Anxious Punch-Out Down the Endless Cereal Hallway

Anxious Punch-Out Down the Endless Cereal Hallway

I was late for my shift at the grocery store and took the usual bus, but when I got off the street looked like our old neighborhood from when I was a kid. The store was still there, same sign, except the doors opened into Mom’s kitchen. I kept trying to clock in on the tablet by the fridge. A coworker who also looked a little like my sister told me I’d already done this shift in the other one and pointed at a hallway that shouldn’t have been behind the cereal aisle. I walked it forever, passing the same break-room microwave, getting more anxious that I’d miss punch-out. At the end was my apartment, lights on, and someone with my jacket was making coffee like they lived there. They didn’t seem surprised. I asked whose place it was and they said mine, just not this week. I woke up still trying to remember which keys were in my pocket.