The Manila Folder and Keys in the Empty Dryer

The Manila Folder and Keys in the Empty Dryer

I dreamed I was still at the office after everyone left, looking for my keys so I could lock up. The fluorescent lights were half-dead and the rain on the windows sounded like someone tapping. I kept walking the same hallway toward the supply closet, but it stretched longer each time, like it had the mall from my old job mixed in. I found a manila folder on the copier with my name on it and a photo of my apartment door. When I opened it, the pages were blank except for a parking ticket I already paid last month. My coworker Dana was at her desk, but she also felt like my college roommate, and she wouldn’t look up. She just said I should check the stairwell. I went down and the exit led into my building’s laundry room. My keys were in a dryer that was still running, empty. I woke up anxious, like I’d missed something obvious.