The Road Not Taken

Something pretty interesting happened this morning.... Defying all laws of probability, I got lost on my way to school. I happened to miss the bus that morning (the result of my watch being fifteen minutes slow), and decided to leg it. Incidentally, this is something that happens often, but today I was a bit later than usual.

I started walking, and eventually reached a part where the road split into two. Feeling a bit like Frost, I looked down both of 'em as far as I could... One was pretty dusty and I ran the risk of getting run over by sand-lorries. The other one (having perhaps the better claim) was pretty nice, though a bit narrow and one that I hadn't used many times... Anyway, needless to say, I continued down the nicer road...

Now I'm pretty hazy as to what happened after that because I was deeply engrossed in calculating how much coil a pick-up would require... Maybe I took a wrong turning, or maybe I just didn't turn at all... I began to notice, after a while, that the larger houses seemed to give way to smaller houses until I was surrounded by lots of small huts.

Needless to say I was a bit confused, not to say embarrassed. I seemed the only chap in sight wearing a shirt, and people seemed to be watching me in an odd way. I was just wondering if they'd tie me up and roast me when one of the chaps who was brushing his teeth asked me if I wanted to go anywhere in particular. Looking warily at him, I told him where I had to get to. He looked around and pointed towards what I thought was a dead end (which was actually a pile of garbage) and told me to go down that way and take a right. I climbed over and took a right and promptly found myself surrounded by high shrubs and in the sort of scenery you'd expect from Jurassic Park.

I looked over my options.: I could go back, but I risked being laughed at by the tooth-brusher... Or I could die here and/or get eaten by some remnant of the Jurassic age. Of the two, the latter seemed more attractive (seriously, you should have seen that guy.. nice enough chap, but still..). It was here that I noticed the drunk.

He was looking at me, and I had the feeling I had interrupted his up until then peaceful leak. Nevertheless, I asked him for directions. He pointed to a short wall that had hitherto gone unnoticed. He told me that all I had to do was climb over it and walk straight towards the two houses at the distance. His directions seemed sane, which was more than I could say for him.

I tentatively looked over the wall. It was short enough, and so I climbed across... Sadly it was only when I was at the top that I noticed that the other side was not as close to me as this was. Having no other alternative than to be laughed at by the drunk, I jumped down and suffered no (major) injuries. The field in front of me now was, and I'm not exaggerating, wet. I folded up my jeans to the knee and continued walking in the general direction of the road.

Now I don't suppose I would be asking for too much to hope that what looks like firm ground continue to be firm ground irrespective of if I'm on it or not. I do not believe I'm exaggerating when I say I was quite surprised when I suddenly found myself knee deep in a hole filled with water, where I imagined land.... Dunno how it happened. Probably got something to do with quantum. Cussing and muttering at all depressions of any sort, I climbed out and continued walking...

The rest of the journey was pretty boring. Turns out the drunk gave the best directions and I found myself a little distance away from the school... I was a bit late, but nobody noticed, so I don't suppose it mattered.