets on melting ice. He looked around to the confused stares of his colleagues.

‘Here’s …the… pen…Sir’, he stuttered.

‘What pen? Have you gone NUTS Peter? Don’t play your games with me. If I don’t have the report on my desk by 4 pm today, you can say bye-bye to your bonus this year!’ he fumed ruthlessly.

‘But…Sir…the deadline’s tomorrow’ he said, mustering all his courage.

Mr. Gonsalves glared at him for a second and said,

‘I don’t care. I need it today, do you hear me?’

Feeling helpless, Peter said, ‘Yes...Sir. In fact, I had already started working on it. It will be on your desk at 4 today, I give you my word.’

‘I want the report Peter, not your word!’

With that, he raged out of the office and back into his cabin.

Peter, the bespectacled genius who always felt bound by his cubicle, fell back on his chair. He looked at the laptop screen, trying to re-focus. As he attempted to shake out of his head the incomprehensible spectacle that had just concurred, he muttered under his breath and said,

‘Stupid Harry’

The End