Reality Is OptimalTwenty-one places
Familiar Places That You Have Never Visited
Choose a place by instinct. Memories you save will be waiting when you return.
Grandparents’ Living Room
Sunday afternoon, sometime around 1998
Elementary School Classroom
A bright morning near the end of the year
School Hallway Lockers
Four minutes after the last bell
Library Children’s Corner
A weekday afternoon, still two hours before anyone comes for you
Video Store Kids’ Section
Friday evening, before the good ones are gone
Neighborhood Playground at Dusk
The fifteen minutes you were not supposed to still be out
Suburban Backyard with Sprinkler
A hot afternoon in the middle of a week with no name
Basement Rec Room
Some hour between lunch and dinner, underneath everybody
Grocery Store Cereal Aisle
Saturday morning, second stop of four
Mall Food Court
An afternoon nobody was in a hurry to end
Toy Store Aisle
A visit for no birthday at all
Pediatrician’s Waiting Room
A school morning you were glad to miss
Church Basement Fellowship Hall
After everyone has gone back upstairs
Roller Rink
Between songs at somebody’s party
Motel Room on a Road Trip
One night in a town nobody named
Indoor Play Area
A rainy afternoon that lasted a very long time
Summer Camp Cabin
The hour after lights-out was called
Car Back Seat at a Gas Station
Hour four of a drive with no announced destination
Bedroom with Bunk Beds
Just after the light was switched off
Pizza Place Arcade
Somebody’s birthday, after the cake and before the ride home
Empty Gymnasium
An hour before an event nobody told you about
Places Found In Dreams
These ones do not exist anywhere. People keep ending up in them anyway, usually while asleep.
