I have something. Time to do. I'm here in this place. Finding my way among the stars and stripes. I have to go. I have to be. Time. Somone. Finding my place. Timer. Timer is running. I am the timer that runs. Here. There. Care a bear. Flair. I'm going to walk down the road. I start that way a lot. Just walking somewhere. I don't know where to go. Take a left and then a right. Find my way to some stairs. They go up. Go up forever. I take the stairs and climb. Climb up taller than the houses. Taller than the trees. Keep going until they are both far below. The wind is strong up high, but there's a handrail to hang onto. I hold it. The air is getting colder. I reach higher. A drone happens by. Buzzing and roaring. It is carrying a package. It delivers me the package. A coat. I don the coat. I have a long way to go, and it will continue to get colder. I climb higher. Slowly, one foot after the other. Up and up. I reach the first cloud. Up into it. It's damp, but the coat is waterproof. I'm good. Keep going even though I can't see far. Can't see the ground anymore. Keep climbing. In time I am higher than the cloud. It starts to fall away below as I ascend. Much colder now. Air is thinner. I move slower. Conserve my energy. This stairway continues on. No exits until I reach the top. Who built it? I suppose I did. Just created a way up. Brick by brick. Now I have to climb. Up and up I go. An airliner passes, and I can see the passengers in the windows as it goes by. They have no faces. No identity. They just exist. I pause to watch the plane recede into the distance. Goodbye faceless ones. Hope you have a safe flight. I keep climbing. The wet on my jacket has frozen, and ice is building. Thicker and thicker as I climb through each layer of clouds. The ice crackles and sheds, but continues to build and weigh me down. Harder to climb. Air is thinner. I can barely keep going, but I do anyway. I must keep going. I can't quit now. As I feel I'm near passing out, I see a box waiting for me. Another delivered package on the steps. I open it to find an oxygen tank attached to a clear mask. I put it on over my face and open the valve. I can breathe again. My vision clears, and I realize how blurry it had become. I continue on, renewed. Up I go. I can see the curvature of the Earth. I can see the stars even though it is day. Very little atmosphere remains above me. The stairs continue higher and so do I. Up and up. The world is so far below that I can see other continents. So far below I see two oceans. The tank on my mask has started to beep. A warning that it is running low. Not much left. But the stairs keep going, so I continue. The tank's warning gets louder and breathing gets harder. Keep going. Keep going. Mind is getting fuzzy. Vision is blurry. Then at long last, I reach a landing. The end of the line. No more stairs. No more rail. The tank is empty. The world is below me. The cold is around me. I take one more step off into the open.
