A PEDESTRIAN GUIDE TO THE ALTERNATIVE ROUTE SYSTEM
Seventh Edition (Revised)
Compiled by: Dr. Rachel Wallace, Urban Geographer
Publisher: Small Compass Press
Price: Free
Duration: Unmeasurable
Difficulty: Moderate (if you’ve lost someone), Impossible (if you haven’t)
Begin where the street remembers its old name.
Turn left. Walk three blocks. You’ll smell your grandmother’s kitchen at the third intersection, even if you never knew her. Or cologne, or rain on funeral day, or nothing—some losses smell like absence.
The route curves. The street continues straight. But your path curves.
You will arrive somewhere connected to your loss (hospital, your childhood house, a cafe where you once felt okay, a bench where you realized you’d survived).
Or: you’ll walk three blocks, smell nothing, feel self-conscious.
Both are valid.
ROUTE 2: THE PERIPHERAL SENSE PATH
Duration: 15 minutes to indefinite
Difficulty: Easy to enter, hard to trust
Begin where something pulls without explanation.
Don’t ignore it. Don’t rationalize it.
The pull is directional. Feel which way it leads. Walk that direction.
If gut: Your stomach will guide you at intersections. Pause. Feel which way pulls. Go.
If scent: It may smell like rain before it falls, your childhood bedroom, something burning far away, nothing at all but your nose insists. Walk where it pulls.
If other: Trust it the same way.
Do not try to identify the source. Do not look for rational explanation.
Landmarks: You’ll recognize them when you arrive.
Caution: This route relocates. Do not assume repeated access.
ROUTE 3: THE PATTERN-RECOGNITION WALK
Duration: Unknown
Difficulty: Impossible to explain
Accessible to: [ ]
You cannot follow this route. It must recognize you.
Do not attempt without prior experience with Routes 1-2.
Estimated cost: Free (consequences variable)
Best time to walk: When you feel the compulsion.
What to bring: Nothing.
Recommended footwear: Whatever you’re already wearing.
Group walks: Not recommended.
Do not follow these routes if you need to arrive somewhere specific. They take you where you need to go.
If you feel lost, you probably are. This is normal.
About the author: Dr. Rachel Wallace teaches urban geography and walks the Alternative Route System every Thursday. She has been lost seventeen times. She has been found sixteen times. She considers this acceptable.
Contact: alternativeroutes@smallcompass.press
Libby Banks is a therapist and writer examining neurodivergent cognition, systems of legibility, and the ethics of attention. Her essays have been featured in Mad in America, Disappointed Housewife, and elsewhere. She lives and works in New Mexico.
Image: ashishkumar2287, morguefile.com
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