Pushed Around from Shore to Shore

I meet a Black woman named Teresa, and she wants me to name her baby. I feel her belly, and the baby tells me her name is Shokwanda. Which I say, and the baby kicks to confirm. I can see Teresa is disappointed, and she repeats the name to make sure she’s heard it right. I say, Yes, that’s it, that’s what the baby is telling me. She asks if there’s another name. The baby thinks Dawn, and I tell her that, but I can tell Teresa doesn’t like that name either. I start to feel a bit awkward and embarrassed, even though I’m only doing as she asked.

I see her husband, who looks like Tobe, and go to hug him, but he doesn’t want a hug. I say that’s fine and say, Look, if you guys can do it, get a doula. We had one for our first and I assisted, then I was the doula for our second. He says, yeah, they have a doula, which he pronounces dulla. I wish them the best and head out.

Going to a math class. I sit next to Verna.

I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. In fact, I can’t keep my eyes open. But I make it through class. Then I can’t find my keys. Verna helps me look for them, and we take a walk in the field outside. She gently puts her hand in mine and leans her head into me. It feels quite nice, and I wonder why Juno and I never do this. It feels disloyal somehow, liking it, yeah. Doing it at all. Comparing. I don’t mean to—to be disloyal or to compare or to do it, to enjoy it—but it happens that way.

We can’t find my keys, and Verna says she has to leave. I ask about her husband, Prickie, but she doesn’t say. Then she gets in her big SUV and drives off.

I keep wandering in the field and happen upon folks who look like they’re in a Joa Seanberry film, and they are talking—two women and two guys. I realize then that I’ve traveled in time—possibly back in time, perhaps forward. I can’t find my keys there, either.

A ways away from them, there’s a barbeque happening behind the school, and the cook is this tall white guy who’s kina hairy. He doesn’t have much clothing on—like, is basically buck-ass naked under the chef’s apron—and is ranting about being an independent, then arguing with this older white guy who says he’s voting Green. I ignore them and search for my keys. The cook says near me but not directly to me that Tuesday better go well or Serrah & Jeft’s is gonna close. That’s a restaurant owned by one of the candidates, I infer—Serrah, I think. My keys are not here, so I turn around and head back for the field.

All this walking is making me tired. But I recall I am dreaming and so I can travel great distances at the speed of thought. I believe it, and it works, though not like I thought. It’s more like time-lapse photography, and I’m there—as opposed to everything going by fast, like in a car or flying. But either way, it worked, and I am there.

I find a pamphlet in the field grass.

It summarizes what happened in the Joa Seanberry film, but is very cryptic the way it is written. I get the feeling that something bad happened at the end. I realize then that I hadn’t known it was actually Joa Seanberry and his usual troupe of weirdos. I keep the pamphlet, though I am unsure why.

I go back toward the side entrance to the school and Verna is there. I don’t know if she returned or if this is before she left and my fast traveling changed things, but she’s here. We go inside and look around for my keys. My raincoat was there before, but it isn’t now. I keep thinking my keys are in my raincoat, but I don’t say that. Part of me just wants to spend time with her—with Verna—feeling the way I do when I’m with her. And part of me knows I shouldn’t, that it is divisive and will hurt Juno. I also know that Verna has a history of being a terrible and dangerous person.

We look and find a bunch of ice cream that the scouts ordered and left not put away. We try to put it away, but there really isn’t any saving it; it’s all melting already. I break one piece that looks like a tennis racket while trying to move it.

We go back outside again, and there are a couple of other women talking to a couple of guys out there by a car that looks like my car with the top down. I think they might be Joa and co, but I cannot be sure. I can see my keys on the seat.

I go to grab them, but one of the women takes them, and I can see once she does that they are not my keys.

I’m like, Dammit, not my keys.

The women say goodbye to the guys, who I recognize then as Joa and the other guy from the movie for sure. Verna and I get in the car with these gals, and they drive away from the school. It takes me a minute to think to say something, and when I do, the woman driving seems startled, but we keep going for a minute. She drops off the other woman, and I ask where we are. She won’t say other than a not great part of town. And I’m like, Okay, but what section of the city, broadly? She says the street names, and I go, okay, so downtown. She doesn’t say, but I know it’s right. I thank her, and Verna and I get out and walk around.

Verna leads me into a small shoppe, and we look at some clothes together. I get the strong feeling then that she is trying to be with me, and I can’t let it continue. We look at a few more things, and then she says she has to go again. I say goodbye, and then find this clerk who looks like Deight, who says he thinks he found my keys. I remember I am dreaming and can make it correct.

It is, and he hands the keys to me. They are mine, but missing some keys, so I imagine that they will have more keys when I pull them out of my pocket. They do, but it’s just many more keys, not the ones I’m missing. I tell myself not to worry, the missing ones will be on there, and they are.

I go back to the school, get my car, and drive home to Juno.

Play procedures

• If you are smart, you will keep the pamphlet. Add it to your inventory. If you do not write it down, you do not have it.
• You can leverage the chef for political propaganda advantage, if that’s a game you’re playing. The Green guy, too, albeit to a smaller effect size.
• Verna is now an available companion. She is sultry but in a very subtle way, so you might not notice. She is also historically rather evil, so beware.