Member-only story
Escaping the Loop
Weekend Challenge #3 from A Taste for Life
It came to me in a nightmare. The feeling of twists and turns on unstable hinges. Stomach drops upset my lunch and side-to-side head bops rattled my brain and jumbled my thoughts.
In my dream, the ride was a monster ripping the ground from beneath my body. I dangled and screamed like a toddler wanting my favorite things as my fingers grasped for something solid but, instead, clung only to the air.
All you have to do is breathe.
I opened my eyes and gulped down the panic. My mind searched for tidbits of reality.
Anchor yourself.
Golden straws of sun poked through the cracks of my window shade in threads that cut tall rectangles across the floor. Engines hummed along the streets below. Birds communicated in high-pitched chirps and chitters. The neighbor overhead began his morning routine of Herculean stomps with feet made of led.
Just like the day before.
My body held tight for a moment, braced for the next loop, clinging to old habits that hid quietly in muscles conditioned to comply. The gut-twisting journey that rocked my night was less a nightmare and more a memory from an old life.
