ZUDEMA

12003 September 03

I looked around the small bedroom to see the items on the off-white north wall. The dark wood headboard of the double bed was against the west wall, and the bed was covered with a dull-yellow, blue, and white bedspread. I felt tense as i noticed that there were open spaces along the north wall where the dressers had been. I thought that someone had stolen things from the room. I walked around the foot of the bed and looked at the single small dresser in the middle of the north wall. There was a large book in the middle of the polished wood surface which was open to a page in the middle of it. The book had some decorative significance, and i lifted it from the small chest to look at it. I started to remember that i had rearranged the room to make it look different. There really was nothing missing; it was just in a different place than i had been. I placed the book back down on the small chest in the middle of the north wall and looked at the empty space to the west. The rest of the north wall, as well as the west wall, seemed bare, but i noticed that there were paperback books lined up along the window sill in the west wall. I had stacked some of my favourite book along the sill. I then thought that i should get a small bookcase to fill the space under the window, on the west wall. I turned to the south, wondering if i had any of the cheap bookcases left over from my grandfather’s furniture.

12003 September 04

The man then showed me the medium-sized tan dog which was wandering around to the north of me. It was an older dog. I did not really want a dog, but i suddenly thought that i should adopt this one. Because it was older, it would already be trained. In addition, if i did not have enough time for it, it would only last a few years. The dog walked down the stairs, which descended to the south, along the east wall of the room. The stairs seemed to run horizontally, though, just to the east of me, at my waist level. The dog trotted to the south, rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs, and turned to the west. It jogged into the room and disappeared from my sight. I continued talking to the man about the dog, still thinking that having the dog might take more time than i could spend. I felt that i really did want the dog, but i was unsure that i could easily train him. I turned around and found myself in the dining room of my parents’ house. The dog was running around the house, and i was suddenly afraid that it might me tearing things up. It was not house trained, as i had thought it was. I started to worry about what it would chew up. I seemed to be wandering around the house as i spoke to the man. I could see the dog periodically, but could not find it. I then walked in to the bathroom which was just off of my parents’ bedroom. The tan dog trotted out as i came into the room. I could see the red jewelry box lying on the floor of the small room to the north, with the bracelets and earrings scattered around the floor near it. I walked over to the mess and picked up the dark red box. I thought that the dog must have chewed on it, but it did not look damaged. I hoped that my mother would not be upset by what the dog had done. I looked at the jewelry which was scattered on the floor and wondered if the dog had damaged any of the good stuff. I remembered that my mother kept her good jewelry hidden. I reached down and picked up the amulet which was shaped like a trefoil. I opened it to see the green ring and some of the other antiques. They were still safe. I was glad that the dog had not eaten them.

12003 September 06

I stood just to the north of the group of people. They were fooling around and joking about something. One of them was being pushed around by the others. He was wearing a pair of long tan baggy pants with no shirt, and i could see that he was nicely built in his upper body. Another person from the group grabbed him from behind in a sleeper hold and started pulling him to the ground. I thought that the fake wrestling was amusing, and tried to move closer so that i could see what was happening. I wanted to participate in the wrestling because i liked the sport. I then realized that the man who was abusing the first man seemed to be doing more than rough housing with the first man. He started feeling the first man’s crotch, and rubbing his own crotch into the first man’s leg. I started to feel concerned, realizing that the first man was actually trying to get out of the hold, but the others were keeping him down. I stepped forward, wondering how i could help the first man. There were too many of the other people around. The first man then broke free from the man who was holding him and started to fight back. I wanted to join the fight and help the first man out, but i felt that there was no way that i could do so. Everything suddenly seemed confusing. I moved quickly to the south as the crowd shifted to the north, into the old abandoned factory building. I had to do something, but i could not follow them. Something was wrong with the situation. I hoped that the first man was all right, but i knew that the others had killed him and done something with his body. I felt very upset. I felt concerned for the first man and wished that i could have helped him. I then started to wonder what i should do now. I would have to tell someone what had happened, but i was afraid that the crowd might come after me. I had to think of something to tell the police that would not make the police think that i was part of the crowd.

