Mixed-up

I was in central Texas in the country. There were mountains with snow on them and a small town. I was flying a small helicopter down a road about fifteen feet off the ground, touching down every twenty yards then bouncing back into the air. I was looking for a settlement where I was meeting Brad.

I found the settlement but I was alone there. I walked down the road to a homestead. They were Mormons, and there were twenty silent children standing in concentric circles in the yard with their heads bowed. I watched from the edge of some trees. A man walked up to a little girl and lifted her up to his mouth. He pierced her head with a long needle tooth and she cried out that she didn't want those thoughts and didn't want to be bad. He was going to infect her to make her do bad things.

I was in a bedroom that had a shelf running around all four walls. There was a small toy horse. It suddenly galloped down the shelf, turned the corner, and mounted another toy animal sitting on the shelf.

I was in a building back in the settlement, but this time there were other people. I looked out of a window facing the street as a parade of college students made its way by. As it passed, other students came out of the building across the street to join in. A bloody lamb-wolf with the skin peeled off its legs rushed through the parade and attacked someone on the curb. I felt like I was the lamb-wolf and I didn't want to be. It had no mind and was like a robot. It was viscious and wanted to attack as many animals as it could.

Red Jacket

I was in a middle school in the hallway. I saw a red jacket on the floor outside of a classroom. I picked it up and went into the classroom and asked the students, who were all 9 year old Latino boys, if someone had lost it. They all turned around in their desks to look at me, and three of them excitedly raised their hands to claim it.

River stairs

Brad and I were climbing up a river. There was a smooth polished wooden ramp next to the river, a rocky path next to that and railroad tracks next to that. Altogether it was only about a yard wide. It was very steep and I didn't feel safe on the wooden ramp, so I climbed on the rocks instead. We came to an impassable cliff and I had to get back on the wooden ramp, but a train was coming. Brad said there wasn't enough room for us to stay where we were because the train would take up all the space as it passed, so we scrambled down and jumped into the river. We floated around a bend and came up to shore.

Rat?

I was woken up by the feeling that Kitty Jack had just run across my bed and launched himself off of my head into the hidey-hole in the corner where a bunch of junk is stacked up. At first I wanted to stay asleep because I was warm and so sleepy, but then I wondered how Jack got into my room. And why didn't I hear the tag on his collar jingle? Thinking about this woke me up enough that I realized I had to pee, so I got up to go the bathroom, turning on my overhead light and leaving my door open. The bathroom is just across the landing, so I could watch for Jack to come out of my room. So I was peeing and I looked up to see Jack sitting on the landing looking at me. Did he just come out of my room? Or did he come up the stairs or out of Adrienne and Doug's room when he heard me get up? I went back to bed and wondered if I should rummage through all the junk in the corner to look for a rat. Or maybe it was just a dream?

Dad

We were in Texas and Dad was being presented with an award for Best Citizen by a church group. I was surprised because he isn't religious and doesn't like church. The award ceremony was held at an auditorium. Instead of walking up the steps to the doors with everyone, I went to a clothes store to shop for a red dress with Adrienne. I walked through the store taking one of each red dress. I went into the dressing room with a helper to try them on. I wore them inside out and unzipped. I felt guilty about not being at the award ceremony, so I went back to the auditorium. The ceremony was over, and everyone was camping. The landscape was hilly and terraced with caves and highways. I found a pool to swim in. Each lane had a different color water in it--pink, blue, red, and yellow--and they were of different depths. I dove into a very shallow one but landed on my feet. I swam laps but the pool wasn't very long.

Ocean

I got a phone call from a guy who had been a trombone-player in band in middle school. He said he was in town and could he stay at my place. I didn’t know him at all, and I asked him how he found me. He said everyone knew I moved to Oklahoma, and from there, it had been easy to track me to Corvallis. I said he could stay and he came over. I was going on a date with Brad to the movies that night. When Brad showed up, the trombone-player came out of his room dressed and ready to go. I hadn’t invited him, but I decided to let him come along. I wasn’t very nice about it.

Then I was in the ocean with a group of people. I lay down and let a huge wave crash down on me. It pinned me to the ocean floor, but it didn’t hurt at all. It was exciting and fun. When I swam to the surface, there was a row boat with the trombone-player in it. It was stalled in the process of capsizing, and he was holding on sideways, about to fall out. This was very funny to me. Then a huge wave came and picked me up one hundred feet in the air. I kicked my feet and pumped my arms like I was running as I fell through the air in the white-wash. I wasn’t scared. I was just having a great time. I woke up laughing.