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this morning, half-aware
Jul. 11th, 2004 09:23 amWe were getting on the plane when I realized that I had left my cat at my grandparents' place. I told my mother that I couldn't go back home without Kitty. Mom pointed out that it was Christmas Eve, that there was no way that we could get another ticket home before Christmas, and that I would just have to deal.
I refused to deal. So she took me back to my grandparents' house in the minivan, but warned that I would have to find another way home. We discussed alternate modes of transportation, and finally settled on the train; it would allow pets, and be slower than air travel, but I would still be back home in time to unwrap Christmas presents. (How Mom would be able to get home by air was never explained to me, but I didn't question it.)
We got back to my grandparents' place by driving at breakneck speed; my grandparents had already left on their Christmas activities, and the house was deserted. As I rooted my cat out of her hiding place, I heard the minivan screaming out of the driveway and I realized that I was stranded. I couldn't get to the train station, because I didn't know where one was. I couldn't open the laptop and use the internet to find my way back, because...
...I had left it on the plane, in my bag along with my wallet, passport, and everything else that I needed to function in a foreign country.
I sat huddled in my grandparents' house, petting my cat, realizing that I was well and truly stuck. Alone. Abandoned. On Christmas Eve. The situation was just too impossible, too steeped in pathos. This is a dead-end dream, I realized. There is no place for the story to go from here. I guess there's nothing for me to do but wake up.
So I did.
I refused to deal. So she took me back to my grandparents' house in the minivan, but warned that I would have to find another way home. We discussed alternate modes of transportation, and finally settled on the train; it would allow pets, and be slower than air travel, but I would still be back home in time to unwrap Christmas presents. (How Mom would be able to get home by air was never explained to me, but I didn't question it.)
We got back to my grandparents' place by driving at breakneck speed; my grandparents had already left on their Christmas activities, and the house was deserted. As I rooted my cat out of her hiding place, I heard the minivan screaming out of the driveway and I realized that I was stranded. I couldn't get to the train station, because I didn't know where one was. I couldn't open the laptop and use the internet to find my way back, because...
...I had left it on the plane, in my bag along with my wallet, passport, and everything else that I needed to function in a foreign country.
I sat huddled in my grandparents' house, petting my cat, realizing that I was well and truly stuck. Alone. Abandoned. On Christmas Eve. The situation was just too impossible, too steeped in pathos. This is a dead-end dream, I realized. There is no place for the story to go from here. I guess there's nothing for me to do but wake up.
So I did.