I walked to the north, toward the small cement building which was part of the abandoned factory. This was the place where the man had been killed by the crowd. There were other people walking with me to the north who continued into the small building as i stopped near the small metal object. The object was a cage which used to surround some electrical machinery. It was tan with thin diamond-shaped mesh on two sides and the top. The other two sides had mesh along the connecting edges but were open in the center so that the whole cage formed a small inverted archway. I stepped into the cage, thinking that it had something to do with the man who was killed. I sat in the center of the cage and looked around at the edges. I felt as though i was playing in the cage. I then spotted a small label on the top of the cage which cautioned against electrical shock. I thought about how charge on a cage would usually protect those that were in the cage. Something felt wrong here, and i did not know exactly what to do about it.

12003 September 07

I walked to the west on the dirt road through the center of the dense jungle. The vegetation on the south side of the road was thick and green, with dense undergrowth blocking the view, but the land to the north had very little undergrowth. I could see the tall thin tan trunks of the leafy trees. As i left the intersection and headed west, i noticed the group of workers in the forest to the south. They seemed Peruvian. They were wearing ragged clothes and seemed rough. I felt cautious about them. I had just come from the forest with my crew, but i had been separated from them. I felt like a foreigner here, and did not think that the workers to the north respected me as an equal. They thought i was one of the upper-class workers. I continued down the road to the west, looking for my crew. I hoped that i could find them.

12003 September 10

I was in the back room of my parents’ house while my father was fixing the ballasts on the fluorescent lights in the ceiling. I could hear the buzzing of the old ballast. My father opened the glass cover over the light as i moved to the east of him. He asked me which ballast he should be using. He looked at the small round fuses in his hand with a puzzled look on his face. I remembered that the fixture was buzzing because the ballasts which were in it were too powerful. They were intended for a 240-volt light. I took the small fuses in my hand and looked at them. The fuses were colour coded. I did not know what the blue fuses were for, but i thought that the red ones should be for 120 volt fixtures. I told my father that the red fuses should be the 120-volt ballasts. My father took the red fuses out of my hand and turned to put them in the light. I was now standing to the west of the light. My father put one of them into the light, but it was still buzzing. I thought that he would probably need four of them because there were four fluorescent bulbs in the fixture.

12003 September 11

I walked out of the small office on the western side of the building. This was the computer lab where i worked. The walls of the corridor were off white, with brightly polished light-tan floors. I had just finished some work in the lab and wanted to leave the building quickly. I felt frustrated and anxious. I did not want $A14 to see me leaving the lab, because i was afraid that he would want to talk with me about work. I just wanted to leave. I stopped at a junction in the hall. The hall ran to the west and to the south. I was coming out of the small alcove to the north. I could see $A14 coming down the hall toward me. He hurried down the hall, turning east at the junction in front of me. I stayed out of sight until he was in the stairwell. He was hading down to the lower floors. I realized that i could not head down the stairs after him because i might actually run into him on the lower floor, so i ran down the hall, to the south and turned down the long corridor at the south end of the hall. I ran to the west, thinking that i could take the stairs in the main atrium of the building and go out the main door. I would have to hurry, though, because $A14 might be walking along the lower floor to the atrium. I hurried down the hall, across the atrium, and down the stairs. The main door was right across from the stairs, and i rushed through it, not looking to the east, down the corridor because i thought that i might spot $A14 approaching. As soon as i was outside, i started to float. It was dark out, but the lights from the building illuminated the ground around the building with yellow light. I floated up to the fourth floors of the building, thinking that i should be high enough that the people on the ground would not notice me in the dark sky. I looked into the dark windows of the rusted steel building as i hovered for a moment. I then started to think that i was rather high off the ground. I felt suddenly unsafe, and started to fall. I looked down to see the brick walkway from the building moving quickly toward me. I had lost my focus and had to get it back. I concentrated on floating again and swooped up to the east. I started flying along the northern face of the building, past the illuminated windows where the labs were. I wondered why i had fallen. Something must have broken my concentration of flying. I wondered what had happened, and hoped that it did not happen again.

