I, Doreen

Today was to be a normal day for most people. But not Doreen. Doreen was a retail sales person in The Liberty Place at 16th and Chestnut Street. Doreen WAS a retail sales person in The Liberty Place at 16th and Chestnut Street. Today, however, when she reached 16TH AND CHESTNUT STREETS, she just kept walking. It's not that she missed her destination, it's just that she kept on walking. She walked towards 15th, at 15th she made a right and then another right shortly thereafter, finding herself at 15TH AND IONIC STREETS. Ionic turned out to be a dead end, and she couldn't help but notice the juxtaposition between this literal "dead end" street and the dead end that her now former life had seemed to reach. She quickly backed out of Ionic and continued down 15th towards Sansom, where she made a left. This wasn't her first time walking down Sansom street, but it felt different than it ever had before. The cars seemed louder and more apparent, she swore she could hear the gears of the bicycles whirring against their chains--they almost screamed out above the car engines and honking horns. But it was the footsteps of the people that nearly sent her over the edge, they banged so loudly against the pavement that she was afraid her ears might explode. Upon reaching BROAD STREET AND SANSOM, the streets looked as if they might stretch on forever and she was afraid that if she began walking down Broad she might become just another individual cascading sounds into oblivion, this fear drove her on. At Sansom and Juniper Streets she quickly made a right. She walked faster and faster down Juniper, almost breaking out into a sprint, until she hit Chancellor Street. It is located halfway between Walnut and Locust Streets and seemed like just the halfway road she ought to take. Here she made another right and walked for a short time, taking a diagonal path across 13th street to keep with Chancellor, she came to 12TH AND CHANCELLOR STREETS. It was here she stopped and took the first bus that came. It was then that she, miraculously, disappeared.