I wish that I had dashed lines following me home from school yesterday like Billy from the Family Circus. Haha, oh Billy, you always take the longest way to get to the sandbox.
The people who lived in our new apartment before us said something about a path and stairs that go straight up the hill to the Business Building on Campus. I was leaving work at the HR department and thought, "It will take about an hour to get home by bus, I could probably get home faster just going down the hill." Good logic, right? So I went to where said stairs should have been, and saw a thin dirt path leading downward. I began to walk down it, when two paths diverged into the woods, and I, I puzzled by the two less traveled paths, and it didn't make a difference. So I chose one and followed it on and on into nowhere. I retraced my steps and took the other path, which lead me nowhere. A little annoyed, I climbed back up the hill and looked around for where my house was located, and then began my descent looking for the secret stairs. I was in my nice kaki pants and collared shirt and was climbing over trees, pushing through branches, and by the way it has been raining all week so I was sloshing through wet knee high foliage and mud.
The way was shut, it was closed by those who are dead tree branches, so I had to double back and move across the hill and after a few minutes was completely lost. I could barely see the road and houses down below in some spots, and nothing but trees in others. I was out of breath from going up and down the hill, and my legs were sore from fighting the wet earth to stay beneath me. I climbed back up the hill a ways again to regroup and try another way down. Finally I came to a clearing, and there was a 10 foot wide canal separating me from a path that looked like it was used for ATVs. There was no way to cross the canal except for a rusting iron bar that was about three inches wide that was spanning the canal. I reluctantly sat down on it and shimmied my way across it, leaving rust all over my already dirty pants. I got to the other side and began to walk. The trail ended at the mudslide from last year with no good way down to the road, so I doubled back and walked for a few minutes until I finally found a way down to the road. I found myself about three or four blocks away from my apartment. No where near where I thought I was.
The secret stairs were indeed, secret. As I neared my home, the bus I could have been on drove by. It was nearly an hour after I began my walk home.
