We were playing this very game on a bitterly cold day recently; the inside of our "tent" was so warm and cozy that when I finally emerged, I was struck by the near cruelty of the real world by comparison: the bright light outside, filtered through a blanket of gray clouds and the many fallen needles underneath our Douglas fir.
I emerged finally, looking 30 years older than usual, to be met with a flurry of doctors and nurses and the first acknowledgement that this might be a bit more than run of the mill.
In the midwest, where I grew up, we have these traps for hornets where they fly in but can't fly out... When I finally found the stairs, I emerged on the main level from some sort of janitorial back-alley, only to notice that more members of The National were there.
And when I finally did come through it, I emerged a different person.
When I finally emerged from girl world, I discovered that some of the things I considered normal didn't necessarily happen in co-ed schools.
When I finally emerged from the tunnels, escorted by the police, I realized I had only $14 in cash on me.
I often look back on 1984 as one of the bleakest years of my life, a year when I finally emerged from the illusions of late adolescence to discover I'd spent two years in a kind of drifting, nebulous dreamtime.
When I finally emerged from the primary hall, it was a relief.
I finally emerged, resolved to leave the cake in its flaky, gorgeous simplicity.
When I finally emerged onto the dunes, clouds hung on the hills like smoke.
