11985 Autumn
My mother was driving the car over the shallow hill toward $P51. It was very dark out, and i could only se a few things on the sides of the road. I noticed a house on the south side of the road. It sat back from the road. It was white, with a picket fence around part of it. As i looked at the house through the passenger window of the car, i spotted a man running toward the road ahead of us. He seemed to be screaming, but i could not hear any sound. He was terrified, and running toward our car. I was frightened and tensed in my seat. The man reached for us, anguish and fear creasing his face. He seemed terrified by something and wanted our help. I was too frightened to do anything. My mother drove the car past him. We had to get away. My chair swiveled around as we passed him. I looked back to see him collapse by the road side. I was petrified from fright. I wanted to scream.
I walked through the streets of the old city, looking at the majestic old row houses. They looked carved out of stone. I felt comfortable here, knowing that this was a special place. $Z walked with me. As i wandered down the center of the street, stepping over wandering vegetation and debris, $Z walked along the sidewalk in front of one of the old buildings. I looked at the large round window in the center of the old building. Dingy white stone arched over the top of it, forming an up-side-down U on the building which came to points at the bottoms. The building itself was made of a soapy green rock. This place had been abandoned. The entire city was empty of people. I thought that everything here was beautiful. It was still in good condition, though weathered. The sun shined brightly through the scattered clouds on some of the houses. I looked around at them, noticing that many of them had decorative leaded-glass windows. I turned my attention to the left, down the long narrow street. I was facing north, looking into the center of the city. There was a large domed building at the end of the street. It was quite a distance away, but it still looked large. $Z said that it was the cathedral in the center of the city. He said that it was an important place. I wanted to go look at it, but i did not think that we would have enough time. I had to get back home.
I was in the living room of my grandfather’s house. We had just finished dinner, and my grandparents were sitting on the blue couch against the wall. My parents and i were visiting. I looked at my father’s mother, who was sitting on the couch. She was wearing a light blue sweater and a grey skirt. My grandfather had his arm over her shoulder in an affectionate hug. It was good to see her again. She had just come from the hospital. She had died, but she was here with us. I wondered how she had come back to dinner. There must have been some kind of mistake at the hospital. I was confused. It was very strange to see her again. I was happy that she was not really dead. I considered that she might have simply been at the hospital all this time. I walked toward her as my parents spoke to them.