12003 September 13

I relaxed on the cement ledge of the plaza area, reclining against the wall of the building to the south of me. I seemed to be sitting on the eastern side of a stone planter, with thick green bushes in the center of it. The plaza in front of me seemed very wide, with grass growing in the center of it. The ground around the edges of the plaza was paved with square stones. I looked around the plaza and suddenly realized that there was someone standing in front of me. The young child was stood in front of me, his white button-down shirt soaked with water. I looked out into the plaza and realized that the sprinklers were turned on. They should not have been on during this time. I then realized that there was a rectangular metal switch just to the west of me, on the stone wall of the building. I thought that i must have leaned on the switch when i was sitting against the wall and turned on the sprinklers. I felt suddenly embarrassed, thinking that i had to cover up the fact that it was i who had turned on the sprinklers. I stood up, looking at the people who were now running across the courtyard. I used the bottom of my tee shirt to wipe my fingerprints off of the handle and then turned it off. I looked around to make sure that no one saw me touching the valve and then started to the east, away from the switch. The others were heading to the northeast, where there was an exit to the plaza. There seemed to be a set of stairs there which led down to another part of the city. I ran to the exit and started down the stairs, but the alarm stopped. I realized that there was no longer any reason to run from the plaza.

I sat at the small round table near the northern wall of the restaurant. I said something to the person across the table from me. I felt impatient because we had been waiting a while to be served. A man then stopped at our table. He seemed to be one of the waiters, but he told us that we would not me waited on. We had been here a long time, and i was disappointed that we would not get our food soon. The man then motioned to the southeast, where i saw a queue of people standing in front of the glass counter. The counter was against the south wall, and there seemed to people on the south side of it serving food to the people in the queue. I realized that this restaurant had no real waiters. We would have to serve ourselves. I felt annoyed, because that meant that i would have to stand in line and wait even longer to eat.

I walked to the north, up the driveway of my parents’ house. I turned to the east at the end and started along the southern side of the long white barn. There was a metal moving trailer parked in front of the barn, on the western end of the southern side. The aluminum door on the back of the trailer was facing me, and i could see where it had been torn on the upper-right corner. Someone had cut apart the door and broken into the trailer. I felt suddenly upset. We had put our things in the trailer when we moved houses. I had come up to the trailer to add a few more things to the locked storage, but i was angry that someone had stolen our things. I thought that it might have been the neighbours from the north, but i was not sure. I wondered if someone was actually watching me at the moment. I opened the metal door of the trailer and looked inside. Several boxes still sat on the floor of the trailer. The large cardboard box on the left side of the trailer had some clothing hanging out the top. I could see a blue hooded sweatshirt is the box. I looked at the rest of the trailer, thinking that the stereo equipment had been in the back of the trailer, but it now appeared to be missing. I felt glad that i had left the irreplaceable items at my house. I then wondered whether there were any CDs in the trailer. I knew that most of the CDs were replaceable, but i did not want to have to replace them. I turned to the north and walked along the western side of the white barn, heading into the field just beyond. The people who stole our things might have dropped some of the less valuable items, and i thought that i might be able to recover some of my things. I looked around in the stubs of cut field grass for discarded things. It was suddenly dark out now, and i looked through the trees around me to see if i could spot anything unusual. I was now standing to the south of the barn, looking through thinly wooded lot, toward the road. I could see the lights of a truck, which was stopped just to the east of my parents’ house. A man was moving around near the front of the truck, and i felt suddenly tense and suspicious. However, as i watched him, i realized that he was just a worker fixing something on the utility poles. They had an official county truck, with green logos on the doors. I then noticed that here was an orange truck to the east, backed into the dirt road which led to the eastern side of the barn. The truck had an elevating arm on top for working high on the lines. I turned suddenly and ran to the north, back to the barn. I felt that i did not want to be seen. As i came to the trailer and looked in, i could see that there was still a lot of stuff in the trailer. The thieves must have only taken what they could carry. I swung the back door of the trailer to the west, opening it. The trailer was now facing south, and i was on the northern end of it. The pile of clothing that i had just put in the trailer was still sitting on the wooden floor of the trailer, right near the back door. I then noticed that there were a few articles of clothing scattered on the ground. Right below me was a white and black running tank top, which was folded neatly, as though it had just been taken out of the box. I must have interrupted the thieves while they were in the trailer. I picked up the clothing and put it back into one of the boxes in the trailer. I then closed the metal door and tried to secure the padlock. We would have to keep an eye on the trailer. I then thought that we could move the trailer into the barn to keep it safe. I turned and headed to the west. I crossed the field, heading toward the small wooden house, which seemed like my parents’ garage. I felt confrontational and wanted to punish the people who had taken our things. I then noticed a man standing on the small porch on the east side of the house. He was wearing a red singlet as he followed my mother out the door of the house. I wondered what my mother had been doing there and wondered if she was in trouble. They walked to the north, but i walked inside. I had wanted to look around the house for any of our stolen stuff, but i decided that my mother might be in trouble with the other man. I ran back out onto the porch and yelled to my mother, telling her to came back into the house. I thought that she could lock herself in. I ran up the driveway after her. I thought that the man in the singlet might be a wrestler, and i wondered whether i could beat him. As i reached them, i realized that the man was not really in good shape. He had a large belly which hung forward. I jumped over the wooden railing at the edge of the porch, feeling very angry and aggressive. I yelled at the man, trying to intimidate him so that he might not fight. He took a step back and settled into a defensive martial-arts posture. I grabbed my mother’s left arm and tugged her back toward the house. She was confused and did not seem to know what was going on. I pushed her ahead of me, turning my back on the man. I felt confident that he would not attack me first.

