The Middle of Nowhere, Pt. 2

So that's how I got lost in the middle of a forest clearing, surrounded by pines, palms and a lukewarm breeze that brushed against me like a horse's tail.

It was an eerily hairlike feeling, actually, as if the wind had spread into little veins and tendrils all crusading on my bare skin. How foolish of me to choose such a frank outfit on this peculiar day. Perhaps I would have to flee from a terrible danger amidst mosquitoes and poison ivy. (I was allergic to both, but not to danger. Sometimes I wish I was, though.)

It was a dreary, drowsy, doldrum-y day, and I yawned apologetically. Sorry, Life. You didn't do well enough today. You fail. You get an 'F' for effort, though. Then I felt another brush on my shoulder, but a more specific one. As if my whole body had been coated in windproof paint, except for that one patch of my upper back. Haha, Life. You're not a very good painter. Missed a spot. Haha. It actually didn't feel very wind-like at all, but I didn't consider it strange. What was strange? Strange was nothing.

I decided, right then, to examine my surroundings more closely (through a series of exaggerated squints).

turned around and saw a zebra standing there gawkily behind a chain-link fence that wasn't high enough.

There was a placard that informed me that no, this wasn't a gazelle or an ostrich or a hippopotamus or anything but a zebra.

The wry striped creature eyed me warily, as if he had been taught in its kindergarten class to never speak to strangers - if he could speak, that is. In any case, he appeared distraught and calm at the same time, as if something terrible was about to happen and he had perfect knowledge of it.

It always seemed strange to me, why zebras weren't considered a subspecies of horse. After all, the physique is similar, as is the diet; perhaps it was that look in their eyes that did it. Horses weren't any more domesticated, to be sure, but this contrasting animal seemed to give up in the face of uncertainty.

Then again, I had never seen a zebra before; and the whole place, pleasant and clean though it appeared, reeked with deception. Of course, I didn't know it at the time, foolish tourist's grin sewed onto my cheeks.

To the right was a dirt-paved, tracked-up road that offered a full view of The Reptile Exhibit.

This is how I discovered that I had actually somehow wound up in the middle of a zoo and not in a forest clearing. I had cause to worry, but I didn't. I had just calmly walked through the zoo entrance (which was also conveniently labeled) - but now I realized something rather unusual.

There was a piece of paper taped to the back of my shirt.

It was, in fact, a gilded piece of cardstock that had a label on it, and this label read Homo sapiens. I froze, noting for the first time that the entrance was actually gated in as well, despite the sign, and the zebra WAS actually a hippo. The Reptile Exhibit contained a petting zoo, and the trees appeared to have faces.

I ran

in place, because a surly branch had snatched me up and I was surging in the air like some ridiculous cartoon without a realization; and it put me back into the place where I belonged.

A house, same as the morning.

Now I realized why there were trees all around this "home" of mine, and perhaps the bushes were children; and there was no privacy after all. All eyes were upon me.

Please don't let this be a dream, I thought, it's much too strange to be unreal, life needs more… needs this horror, needs to find a solution even if there isn't one. Probably I had a fever, a delusion. But maybe I didn't.

So I stared at the deep evil sky, speckled with enough stardust to be grey; I crawled into my foreign bed and curled up in the black of night, waiting.

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I am still in the process of editing this to make it more of a story, rather than a rambled idea. If you review it, please consider that. Thank you!