Two realms of existence described most extensively in notes I passed to Arlene Schneier in 5th grade in Mrs. Rand’s class in P.S. 139.
The inhabitants of both realms had a blurred individuality, or better, their individuality was super-personal but in different ways. The beings in Lumber were arranged in orderly ramified hierachies while the beings in Dodedorania — or “the Dodedorain” — were a chaotically seething mass.
In a drawing I made in a notebook a horrified man who has just come to Dodedorania from our universe is informed by a dancing monster with an arm coming out of the top of its head “In the Dododorane, no earth creature stays the same…You’ll Be INHUMAN BEFORE DAWN!”
The notes I passed were from creatures struggling to explain their perspective as beings not possessed of individual, unique personalities to Arlene.
Arlene compassionately sought to understand the struggles of her dialogue partners in Lumber as suffering from loneliness and emotional pain and to alleviate it.
Where she is now, I do not know.
Eric Linus Kaplan 
My Arlene was Jaime Philippe. I didn’t know how to talk to her, either. Didn’t pass her any notes; mostly I just acted stupid whenever she was around. She seemed to like me anyway. 🙂
where do these people go?
My Arlene was Ray. Tall, dark hair and incredibly good looking. I don’t know why he had to write notes, he could have been very confident. I was 14 he was 16. He’d pass the notes to me in the hallway at school, neatly folded into a small triangular shape. I’d wait till study hall to open them and read them. One note in particular had Ray as the captain of a ship and he cast me as the beautiful maiden. Beautiful innocent story. I was way too young to appreciate how he felt. – – – – My girlfriends and I used to go to the YMCA dances on Friday night. We live in a very small town. Ray worked at the A&P store till 9:00 on Fri. evenings. He would come straight from work to the Y still in his white shirt and ask me to dance. “Would you dance with me?” He smelled of celery and produce. He never said a word for the 3 minutes the songs lasted. We never dated. Several years later he married a nice woman and she helped him through college. I ran into her shortly after his graduation and she told me how well he had done at University, and she told me he hadn’t yet gotten over me. I didn’t know he was serious, because he never said. He died in his late 40’s. I can’t remember the name of the ship.
It wasn’t a fellow student who brought me to this post last night, but a fictional philosophy professor, when I rewatched the YS episode with Prof. Dora Ericson. Something tells me that the path that led to that story might not have always been an easy one (should I hope I’m wrong? I’m not sure).
What a neat coincidence that people pass notes to each other in this story too (some coincidences are so very charming, aren’t they? Sometimes the heart even skips a beat).
I hope Arlene is happy wherever she is. Prof. Ericson, now that she is, will stay happily and forever.
Thank you for both stories.
I’m glad you liked them!