550 Words A Day Challenge (II) A Squirrel

(I've decided as a writing exercise to write 550 words everyday for two weeks and see what I come up with. The subject matter and narrative will not be limited to anything, and I will only be allowed to edit what I write once)


Part II --- A Squirrel


         I knew this silver car and I knew these streets but they were unfamiliar to me: these were the same houses I had seen hundreds of times before. Along the sidewalk I saw a brown squirrel, frolicking through the short grass of the well-kept front lawns. It was pleasant but distracting from my immediate task of finding a way out of here.
        A street sign appeared to at least give this place a title: Fallsdale Road and Sixteen. It was a quaint neighbourhood lined with bungalows, thin trees and bushes. Many of the houses had vines growing along the windows and up the chimneys, flower beds atop porches like crown jewels, and a lit lamppost on the lawn lighting the way underneath our twilight sky. I made a turn left down Sixteen but half a block later I discovered it was actually Fallsdale.
       Occasionally a white mini-van would drive past me as I walked. The license plates were different on each one but the cars were identical. In the windows of one of the houses was a yellow banner reading:

                      THERE ARE NO WRONG TURNS, ONLY WRONG DIRECTIONS

       It made me feel uncomfortable for some reason. There was chirping coming from the sewer grates and streams of water along the branches of the thin trees. I quickened my pace and abruptly tripped over a bump in the sidewalk. On the ground was a penny, a dime and a nickel. As I was about to pick up the coins I remembered I didn't need bus fare: no bus runs on this street.
       I brushed myself off and slicked my hair with a pocket comb I keep in my jacket pocket. My appearance was important because I believed I was about to pass by '259 Fallsdale', where a pretty red-haired girl from my daydreams lives. I slowed my step as I came to the address, hoping covertly to sneak a peek in the window to see if she was there. The television was on full blast, bombarding the living room with flashing colours and static sounds of products. She was sitting there watching, her eyes hypnotized by the screen, her hair fading to white from red. I turned away and took a deep breath of fresh air, happy to be outside.
      A man jogging with a dog tapped my shoulder as he ran past me. The dog began barking and the sound faded as they disappeared into the distance down the street. Another white mini-van drove by and I heard the sound of barking approaching me. A man jogging with this dog tapped my shoulder as he ran past me. I heard the sound of barking fade as they went and then came the sputter of an engine igniting across the street. A white van drove past me and I crossed the street towards a silver car, where I thought the sound had come from. I knew this silver car and I knew these houses around it, but it was all unfamiliar to me.
      Along the sidewalk scurried a brown squirrel, rummaging the grass of the well kept lawns for anything of interest. It was pleasant but distracting, for my immediate task was finding a way out of here.