12003 September 14

I had been driving back through New York City, heading north on the long highway, just to the south of the city. I was just visiting this place on a whim because i happened to be in the area. It seemed that i had a long way to go to get home, and i looked down the long narrow highway ahead of me. There seemed to be a tall suspension bridge in the distance, just before the skyline of tall thin buildings. Everything seemed reddish, as though i was looking through a strange filter. I turned to the east suddenly, pulling into the parking lot of the stadium. I had been here earlier when the sports game was being played, but it was over now, and there were fewer cars in the parking lot. It was easier to get into the stadium now that most of the people had left. The stadium was a large cement structure to the east of me, but i was heading around to the back side, where i had been before. There was a small pub in an old wooden house on the back side of the lot. I looked at the building as i drove to the north, passing it slowly. The road, which ran along the outside of the lot for the stadium, turned to the west ahead of me, but there was a short driveway to the east. The stadium and all of the lots now seemed to be to the southwest of me. It was sunny out, and the air felt very warm. I had come to this bar to meet some of my friends. I had been here with them earlier, and i was returning to see if they were still here. It had been good to see them, but i did not see them here now. I wondered where they had gone. There were several wooden tables outside of the small pub, with wooden benches around them. I decided that all of my friends had gone home, so i thought that i should start the long drive back north. I would have to drive my bicycle home. I walked to the north, where the heavy black motorcycle, which was really a bicycle, was standing. I started to unlock the bicycle but realized that the front tire seemed twisted. Someone had damaged the bicycle. I felt upset, wondering how i would get home. As i looked more closely, however, i realized that the grey twisted piece of bike was really just the cloth fender. It had been torn and hung over the side of the bicycle. I could always tear it off before i rode. My attention was then drawn to the south, where there was a woman sitting at one of the small round wooden tables. I had been playing with the bicycle on the northern side of the wooden rail fence which separated the yard of the pub from the gravel driveway to the north. I turned around and said hello to the woman. She was a theatre person whom i had met somewhere before. She smiled and greeted me, asking how i was doing. I told her of my trip to the area and how i had met some others at this bar earlier. I said that i had wanted to meet up with them again, but had missed them. I felt a little disappointed that i was not able to see them.

I woke suddenly, aware that i was on the bus, heading home. I looked around at the countryside and thought that i must be very close to where i lived. This place looked like $P10. I looked out the front window of the bus to see the rolling country road in front of us. Several farm houses stood on the side of the road. We were heading south. I wondered suddenly how i had gotten here. I did not remember waking up and leaving $F12 at $P122. The woman in the seat to the right of me then asked about the bus schedule. She held out the paper schedule in her right hand and said that it was rather confusing to her. I leaned across the aisle to see the schedule. I was familiar with this bus route and thought that i could give her some advice. She asked me if the bus really went to $P123. I did not know the answer. I knew that it went as far as $P52, but i never knew where it went after that. I said that i was unsure because i get off of the bus before it goes through town. I looked down at the map that she had handed me, trying to find the bus route. As i looked curiously down at the map, she slid along her seat so that she was closer to me. I realized that she was interested in me and wanted to get to know me. I looked at her after she moved. She was smiling at me. She wore a dark-purple sweater, and she was dark skinned. She was very attractive, with a pretty face. I did not want to be romantic, however, so i smiled back at her and looked back to the map. I smiled shyly so that she did not think that i did not like her. I felt myself blush and thought that blushing would probably be attractive to her. Most people found blushing to be a genuine sign of sincerity. I looked down at the map, trying not to engage the woman. I could see the roads on which we were traveling. It was one of the side roads in the lower left-hand side of the map, near $P10. It then seemed strange to me that we had traveled such a long way on the bus. I had been in $P122 that morning, which should have been a six-hour drive. Something seemed wrong. I tried to remember leaving the cottage in which i was staying. I thought that i remembered heading out the door and saying goodbye to everyone there, but something was not right. I would have left very early in the morning to get here at this time. It was still very early in the day. I should have had breakfast with the others before i left. I started to feel very confused, looking back out the front window of the bus to see that we were just crossing the main road to the north of town. It seemed very early in the morning, even though the orange light of the sun seemed to be coming from the western sky. This was very wrong. I should have had breakfast with the others. I could not be here. I realized that this must not be real. I must be dreaming.

