Tag: lost

Lost

~ oneletterup ~ 30 Comments

One Word Sunday: Lost

Lost. Now here’s a topic I am intimately familiar with. My claim to fame, such as it were. Spatially challenged? Don’t try to follow me to the elevator when I leave a hotel room. It will take a couple of tries before I get there. Those doors all look the same. They do!

My earliest dreams – probably at the age of 6 or 7 – were nightmarish…riding the bus home from school and being dropped off in a neighborhood that at first looked like mine. I’d walk from house to house looking for My House. The familiar ranch with the brick front porch. I became hopelessly lost in those dreams and woke up in a panic. Funny how those memories stay intact.

It didn’t improve with age. I needed a map or written directions for (many) months when driving to a new job 20 minutes away – this was back in 1995. One family joke is…what would happen to some poor soul who asked ME for directions? It’s happened and I freeze.

So, imagine my eternal gratitude and celebration when the Garmin navigator device was invented – replacing the ever reliable AAA Trip-tick with its booklet full of detailed maps. And then miracle of miracles…GPS google maps! Live action and an insistent voice that keeps Recalculating! At least I don’t have to do it.

My email spam folder often provides comic relief – begging me to click on links and apply to work for a major ride sharing company. Can you imagine? They obviously did very little research – if any – as to who they target for advertising. Even with a GPS chirping away, it would be risky business hiring me as a driver.

No matter…I still have a stash of street maps jammed in the seat pocket of my car…just in case. And they always work.

Dream

~ oneletterup ~ 6 Comments

This post inspired by Ragtag Daily Prompt: Dream

Where am I?
These houses all look different.
I’ll keep walking. 
I know the school bus dropped me off at the same place.
How could I be…lost?
Did I make a mistake?
I’ll keep walking…maybe up ahead.
But that house is the wrong color.
And it’s up so high.
Oh no what should I do?
It’s so hard to walk up this hill.
Why won’t my legs move faster?
There was never a hill.
I don’t know what to do.
These are all strangers!
Where is my house?
Where is my family?
I’m all by myself.

A recurring dream from over 50 years ago…waking me up in the middle of the night. Heart hammering in my chest. Eyes snapping open in the dark. Hands clutching the sheets.

Relieved I was in my own bed…in my room..in my house…my breathing would eventually slow. My eyes closing…

Onlyadream…onlyadream…onlyadream….
Sleep would return to my 7 year old self.
My 8 year old self.
My 9 year old self.
The illusion of safety assured for another night.

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Flash Fiction Challenge – Yellow Tent

~ oneletterup ~ 3 Comments

Flash Fiction Challenge: August 2, 2018, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that includes a yellow tent. Where is it and who does it belong to? Think of how the color adds to the story. Go where the prompt leads.

https://carrotranch.com/2018/08/03/august-2-flash-fiction-challenge/

My contribution:

A Little Yellow Tent

Are you okay kid?
The last thing she remembers is a truck door closing.
Then sleeping in this soft lap.
She struggles to open her eyes. So tired.

Where Am I?

Kid! What’s your name? Who are you?
She turns toward the voice. A kind voice.
A smooth hand covers hers. Gentle and warm.
Something in her untwists.

Tears escape, sliding down her face.
She feels herself lifted up.
Hears a door opening.
She peeks. A blue house. Flowers. Swings.

A little girl. A little boy.
A little yellow tent; flap up. Toys inside.
“Ya wanna play?”

She smiles.