DD-214

July 25th

I had a dream last night that I was…

being processed?

Somewhat like MEPS.

I rode my bike to this office.

I asked to keep my bike in the lobby.

It was fine for me to do so.

There were two people in what looked like a testing room.

The proctor saw me and seemed to be expecting my arrival.

Almost excited to see me.

I wouldn’t have to take the test it seemed, and she ushered me over to another room.

In that room, there were a bunch of different women sitting behind computer screens processing people.

She brought me to a desk and behind that desk sat my grandmother.

“Nana?”

“Yes. But officially, you can’t call me that… yet.”

“Ms. Nana?”

“That works for now. Okay let’s see…”

I watched as she pulled up my information on a screen …

There were a bunch of different names on one side that …

seemed to have expired..

on the other side was my name…

the only name on that side

“well this is the one… go into that drawer and see if you can find the manual.”

She pointed over to the bottom drawer on a file cabinent.

I opened it and sorted through a bunch of papers looking for the manual.

I could see documents that matched the expired names on the screen but through all my sifting, I couldn’t find one for myself.

“Nana… uh Ms. Nana… there isn’t one here.”

“What do you mean? There has to be.”

“No really…”

“Well… let me figure this out.”

She started typing on the computer, going through my record and all again…

I paced around while she did so…

I remember thinking about how …

Cool it felt to have no …

manual…

I walked through the office and felt all the familiarity…

I returned to my Nana’s desk…

She was still trying to make sense of the conundrum we faced…

“I think it’ll be fine Nana.”

I woke up.

The Hanged Man