12003 September 17

I walked to the east, down the narrow corridor of the school. This place seemed like $P31, but it had been reconstructed so that it looked very nice. There were several people following me, but i tried not to notice them as i glanced to the south, into one of the class rooms. I felt as though i was trying not to act out of place. I had just looked into a room which seemed rather big, and i was now looking down into a very large room which seemed to be empty in the center. I was in the basement corridor of $P7, which also seemed like $P31. I looked down carefully from the doorway to see a polished wood basketball court a few floors below me. The south and east walls of the gymnasium were dark gray and covered with wooden bleachers. The room seemed very long east to west and only about the width of the court north to south. The walls were very steep, making the seats around the court look as though they were stacked one on top of the other. I remembered something about taking gym here and thought that this place might make it nicer. I stepped back out into the hall and continued to the east, still thinking about the reconstruction that had been done to this school. I wondered whether the classrooms would be as nicely remodeled. I stopped at the next doorway and looked into the classroom. I remembered this classroom from when i had been in school here. It was on the second floor of the building. This was the classroom where $A262 used to teach. As i stuck my head through the door to look at the dark grey interior of the room, i spotted $A262 to the west, collecting some of his things from the side of an armchair. He seemed to be getting ready to leave for the day. He spotted me and said hello. I greeted him, realizing that i was acting like i knew him, even though he might not remember me. He replied warmly but did not say much. He continued to pack his things into his bag. I stepped out of the room, saying something as i left. There was a short corridor to the north of me that i started to walk down as $A262 replied. I felt out of place here and started to look over the posters on the wall to the east. $A262 came out of the room to the south of me, answering my question. I tried to act as though i was not as interested in the conversation because i realized that he did not recognize me as i thought he would. The short corridor in which i was standing ran only about six or seven metres to the north from the main corridor. On the northern end, it turned to the east. I could not see around the corner, but it seemed that the corridor to the east did not go that far before it ended. I turned to the south and came back into the main corridor of the school. There was a group of students walking toward me from the west, so i turned and headed to the east. I did not want them to notice that i really did not belong here. After only a few metres, the corridor opened into a large cafeteria, with dark walls and small round tables. The room opened up to the north of the corridor, and there seemed to be many college students roaming around. Two students walked toward me. They were both men, and one was wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt while the other was wearing a dark blue top. They seemed young, and i felt that they might be more interesting to hang out with because they were still exploring new ideas. I smiled at them as i passed. The man with the curly blonde hair, in the grey sweatshirt stared back questionable, as if trying to determine if he knew me. I continued across the cafeteria, watching the students and wondering if i looked as out of place as i felt. I then noticed that there were two doorways in the eastern wall which led to a large lecture room. The conference seemed to be going on inside. I wandered toward the door, thinking about the science conference. I stopped it the doorway on the south, where a line of students were coming out. I could not get in without paying for the conference. I could not get in, but i felt like i wanted to be a part of the learning. I then noticed some posters on the wall to the south of the door. As i looked at them, i realized that they were pictures of people from sports teams. Some of the photos were browning black and white, while others were in colour. I felt more interested in the conference, thinking that it had something to do with sports that i liked. I started walking to the south, toward a corridor which led out of the cafeteria area. A group of students walked toward me from the south, talking as they passed behind me while i looked over some of the posters. I wanted to be a part of the student life again.

