April 11, 2016

Part of the race involved running through a pebble paved obstacle course composed of multi-tiered stone platforms. At the very bottom level, the path would sometimes lead into a shallow swamp with tall grasses and mud. In addition, small creatures would swarm and bog down whoever got entangled in the vegetation. In response to seeing others struggle with this, I tried my best to stay on the highest route possible - until I met a dead end. I was standing on a square platform a good 10 stories up from the now vast expanse of brown dirt. Ahead of me lay an impossible jump to another platform with small gardens of grass, denoting that it was definitely not meant to be traversed. I looked down and wondered if I was standing at a lethal height until someone ran past me on the right and jumped off. They stopped moving after hitting the ground.

After much thought and deliberation, I decided that I had no choice but to make a slow descent to the bottom. I gripped the stone pillar supporting the platform and slid down. When I was back on my feet, I had already long lost my lead in the race. I walked into a store that sold a variety of pens. When you wrote specific phrases with certain pens, some aspect of the race and its participants would change a la Mario Kart. One such pen was a short red pen with a black cap which had the effect of periodically banning players in the race. I asked if there were any other benefits or attributes involved with simply possessing the pen. They said there weren’t any because that was reserved for the Snickers bar.

I had a creeping feeling that I was going to be late for my morning class. I looked at the LED clock with red digits to see that it was 6:70. There was still time. I looked at the horizon of the rising sun and could see that someone was already making their way back to the finish line. I perceived of a flashback where my cousin had nearly knocked my brother off the edge of a cliff and into the ocean. Apparently my brother did not notice such an event happening.