One Journey Through the Heart of the South, 2025
It was the weirdest, most disorienting wake-up yet. There was a faint sort of moonglow coming in at an odd angle from one corner of the space I was in. I needed a bathroom, so I carefully felt around for a floor at the side of the bed I was in, stood up, and began working my way toward the glow. It looked and felt slightly uphill. Feeling around, I discovered a wall of flimsy-feeling doors to my right. I was in a narrow 'channel' between the bed and this wall, as I took one careful step after another toward the source of the glow, gently running my hand along the doors, using them as a guiderail and trying not to lose my balance and crash through them. Finally I reached the corner and discovered the 'moonglow' was coming through another door, open, also to the right. My handrail hand felt a doorframe and gripped it as an anchor as I turned to go through the door and saw... my bedroom hallway at home.
"Oh yeah, I'm home." I'd arrived a few hours earlier, at 2 AM, and tumbled into bed after nearly a full day of travel to get here.