12003 September 22

I was floating on the water on the south end of $P26. There was someone floating on the water to the east of me. I said something to him as i tried to balance on the small raft. The raft was floppy, though, and i was having trouble maneuvering on the water. I looked down at the thin yellow plastic rowboat on which i was sitting. The front end of the boat was already filling with water. I felt that i had to get to the shore and start heading home, but i was worried that the boat would not remain floating long enough. I then looked to the north, at the tall mountain peaks which rose from the landscape. I recognized the mountains, and thought that it had actually been a very long time since i had been here. I used to come to the north end of this lake with my grandparents. Everything felt suddenly nostalgic, and i started to move to the east. I could not stay here, because my grandparents no longer owned a house here. I did not belong here any more. This place now seemed like something from the past. I turned to the southeast, watching the narrow gravel road approach as i rode along it. This was the road which led out of my grandparents’ cottage. I remembered taking it many times. The long northern bay of the lake was just to the south of us, narrowing into a river to the east. The road ran along the edge of the forest, along the northern edge of the clearing. To the south of the road was a grassy field. This place was not perfectly familiar, but i thought that i must have traveled along the road many times in the past. I then started to wonder whether the field was on the alternate route out of the forest. I remembered that there was a second trail which ran to the south of the main road. Something then seemed wrong with this idea. I tried to remember the road to my grandparents’ cottage and came to the conclusion that there was only one road into the forest. I did not remember the long field from before, and i started to feel confused. I then noticed the tall cement wall to the north of the road as i headed west-southwest. This was the dam at the south end of the lake. The road crossed the dam. I walked carefully along the narrow ledge to the north of the road, trying to maintain my balance as i crossed the water. I did not want to fall to the south, into the lanes of traffic on the bridge. I then started to feel that there was something wrong here. I felt that i was being watched and that i should get away. I moved carefully over the surface of the cement wall. The wall had archways in it which were recessed only a few decis from the surface of the wall. These used to be windows into the main work area inside the damn. I felt as though there was someone watching me from the southeast, not that for from me. I continued along the surface of the wall until i found one of the archways which was still open. I jumped inside the damn and turned back to the east, heading down the narrow cement corridor. There was a car coming from the east, and i could not let in see me on the damn.

