I am walking down Rexdale Blvd, heading towards Kipling.  There is now a bridge where the field and power lines used to be.  It’s like the Humber trail down by Albion and Armel Court. There’s a recessed path that runs under Rexdale and a small stream that follows along it.  I’m standing on the east end of the bridge looking down at what the city built.

A TTC bus pulls up and I get on.  I stand near the back doors as we travel down Rexdale towards Woodbine Mall. We arrive at the mall and as I step off the bus I find myself in the middle of Fantasy Fair.  There are a lot of people around, going from attraction to attraction, lines sliding out of view and into the shop areas. I decide this to too much and turn around to head back to the bus, but I’m already there.

This time I sit at the front of the bus. We start driving and I spend the next couple minutes looking at a giant clock hanging off the roof of the bus. It blocks half the passenger side of the windshield.  But there’s something smeared on the screen so I can’t see what time it is.

Suddenly, the bus stops and the driver yells Fantasy Fair!  Everybody out! I say to the driver, Hey, we were just here, how come we’re stopping back again?  He looks at me like I’m the biggest idiot on the planet and says Maybe you were just here but the rest of us weren’t.  He gets off the bus. As everyone else files out, I start looking at the driver’s seat wondering if I could get this beast back home.  As I move to sit in the driver’s seat, I notice the clock and it no longer has Roman Numbers.

The clock face simply says NOW in large, bright red letters.  As soon as my bottom hits the seat, I’m suddenly on another bus as it’s pulling up to the corner of the bridge where I got on the first bus.

I get off the bus, flustered and annoyed.  As the bus pulls away, I see the advert on the back of it that, like the clock, says NOW on a light grey background. I look across the bridge and see another clock.  That clock face is also a word instead of numbers. It simply says THEN in a bright, neon purple.

I realize I forgot to pick a bunch of kids up from school.  I start to run home, but every time I get to the corner of Bergamot, I find myself back at the corner of the bridge. I try to run home this way three times before giving up.  For some reason, I decide to stand on the top railing of the bridge.

I can see my home from up there.  It’s so close and so far at the same time.  I take a leap of faith and start to soar over a couple acres.  I don’t quite land though. As if intending to run again, I thrust myself forward as I touch down and I’m sent back up into the air.  In about 4 bounds, I’m home.

Suddenly, the manager from Walmart rushes up to me.  Hey! I’ve got a call for you! You’re late for work, he yells as he thrusts a Walmart Blue rotary phone into my hand.  I put it to my ear and wake up.

March 26, 2015.