The Schuylkill Ocean

I'm on the porch of my apartment, it's about 7 in the morning and the street looks like Front Street under the El in Kensington. Dark from being under traintracks, busy with cars and people and shops. A middle aged black man comes up and asks me for a dollar. I tell him no. Another black man comes up to the porch with a piece of 8x10 paper decorated similarly to money and asks me to confirm whether it's a real $50 bill or not. I tell him no. A neighbor who lives in my building comes up to the porch from a party from the night before with a half a dozen people. There's too many people on the porch. I back up and scream, "If anyone doesn't live here, get off the porch." The black men leave. My neighbor and his friends stare at me.

I go back into my apartment where I begin to eat oatmeal out of my glasses and blue glass bowls. My neighbor and his friends come into the living room, talking loudly and crowding around. I ask them to leave. When they do, all my bowls and glasses are out on the floor, filled with oatmeal and water, all chipped and leaking. Upset, I go into my room where there's a big TV and I listen to the noise of the television. There's nothing on it, no static or programs, but the noise it makes when it's just On. I'm on break at work and I'm home, I only have a half an hour and I'm trying to figure out how many minutes have actually passed. My mom calls me and tells me to meet up with her because she just got out of a doctors appointment in a building close to mine on Powelton Ave. I tell her I'd like to, but that I have to get back to work.

When I do get back to work, I'm trying to figure out how late I am, because I ended up taking a nap too. I see Chris Pasquerello at work and I ask him to help, but he seems very busy. I see my mom sitting down at a table with Allie Manning and another man asking me to sit down and eat. I tell her I can't and I have to go back to work.

I find Kat, my Assistant Team Leader and ask how much work I missed on my break. We're outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in the back, and there's some construction going on. It's related to Whole Foods, either that or some other big company. The Schuylkill River is actually the Schuylkill Ocean and this company that I'm related with is dumping 60 million tons of water into it. When they do, the ocean overflows and flows into the fountains of the art museum and then down the steps. I want to go into the water, but when I do I see it's murky and brown with soil and I don't want to be in it anymore.

Rena brought home a baby.

The apartment was redone. The kitchen expanded and we good green railings and marble floors, new cabinets, and a red stone decoration on the railings.

I'm in my bed and it's become an elevated version of our porch at the 125 house. It's early in the morning and there's a thick grey air surrounding me, cold with the beginning of winter. I'm laying on my mattress looking up at the sky and the trees, I can feel the wind picking up and I watch leaves and acorns fall onto me and my bed.

"How am I going to make it through the winter?"

Rena is safe and warm with her new baby below me in her indoor bed. She's on Skype with someone from West Chester who we went to high school with who is now permatripping from too much acid. I then transport to West Chester where I meet up with Tom and walk around a graveyard with.

People in Russia spoke English

I just arrived in Russia. As I'm walking to find some people I know I see Sasha, Rena's new boyfriend, and I call out his name. He's walking down an old stone corridor of an old public building. He slows down for me and we walk out to a courtyard where there's an old docked ship, illuminated from the moon above. Young orphan boys from ROOF are on the ship, miserable and upset with their lives. I talk with them and about three or four end up throwing themselves off the ship ending their lives on the cobblestone ground with a crunch. I find Rena and ask why they do things like this, Rena is unresponsive, even after I ask if she can help me use the Moscow Metro. Sasha ends up helping me and I make my way back to our apartment which we are now sharing with my co-worker, Alexa, from Whole Foods. Except it was also half of the house in Cape May, so we also had our own rooms. Rena had cleaned out our living room completely empty to make way for a huge party she was going to have. I was upset about this because I didn't want to have to clean up after a party.

My mama laying naked on a bed, 28 years old and beautiful and still in love with my dad, glowing with just giving birth to me and my brother.

I was walking down West River Drive with Tom and Eric, it's late afternoon and there are cars and bike riders and joggers as there usually are. Except we're walking on the side of the road that has no sidewalk- but now it does. And it has a grate so you can catch a glimpse into the sewer system and the underground city below. I see a man lurking in the darkness, looking up at us splashing through ankle deep water following us as we walk. I mention something to Tom and Eric, but they dismiss it and keep walking. A few minutes later I see the man poking his head up through the grate and looking at us. I start panicking, but again Tom and Eric don't seem to be bothered.