12003 September 24

I sat on the eastern end of the northern side of the long rectangular table. The room around me seemed rather large, almost as if we were outside. $A42 sat across the table from me. It felt strange to be here, as though i was out of place in this gathering. The others around the table seemed to be people from my high school. I felt uneasy as i picked up my fork. The others were looking at me as i ate some of the meat from the red ceramic plate in front of me. As i chewed on the meat, i realized that the others in the room had already finished eating. I started to feel strange and then realized that everyone might be here because of me. Something was happening, and i was the center of the event. I looked down at the plate, pretending not to notice all the unwanted attention. I then noticed that there were some papers on the floor to the east of me. I could see my name printed on one of the forms, so i leaned over to pick them up and read them. The paper on the top was a list of my friends. I noticed that $F10 had signed his name on the list. I felt flattered that all these people had come here for me. They were having this party for me. That was why they were all waiting for me to finish my dinner before they continued. I then realized that there was no more food on my plate. I had already finished. I told the others hesitantly that they could start on the cake. I was unsure what was really going on, so i guessed that there would be a cake after the meal. I picked up several of the dirty bowls from the floor and dumped the remainder of their contents onto the pile of papers. I then looked around the kitchen area where we were sitting. There was a counter along the wall to the south. This house seemed to belong to someone else here. I had been here in the past, and everything looked vaguely familiar. I stood up as the others started the rest of their meal. I turned to the north and headed into the other room. I found myself at the bottom of the stairs, looking across the large basement playroom. I remembered this place from before. The room was designed for children to play in. The floor rolled into dunes and mounds which were all coloured with bright paints. It felt like i had not been in this area in a very long time. To the north was a semicircular area of white moguls, with ramps and jumps formed into the sides of the moguls. It seemed like a skateboard park. The walkway in which i was standing curved around the southern western sides of the area. The white moguls were painted with red and green stripes, making them look decorative, like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. The domed ceiling did not seem too far above the moguls, but i thought that it should be high enough for skaters to jump and play. The ceiling was supported on the northern and eastern sides by a white curved wall. A single square pillar supporter it on the southwestern corner of the area. A wide archway stretched across the western side, connecting to the wall on the north. The wide southern opening also seemed to be an archway, but i did not look up to see where the arch connected to the southeastern end of the wall. I started to the west, where the corridor split into two a curved Y, one branch curving north, along the western side of the white area, and the other curving to the south. The wall to the west was red, and it had a window on the northern side of the Y which looked into one of the other playrooms. I felt excited about this place. Before i had reached the Y, though, i turned to the south to see the blue area. It too had a rolling floor with wide round moguls, but it also had several tall structures in the center which seemed like play houses. The tower in the middle had small round bubble windows on all four sides, and a yellow plastic slide attached to the western side. I walked through the blue area, humoured by my memory of this place. I felt like running around through the moguls, but i know that i was a little big to take advantage of miniature hills in the area. I crossed the blue area, heading to the south. There was another corridor on the southern side of the area, with a white metal door on the outside wall. I remembered that the door headed outside. I opened the door and looked out into the sunny day outside. The door opened into a courtyard, which appeared to be in the middle of an urban area. There seemed to be tall modern office buildings all around us. The building i had stepped out of was cement, with dark large glass windows on the upper levels. The thin urban trees shifted in the breeze from various spots between the square paving stones of the courtyard. I held the door open in my right hand, aware that there was no handle on the outside of the door. I did not want to get locked out of the building. I thought that i would have to get back to the others before they noticed that i was missing. They would not want me wandering around the house randomly. I looked down at the handle on the door, realizing that the lock was designed so that it allowed people out of the building but did not let them back in. I then glanced around at the outdoors again, thinking that the others might wonder where i had gone. I then heard a noise from inside the building. Someone had come into the area. I jumped back into the building and carefully closed the door behind me. I did not want anyone to find me in this place. I looked to the west to see the entrance to the red room. It seemed to be a room where people could play in water. I hurried over the uneven ground of the blue area, thinking that i just had to make it back to the elevators in the center of the basement. I then spotted a woman with long black hair walking to the west, down the corridor between the blue area and the white area. I stopped and hid behind one of the mounds, feeling as though i was playing a game with her. She stopped to look at the white area, as though she had heard a noise. I felt that there was someone in the red area to the west, but the woman was not heading directly there. I sneaked toward the woman, hoping to get close without her seeing me. As i came to the tall yellow mound at the northern end of the blue area, i turned suddenly to the east. I thought that it would be better if i sneaked to the elevators and made my way back to the upper levels of the house. I wondered if she would hear the sound of the elevator doors opening, and hoped that i could make it into the elevators before she noticed me. I was then aware of her noticing me. She called my name. I stopped just as i had come out of the blue area into the corridor. I had been caught down here.

