I just spent the last hour and a half running around a large campus trying to find where I’d left my coat and blanket, and trying to buy a pack of cigarettes. Missed most of a class because we’d switched to a different room and I got lost. But I met up with a man who probably would have helped me but when I opened the door he was suddenly pulled up into the deep water and had to be rescued by rope and pulley to be brought back down to earth. All the water went away, although it hadn’t bothered me; it just didn’t exist where I was. In a closet I found an orange blanket to put under the Christmas tree as a tree skirt, but then I found a red and green plain one as well so I took both. Up on the dark third floor I met two girls who knew how to escape, and so I followed them out the window and got safely back outside. Found my way back to class, but was completely mystified by a game they were learning on the computers. They complained that they were lost as well. I went back outside and was chased and overtaken by a large kangaroo. No one heard my cries for help, but then they weren’t loud because I didn’t want to upset the kangaroo that held me in his grip. A small group of campus tourists came by, but they were reluctant to help me; wouldn’t even go to get help because they said the guide would be angry and did I know that he’d charge me another three dollars? A child finally did go after I assured them I was a student, not a tourist, and he brought back a maintenance man. I woke just as they pulled me from the animal’s grip.
I’m still very, very tired.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology