There was a tiny elevator that led upstairs to a dressing room or possibly a bathroom. Only a certain number of people were allowed upstairs at one time – it was very posh. Mom and I saw one woman come out of the elevator so we went in to take her place.

The elevator was so small that our shoulders brushed all sides of the elevators, and it was very difficult to turn around in order to push the button to close the doors and go upstairs. Once the doors opened upstairs, we saw a large foyer where many women stood waiting.

I look through racks of clothes arranged much like a thrift store. I grab a black long sleeved shirt and a short red dress with white trim – it almost looked like a naughty Mrs. Claus costume – to try on. I squeezed into a rack of clothing and found there was not enough room to try on the dress and shirt because the rack was very full of clothes.

I bent down and pushed on a piece of wood that supported the rack in order to extend its length, thus giving me more room. I removed my shirt in order to try on the black one and realized that I had pushed the support too far and now everyone could see me in just a bra.

There were quite a few men with thick black moustaches sitting at small, round restaurant tables nearby. They all stared at me; I had no privacy at all.

I covered my chest with the black shirt and tried to position myself so that the clothes hanging on the rack hid me, but all the clothes had disappeared. I motioned frantically for a friend to help shield me.

Melissa is sitting on the edge of the couch telling Mom, Dad, and I about how she accepted Jesus as her Savior. She had gone to a local Lutheran church youth group. Hearing that, Dad begins yelling at her for going to a Lutheran church. I know that he is angry her salvation didn’t happen at his church, didn’t happen his way. I wanted to tell him to shut up and just be happy for her, but I didn’t say anything.

Damon, Dana, B, Beth, and I were in Homer and had to stop by the elementary school. We saw that it was called Sasha Elementary, and I thought it was odd that the name had changed.

In the school, there were three large rooms. There was no hallway, and we had to walk through one room to get to the next. The room closest to the main entrance was for kindergarten, the next room for first grade, and the last room for third grade.

We opened the door to go into the third grade room, and found it was blocked by a small wheel (similar to a lawnmower wheel) with a handle coming from its center sitting in front of the door. I moved it out of the way and found it was deceptively heavy.

Once in the room, we saw that the third grade room had a door that led to the outside – children were going in and out of the door freely. The kids looked twelve.

On our way back out, we saw the school security guard kneeling on the floor sobbing. We asked him what was wrong, and a third grader told us that he was losing his hair. He turned to face us and we saw that chunks of his hair were coming out in his hands.

Back outside, Damon told us matter-of-factly that he has cancer. He said that he would have to fly specialists in to Homer to treat him. I wondered why he wouldn’t go back to Fairbanks for treatment since Homer didn’t have any cancer treatment facilities and Fairbanks did.

It was the end of the world. A large beam of light came from the clouds, and I thought how it was just like the dream I had. The beam touched ground a few blocks from where I stood, so I ran towards it with everyone else in town.

When I got to the beam, I saw that it wasn’t a beam of light at all. Instead, it was a huge white building that reached into the clouds. It belonged to aliens.

I became a servant to the aliens and worked in this white building. I helped them look for a missing human child. Most of their rooms were dark, they rarely turned on the lights, and so I had to use a flashlight.

I found the boy hiding under a table in one room, but I shined my flashlight elsewhere to protect him.

I was then in a room outside of the white building with B. We had a very limited time to spend together because he had to go back to the aliens soon. I pulled out my makeup case and we played with it. He had to go, and I was very sad but understanding.

I was in a dark, tiny attic of a grocery store with my entire family having an evening meal. I became claustrophobic and fed up with my family, so I went outside and hopped in Jen’s truck. The back seat of her truck was overflowing with boxes and cans of food. Melissa was sleeping intertwined with all the food.

I was pregnant, and I could feel the baby pressing against my cervix, but there was no pain. I tried using my hand to keep the baby inside of me.

I was in a white dressing room with Lacey. There was a nurse outside of the room handing me towels and such. This was one of my scheduled checkups. I opened the door to hand the nurse some stuff, and saw that she was bundling up a bunch of chicken pieces and lettuce from the back of a blue pickup (the tailgate was down) to shove under the dressing room door next to mine.

She said the girl’s name, Tina, to get her attention. The nurse had left a few pieces of lettuce behind, and I went to grab them but she said it would be fine without them. I knocked on the door and said, ‘Tina, sweetie, are you alone?’ She said she was and I knew that it was the Tina I knew. I opened the door and gave her a big hug because I knew she was pregnant and going through it all alone.

We picked up all of her stuff and she moved into my dressing room. While the door was open Lacey tried to run out of the dressing room, but I managed to restrain her physically. Tina kept saying that it was so weird that I was pregnant, though I thought it was much weirder that she was pregnant, being unmarried.

Melissa was then there and Lacey gone. Melissa and I lied on our elbows on the floor with pillows, stretched out watching Tina as though we were having a slumber party.

A waiter in a tuxedo came to our door and asked if we needed anything. Melissa told him that she really wanted to go, and she wanted to buy the silver Porsche that was idling at the curb. He told her that he was sorry, but such a purchase would require a loan, and they did not do loans there.

She was very upset. I told her that if she wanted to go somewhere, she could borrow my new car. It was even silver.

I was in a large store that looked a lot like the airport – there were different levels all connected by escalators, water fountains with fish, and long queues of people everywhere. I had sent my camera to Kmart to be fixed, but they told me it couldn’t be fixed. Instead, they sent me a replacement.

But instead of replacing it with the same camera, they sent a cheaper camera of lower quality, and I was angry. I wandered through the large store with B and Damon behind me trying to find the person who would at least get me the exact same camera back.

We were having a garage sale in my grandparent’s garage – mostly their stuff. They were not in town, so Mom, Melissa, and I oversaw it.

I came up behind an older man moving tables and stuff we had set up in order to get to the not-sale items on the back wall. I jumped in and hurriedly tell him that stuff isn’t for sale while I move the tables and other items back into place.

I stood next to my grandmother’s large industrial-sized washing machine and noticed that the lid was open, so I slid it to the right to close it. A woman appeared from behind me with an arm full of clothes and began putting them in the washer. I said, ‘Excuse me, but this washer isn’t for public use.’

She blatantly ignored me, so I reached in and removed the few pieces already in the machine. She tensed her body straight and rigid in a way that reminded me of a defiant, stubborn child. She allowed a sock to fall into the machine; I grabbed it and again told her that she is to not use this machine.

I said, ‘This is my grandmother’s machine and you may not use it.’ She argued with me and I kept repeating that she may not use the washer. I tried very hard to be very polite. My mom sensed the commotion and walked across the garage to stand by me. Cris and Misti were also standing there as I again told that lady that the machine is my grandmother’s and she has no authority to use it.

I went into the basement of the local building supply store (the SBS store in Homer) with a friend to buy some molding materials. She was a new friend of mine. We waited in line at the front counter to speak with the two older male employees about the supplies, then my mother showed up. She went into the back of the store with my friend.

When I got to the front of the line, the two employees reminisced about the help I gave the store when I was in high school. They kept mentioning how they loved the one aisle I decorated with pink and purple streamers.

While they raved about how great I am, I could see my mom and friend piling boxes onto a dolly full of stuff I had come to buy. I knew that my mom is doing all of my stuff without me, but I pretended to not notice in hopes that she will let me know what is going on. She wheeled the dolly right past me and to the checkout line.

I turned around, looked through mom’s tall pile, and asked her why she had all this stuff. She told me it was for my project. She didn’t look concerned that I was upset about not being informed.

I ran off through the store crying huge, heaping sobs and Damon ran after me. I chose a complicated and winding path through the store to lose him and then ran out the back emergency exit into the ally. It was nighttime.

Damon had anticipated I would go this way, but because of my evasive maneuvers he was ahead of me. I hid in a dark corner to cry. He finally saw me behind him and ran up to me.

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