Lucid Waking

Originally published on September 17, 2005

            There was one street of the corner of Cicero St. and Parkman Ave. that no one went down. It was dark and hidden away, full of ghost buildings down the street. The only cheerful characteristic was the hundreds of names written on the sidewalk. Each square had a pair of names with some sort of symbol: hearts, trees, paw prints, anything. Each name seemed to carry with it a light, spreading a little warmth and casting eerie shadows across the faces of the buildings and onto the trees.

            Deanne was late to school, again. She ran into school through a back door and quietly ran to her first period class. She slipped into her seat by the door quietly and sat expectantly listening to her teacher’s lecture. Luckily, Mrs. Greer’s back was turned toward the door as she wrote in big letters on the board: Unknown.
            "Yesterday, as a mentioned, your homework was to think about this word and then prepare to share your thoughts today. Would anyone like to go first?"
            Five people’s hands shot into the air.
            "Bertram," Mrs. Greer called on a short boy with a smug expression on his face.
            "Unknown is simply what is not known by either society or emotionally yourself."
            "True, but what does this mean to you, personally?"
            "Mrs. Greer," Amanda Polly’s hand shot into the air like a bullet. "I believe that he doesn’t know what unknown really is, because he’s such a smart aleck, and he believes there is no unknown, or he would surely know about it." Titters filled the classroom before Amanda continued.  "There’s a certain kind of adventure and romance to what is unknown. We have a compulsion to find out the answer, but deep inside we really don’t want to know. For example, what having a good teacher is like, that’s unknown." There were more titters in the class before they quieted down as Mrs. Greer spoke.
            "Thank you for your thoughts, Amanda. But I don’t believe you did your homework like I asked. Deanne, what do you think?"
            Deanne took a confident deep breath. "Unknown is like the street off the corner of Cicero and Parkman."
            "Interesting thought. Now why is that unknown to you?"
            "You can’t see anything when you look down there and whenever you ask someone about it, they tell you some childish story about it so you won’t go in. I think something’s in there that no one knows about."
            Mrs. Greer smiled. "Looks like somebody did her homework. Just for that, I’ll excuse you for being late again."

            Deanne decided to walk the round about way through the old alleyways. When she got to the corner by Cicero St. and Parkman Ave., she stopped and looked down the dark street. As she walked toward the street, the darkness beckoned her in and enveloped her like a cloak, making her think twice about the childhood stories of criminals hiding in there. She stopped in the middle of the road as she heard a voice coming out of the trees.
            "Welcome, Deanne. We’ve been expecting you. Come, take a chair and listen to our stories."