It worked? I think it worked. I look around. I’m not sure how I know it worked but suddenly I do. There are no birds quivering in mid-air or people stuck in mid-sentence; the clock hands aren’t hovering in fixed places on a big blank face and the clouds aren’t stilled. None of it is like that. Then again, none of it is like anything I’ve ever perceived before. Which is how I know it worked. Those words I spoke, that queer chant with the strangely ancient hand gestures – they worked! And here I am, at the start of a 25^th hour. What I’ve always hoped for.

To me it has always seemed that if I had a 25^th hour, I’d be superhuman. Just that one little extra one would be enough to ensure success in completing all the ‘other stuff’ - that pile of papers would finally be sorted, the letters written, the laundry folded, the fridge shelves washed, the slug repellent laid at the base of the cucumbers. All of it. All the stuff. The 25^th hour would mean that life could finally be perfect. That somehow I wouldn’t piss away that 25^th hour the same way I sometimes piss away all the others.

The 25^th hour wouldn’t be for magazines or Candy Crush; it wouldn’t be for gossip or phone calls or extra cups of coffee; and it certainly wouldn’t be for daydreaming about what I would do if I had that 25^th hour. The 25^th hour would be the hour when I could be that person, that super human who has the time to do it all. And only in the 25^th hour would I be able to do it.

But here I am, writing this and thinking about having a bath to see if it feels the same or different in the 25^th hour. If I could find the bathroom, that is. I would do something outrageous, like streak down the road or steal a diamond if this place (time?) weren’t quite so indeterminate. I might even have a little play on the iPad… if I could find such a thing here.

But no. I think I’ll just think about why the 25^th hour isn’t any different to any of the other hours and probably fix on the answer that it’s because humans aren’t any different. Ever. Bound by time - even extra time – and marching toward the finish line. Same as always.

This hour (51 minutes now) isn’t precious. It’s just another hour. Like the rest of them.