Spirit Road

• Heidi Zhang, Grade 12, Prairiewood High School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'The Write Track 2015' competition

Today I got lost on a street I knew. A street that I traverse every day. To and from work.

Everything was still the same. The faded grey of the surrounding buildings, the imperfect paths intent on tripping unsuspecting city-goers, and the avant-grade attempt at art sprayed onto brick walls. All the same.

And still -

I was lost.

Don’t get me wrong. I still knew my way around. I knew that if I turned left on the next crossing, took the third narrow pathway, and enter the building above the newsagency, I would arrive at my workplace.

But it wasn't knowing.

It was feeling.

I felt lost, and confused, and a little scared.

My options were limited. I could continue on or I could wait here. Neither felt particularly appealing.

Something felt inherently wrong about continuing, like when you have to enter a dark carpark in the middle of the night, knowing something’s going to jump out and stab you then steal your wallet.

Staying here didn't feel much better. Almost like waiting in the middle of the train track, you can’t see a train yet but if you continue standing there, you’ll eventually end up crushed into the rails.

While contemplating, I heard a voice:

“Have you strayed?”

I turned. The soft, silvery words belonged to a woman.

“Uh ... yeah I got lost ... somehow”

She smiled, amused. Her blue-black hair flittered to some unfelt breeze. It was hard to place her. Her accent was that of those who've lived all around the world, her appearance like those of multiple ethnicities. She was both familiar and unfamiliar.

“Lost is not the same thing as strayed. Come, I’ll show you the way.”

“I... Uh... What? Sorry?” Her words distracted me from my thoughts.

“You’ll have to promise though, that no matter how strange, or how out of pace things may seem, you must look straight and walk straight. Promise me. Not to look at anything to closely.”

“Okay?”

“Promise me.”

“I promise.”

With a final affirmative, she began walking. Determined to keep my strange promise, I kept my head forward.

But it was hard not to notice things. The busker who played a violin without strings, the little girl with six fingers and no face, shadows that fell regardless of the sun, trees that danced like people but without music, reflections of people that weren't there.

I started to get a little dizzy.And found it hard to keep my eyes open.

Slowly the scenery changed.

Slowly, sound started to return, chatter and music and traffic. Slowly, colours I didn't even realise were missing filled the monochrome. Slowly, light flickered back, both natural and electric.

I was now unable to walk. My head splitting. My eyelids too heavy.

So I stopped.

Then felt fine

Looking up and taking in my surroundings, realised I was in the CBD, and the woman had stopped with me.

“Thank you.” I still wasn't fully sure what happened, but I knew when to be gracious.

The woman grinned at me.

“Don’t stray again, your kind is only meant to travel that place once, from one life to the next.”

She stepped back and left, my eyes unable were to follow her.

I didn't fully understand what she told me.

Didn't want to.

But I wouldn't forget.


And perhaps, from time to time in my long life, I might dwell, on the day I got lost in a place I knew, and experienced something I shouldn't have.