This time I was at a college reunion.

I think this began in an underground locker room, where I was looking for a swimming pool and a bathroom. It was deserted, probably closed, and some of the passageways were very tight. Part of me wanted help, but part of me did not want to be caught.

The place was eerie in an apocalyptic way, quiet with small noises, dark, cavernous but close. I was alone as one can be, even though at one point I think a former gym teacher offered to point me in the right direction.

I found myself in a large, dark wood room, probably a banquet hall. It seemed to be a reunion of my college class from the University of Chicago, yet I recognized nearly everyone around me as a member of my Frontier Central High School graduating class. There was one girl in particular, Paula, who I have not thought of in 29 years. I looked around and saw more and more people I’d known from high school, even though I have proven bad at remembering and recognizing them in real life. They were neither friendly nor hostile toward me, including Paula. I said to her, “How strange. I went to a university that I thought no one else would go to. I didn’t see any of you during the entire four years, yet here you all are.”

I asked one boy, name unknown now, what he had majored in at the University of Chicago, and he said, “Aerospace.” The answer threw me off, so I asked, “The engineering side?” He gave me a distant look and a vague answer. Aerospace didn’t sound right. I became confused by all of these improbabilities and think I may have wormed my way through narrow passageways back to the underground locker room. It was less disconcerting.