My mental circus, inside and out.

lost

[novel begins April 28 post]

Small groups were breaking off, wandering away, up a hill, as if they had heard an order to disperse.  Emma had forgotten the Tichburne campus map and had little idea of where she was, her usual insensible state of being when traveling.  Hopelessly lost was a condition.  She often landed in airports having little clue as to their geographical location.  She traveled on the faith that her path would be revealed by signs, usually resulting in a panicky aimless wandering.  She had read that when a person is blindfolded and set walking, she will naturally turn in circles because one leg is always shorter than the other.  Through concentrated effort, she had learned to ground herself, at least temporarily, in the everyday world where the names and shapes of things could give her purposeful direction.  As she walked in strange places, she tried to be attentive to the orientation of her body by the compass points, to feel it in her skin. Was she north, south, east, or west?  Other people, she guessed, knew where they were at all times, a natural instinct or a brain superior in spatial awareness.  But for Emma it was an effort to rein in her drifting thoughts.  She tentatively knew one path, the path toward the guesthouse where she had dropped her suitcase to which she was tied by an imaginary elastic string.  It was only a matter, then, of winding up the string as she walked, past this bleak concrete part of campus and into the warren of brownstones, frightening because nothing was laid out like an American grid.

Posted by: EmmaPele at May 06, 2005 11:09 | link | comments (1)

#1  31 May 2005 - 02:36

 

'Hopelessly lost was a condition.'
Like that... brought a smile to my face.

I enjoyed this piece.

Jackal