Secrets

Chapter 33

The thought of wandering the streets of a city or a very large town alone is often seen as a scary and disorientating experience, a word which here means leaving someone feeling confused and helpless. Whether you are just arriving in the city for the first time and are completely lost or you already live in said city and are in an unfamiliar section, trying to find any destination with winding, busy, and often poorly lit roads can leave a person feeling as if they will never escape their dilemma. The situation is often compared to that of a rat working its way through a maze towards the reward of a hardened piece of cheese. The confused and helpless rodent is often forced to navigate a poorly constructed labyrinth of cardboard, making wrong turns, and meeting dead ends, to receive a mediocre prize of food. The purpose for such an ordeal to be placed upon the small animal is still not clear, even when I did my own research and watched a friend's pet do this exact task. However, I can conclude that it is quite a saddening thought to consider yourself a rat in the maze, where you are unable to find your way and you endure a long process to be given not even a doughnut or perhaps a fritter for your efforts.

I will never attempt to compare Holly Snicton to that of a rat, but her journey into the city does mirror quite a lot of this science experiment, except for having a map with her, something that most rodents do not have nor can read to navigate. Firstly, she had just arrived in the city for the first time. While she had been on the bustling streets before, she was much younger and with her parents who knew where to go, and she simply had to follow them. This was the first time that she was truly alone and now walking down the streets of a very large city without any thought of where she needed to go. Secondly, she constantly made wrong turns despite having a map, that led her in a direction she did not want to go, and she ended up walking onto dead-end streets or parking lots. She was flustered and confused at this happening in the labyrinth of the city. And finally, her reward was not necessarily mediocre but not what would be considered a prize... to find and rescue her friends the Quagmires.

Discouraged and frustrated, Holly sat down on a nearby bench and placed her bags down next to her. She took a deep breath and pulled her hair up to allow her to clear her mind. Perhaps the fear of doing this on her own overwhelmed her but now she was doing as her parents had taught her... "if you ever get lost, stay in one place, ask for help and we will find you." Of course, the last part could no longer occur as one parent had died, and the other was in the city somewhere, but he did not know that she had followed him. She thought about trying to find his taxicab but in a city so large, the odds were extremely poor as there were likely thousands of taxis on the city streets and calling him was not possible either. Holly decided to complete the other instructions; stay put and perhaps ask for help... if the person can be trusted. She removed her map from her bag, which she had marked with the places that were safe and unsafe according to VFD. She looked up at a nearby street sign and then tried to find them on the map but was still struggling due to the small print. Eventually, she did find the spot and she traced her finger along the paper to find the nearest safe place.

However, there was not one that didn't require the use of the city trolley or another taxi. Holly wanted to save her money for the time being. Her eyes then fall onto a place that she had circled twice. It was simply labelled MMM and the reason that it was circled twice was that it was a location that VFD did not know whether it was safe or not. Due to her being dropped off in the financial district, it was likely a bank of some kind, but was it safe? Could there be someone there that she could trust? I can say that most banks are safe for your finances and investments, but not always due to the possibility of there being a robbery.

Knowing that she did not have much of a choice and had to start somewhere, she stood up and prepared to walk in the direction of MMM.

However, she did not make it very far until she bumped into a person.