The world outside

Sara ran as fast as she could down her street to the subway. Once she got there she pressed the button on her phone which allowed her to enter the subway platform. All these strangers, every day she rode to work at approximately the same time, and yet she seemed to know no one. Yet she seemed comfortable in the familiarity of her surrounding. Anita was sitting with the clients when Sara entered her work building. She dumped her stuff in her office and went to the art room to get her coffee. The percussion teacher made the strongest coffee. He could not survive the day without it, so the pot was always full. She smiled when she thought about this job, She had just been subbing. She had expected the job to last about 5 months, and 5 years later she was still struggling through. She had taken only one drama class in college and had had to do evenings of research to teach a daily drama class, You could not do the same activities day after day. For the voice class, she quickly had to refresh her guitar-playing skills. On her resume, she had always put under skills that she was a quick learner. She still made mistakes, such as class activities that the students did not embrace. But she felt that she had learned fairly quickly.

She started the day hanging out with the students. Most of her group was coupled up. The pairs would rearrange occasionally.

The day went well. No tours with outsiders watching the classes. Just an average day. And it had not been her day to give meds, so lunch had gone fairly well. Patty, the lady who was vying for Sara's job came and sat with her. Sara was shocked when Patty told Sara that she was hoping to teach Sara's advanced class. Patty was trying to take her job and still expected them to be friends. Sara knew not to be over-revealing with her. Sara tried to just ignore her.

That evening when she got to the subway station, Patty was far from her mind. She just wanted to go home and have a White Russian. She pushed the subway button on the phone, but the gate did not open. Red lights flashed, and a voice said " Reset your password" What password she thought. But she knew the announcement was for her because she was being approached by three men in uniforms.

They took her phone, mumbling something about her being under too much stress, and placed it in a box. The box shook. When the phone was given back to her it had a newly activated button. She wanted to know what it was for, but the workers without a word scrambled off. She was scared to press the newly activated button, so she pressed the subway button and returned home.

That night she let the instant machines prepare both her food and her drink. It made her nachos and two white Russians. The news- more policy disputes between the political parties. It seemed to be the same pattern throughout generations. At least all the generations she had known.

She made two more Drinks and pressed the newly activated button. All of a sudden her room faded away and she was in a blue world, walking down a deserted road. It was no longer evening, she felt her body relax under the warm stream of sun. There were birds perched in nearby trees She listened to them sing with their chirps. She was still holding her White Russian, so she walked over to a nearby bed of water, and dangling her feet in the water, continued sipping her drink. Once her drink was complete, she found herself falling asleep. She did not dream of work, or her students, she dreamed of expansive undeveloped nature.

She woke up in her bed, in time for work. But all she really wanted to do was press that button. Would she return to the blue world, or would she visit someplace different every time? She wondered if this is what taking acid was like. No wonder people got addicted. She focused her lessons for the day on fantasy worlds. Her students had vivid imaginations, but they all said that if they could go to a fantasy world they would.