12003 September 25

I was swimming on the south side of the lake. My parents seemed to be near me, just to the southeast. The lake ended just to the east of us, on a rounded beach. I swam easily through the water, surprised at how easily i could move. My mother and father were standing on a wooden platform to the south of me. I ventured out into the middle of the lake, swimming toward the small boats which were anchored in the middle of the water. I knew that my mother would worry about me and complain, but i did not care. I wanted to swim out into the water and have fun. I was then out of the water, standing on the wooden platform in the middle of the water. There was a small shack in the center of the platform which seemed to be a small shop. This was the place from which we rented the boating equipment. My parents were on the platform, helping me pull the boating supplies out of the water. The wooden shack was then the side of a large blue houseboat. We pulled the floats and rafts out of the water and hung them back up on the side of the boat. I took off the black life vest and hung it up on the red hook on the wall. I then headed to the east, carrying the small orange life vest with me as i headed back to the dock. I then realized that one of the boats that we had rented was no longer tied to the dock. I looked over the water to the north to see that several other people playing with it. They seemed like children as they played with the small plastic boat. I wondered if we would get blamed for not returning the boat, but then i decided that i was not going to worry about it. We had returned the boat. I swam back to the south, across the water of the bay. As i reached the east shore, however, i found that it was blocked by a wall cement wall. There seemed to be a number of small wooden buildings crowded next to each other along the top of the wall. They were all painted with bright summer colours, and i thought that they were the beachside kiosks, which were now closed because the summer season was over. I realized that i would not be able to climb out of the water on the south side of the lake, and i wondered what i was going to do. I looked down the eastern shore of the lake, to the north. The wall extended all along the eastern shore for as far as i could see. I remembered that the eastern end of the lake was the commercial end, where all of the tourists visited. I swam around the shore of the lake, trying to find a place to get out of the water. As i started swimming to the north, a large boat came toward me from the west. I stopped to look at it, afraid that it might run over me. I then realized that i was too close to the wall for it to hit me, but i thought that they might not even see me. I tread water as i watched the boat pass me and continue to the north. Captain Janeway was sitting on the command deck of the yacht. She looked at me as she steered the red yacht along the shore of the lake. Once the boat had passed, i continued to the north, swimming along the wall. There was an indented area in the wall to the east of me where a large metal gate covered a section of the wall. This must have been an outlet for some water system. I continued up the beach, passing some swimmers. I noticed a very attractive woman wading in the shallow water in front of the wall. She was wearing a very small yellow bikini, and she was very nicely proportioned. She smiled at me as i swam past. I thought that she was very nice, but was humoured because i was not attracted to her. I continued paddling with my arms, realizing that i was vertical in the water as i moved. I was pulling with my arms as though i was swimming the crawl stroke, but my legs were below me in the water. I wondered if i should lean forward and do a proper crawl stroke. I knew that it would be more efficient because there would be less drag on my body, but i was moving pretty fast by doing the vertical stroke. The vertical stroke also allowed me to see where i was going, so i continued to paddle in this manner. I watched the tightly packed shacks along the shore pass by as i headed to the north, looking for a spot to get ashore.

12003 September 27

I was in the front yard of the house, which was out in the country. This house seemed to be on the western side of $P109. The bright sunlight fell on the wide leaves of the young trees around the yard. There was a small trailer to the south of where i was which seemed to be the main house. It seemed run down and crowded with junk. $F15 had just walked to the north, into the small shed which ran east to west on the northern end of the property. He was getting something so that we could leave. The driveway on the lot formed a semicircle which passed in front of both trailers. There seemed to be something on the northern end of the semicircle that i was heading toward. I had some things in my hand and i needed to put them in the vehicle. I stopped in the middle of the yard and said something to $F15, my arms still full with a bag and two thin wooden paddles. I had removed the dark polished wooden paddles from a boat by the main house. They were very short, as though they were made for a child. I was going to take the paddles with us. I walked to the car and dropped some of the stuff off, but held on to the paddles. I started to feel as if we were taking the paddles. I then imagined swinging the paddles through the air as if they were weapons or juggling sticks. I imagined them moving very smoothly through the air as i leaned back, watching them pass over my chest. $F15 then appeared from behind the small shed and said something. I was holding the paddles in my arms as i replied.

12003 September 28

I woke up suddenly and started walking to the north, across the small living room of the house. This place seemed special, but it also seemed like a vacation spot. I felt that there was some significance to what was happening here. I looked at the small black digital watch that was on my wrist. I thought that i might have moved through time. The watch said that it was the year “06”. I had moved a few years into the future. My mother was sitting on the north end of the area across which i was now walking. I now seemed to be outdoors. I was to the north of myself, watching myself walk. I could see the large leaves of the tropical palm trees hanging over the tin roof of the small building to the west. I walked up to my mother and said something about the year. It was not the year that i was supposed to be living in. We turned to the west and headed toward the door of the cabin. As we reached the door, i asked if i could get a winning lottery number from this time. I then realized that the number would be from 12006 and would be too far in the future to remember. I would have to pick one closet to the time that i was from, but numbers like that were not commonly known. I opened the door of the building and walked into a dimly lighted alcove which stretched along the northern side of the house. The alcove seemed very clean and well kept, with a low stone ceiling arching from the roof of the tourist building to the ground. There were two parts to the building, both with doors exiting under the roof, in the alcove. I opened the first dull-yellow door and stepped up into the apartment. Some of my relatives were there. I greeted them as i looked around the room. There was an elderly woman in a chair in the center of the room and an old man in a light-blue sweater to the west, in an adjoining room. I mentioned that i liked the architecture of this building. I could see how all of the rooms branched off of the main one, seeming to form octagons at the corners of the old house. It was a nice design element, and i decided that i really liked the way it looked. I wondered if i could design a house using octagons as the primary shape.