The Stairs and a Snail Got in the Way

I have no idea where I am right now

Dan Stout @boxyourbuddy
2 min readAug 18, 2023

Have you ever fallen down two flights of stairs?

If so, you know what it feels like the next morning. That was today for me. I woke up quickly, as if from a nightmare that I can’t quite remember.

I am drenched in sweat and wide-eyed. I feel drugged but in a speedy way. I don’t like it. Speed was never my thing.

I take a quick scan of my room but I get confused.
It can’t be so.
It is.

The typical rub of the eyes and a deep breath does not change the scene. I am not in my bedroom. Where am I?

It looks to be a storage unit or a shed. A small one with nothing in it. The walls are metal. The floor is concrete mostly covered with a cheap square rug I was sleeping on.

The last thing I remember was quitting work for the day and leaving the building. I recall seeing a snail in front of the stairs I usually take. I noticed it at the last second and was able to keep from crunching it.

My step changed just enough and I hit the top stair wrong in the place where the stairs meet the tile. The metal piece was sticking up above the tile just enough to catch my shoe, throwing me off balance, then falling.

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Dan Stout @boxyourbuddy

Quiet observer. I write original stories about whatever spark my brain created and feed it to the few. I have never used AI in my writing, but photos, yes.