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All the Wrong Places (11) : Your GPS keeps glitching. It doesn’t matter what app you use. It doesn’t matter if you walk, drive, or bike. You’ll be given the correct address, but the directions always take you somewhere else–somewhere you don’t want to be. No matter what address you type in, the directions always take you to the same place–and it isn’t even always obvious that’s where you’re headed until you arrive there. Again, and again, and again. You don’t want to be here. But something does.
He was still getting used to the ‘big’ city. It was so very different from his home town where quite literally everyone knew everyone and if it took you an hour to walk to the town limits you were dawdling. Here there were people everywhere. Loud and oblivious to the world around them. It was something DM was coming to terms with but in the meantime he still needed to get around. He still needed to figure out how to get from campus to a grocery store, or to get downtown, or out of town, or a park to just decompress from it all. He relied on his phone’s GPS. It hadn’t steered him wrong until today.
Today he ended up outside of this old looking building, a sign proclaimed it a BnB but he didn’t need a Bed and Breakfast. He had been looking for this little Chinese place that his roommates wanted to order from and DM had been chosen as the gofer to get it. Actually he seemed to be the ‘flyer’ a lot in these types of situations but he didn’t mind it too much, they paid for his part of the food after all. All it cost him was a little bit of time. Besides, it had given him a chance to learn how to get around the city, even if it still required assistance from his phone. And yet it seemed like even that was against him today. The second time he hopped off a bus outside of the elderly building he just looked confused.
By the third time he was starting to get worried. Had he taken the wrong route again? But he had followed the GPS, took the suggested busses and had even walked to a new stop just to make sure he got on the right bus and yet here he was again.
The fourth time had him contemplating if somehow someone was messing with his phone. The fifth time his roommates were getting fed up, he had already gotten some pretty angry texts and they absolutely didn’t believe him when he tried to explain. By the sixth time it was truly dark and he was starving. He had also been informed that they had just ordered pizza, and he couldn’t have any since he failed in his task of ordering and bringing the food back. He was on his own but now he was determined to make it to the restaurant, regardless of how long it would take.
Six times he ended up there. By car. By bus. By walking. Even after renting one of those eBikes. No matter how he traveled he always ended up in front of this particular building. It was late, likely the only things open at this point would be a convenience store, and his stomach was growling at him. For whatever reason his GPS was steering him wrong so he decided to go old school when it came to his mission. Muttering to himself he took some static pictures of a city map, mentally plotted the course, and after sticking his tongue out at the building, set off.
Lo and behold he arrived at his destination…. Thirty minutes after they had closed, but he at least made it! Feeling triumphant, if starving, he found a 7/11 and quickly got himself some food. He didn’t mind that it had taken him literally hours to get there. He was just glad he had made it!
The next challenge was, how was he going to get back to his apartment?
