Over the past nearly two weeks I have found it quite difficult to manage a normal night's sleep. First I'll have trouble just falling asleep, but then I will have successive series of dreams. Its been the same almost every night, but one of last night's dreams was pretty long and somewhat involved.
I'll give you the short-short review of the ones leading up to it.
1 - I was in a dark city, a city I have been in in other dreams. The skyscrapers and tall buildings are mostly bereft of light and seem dark brown like they are shrouded in the pitch black of 3am. But the buildings low to the ground, shops, doorways, etc... are all well lit and abundantly so with excessive use of neon, LEDs, and anything else to make it gorrishly bright by comparison to everything else. Especially when any other light to be found is dimmed out and subdued.... headlights appear as though someone has put a layer of black spraypaint over them. Anyway, that's the setting and I am traveling there over a series of broken/destroyed interstates. At one point a connector ramp is broken and I must take a ferry to reach the other side. Apparently ground travel is 'lowly' now though, since there are new tramways or railroads on a raised platform (hovering, actually) on which everyone seems to travel. Outside, the cars have a heavy blue glow underneath them and a light translucent blue glow around the rest of the shell. It seems like a new form of mass transit. With that in mind, perhaps traveling by car is not so much 'lowly' as it is outdated and expensive.... the mark of someone with money? I couldn't tell you. So I get into the city to hear someone important speak. The setting is an amphitheatre, but dug down into the ground and on a massive scale - perhaps 30,000 people can sit here. I find that I am down in the lowest rung or semi-circle. Must remember to tip the girl who sold me the tickets! lol But we're there, we are all moved by what we are listening to... a discertation of sorts, but we are motivated and enlightened. The feeling would be akin to listening to the founding fathers speak about revolution or maybe Jesus speak of the Kingdom of Heaven (great movie, by the way). I tend to think the talk was less spiritual and more mundane. As we were leaving, I noticed an old woman who is having difficulty getting down the steps and I notice two young Marines standing in her aisle waiting to get out. For some reason I find it within my power to order them to help her and they snap-to as though I were their Gunny. The man who was with the elderly woman thanks me, and he turns out to be another person of some importance. We exchange information and plan to get in contact the coming week. Then when I get to the surface, I find that I am late for one of the Trams out of the city and must wait in an unsavory place. I end up sharing a meal with a young college girl who is likewise stranded and we both share for our safety as we wait. Don't know why.
Ok, there were a few other snippets of dreams in between, but they're not worth mentioning. Now for the main act. I might not type it out to be as detailed or interesting as this last one, but it was the details to the plot itself that made it so interesting to me. Here goes...
The setting is a mountainous region - perhaps the Mid-West toward the Rockies, but given more thought it could have been the mountains of New York. I'm driving through a new section of roads with Shelley and we're in a large new SUV. We come to one section which has been recently repaired, perhaps a connection to the world of the prior dream? Regardless, as we go around the corner on what it now a narrow lane that can only have one vehicle going in any direction on it the truck slides on ice (it is wintery out, but there is no snow). It wasn't a terrible slide, but with large pine tree trunks all around (we're traveling in their great shadows) it was a bit nerve-wracking. There had been a sign not far behind us which stated something to the effect of 'Thank You for Traveling On Route 23' (I don't remember the number) and 'The Municipal Works Hopes You Enjoy This Newly Reformed Road and We Hope You Travel With Us Again.' It was a minor detail. But after the sliding, Shelley dropped a sarcastic "Yeah right" which made me laugh.
So now we're in whatever small mountain town that we were going to. But it's not a podunk place with quiet people. Instead, it seems to be a town full of wealthy people and egos. It's quite dark out now, but not necessarily late in the day since this is Winter. My parents and I are going to go pick Shelley up from some practice or performance. We don't all have to go, but since we don't see each other too much we figure it to be a lark to all go and get her, probably with the intent of going out for dinner afterwards. So I take my truck and the folks take their car - both vehicles are black and classy. I arrive first and manage to get a good parking spot close to whatever building this is. I am near the corner of the turn-around area of a rather large parking lot. The turn-around is the only section that gets close to the building, which lays out on three sides of the turning area. So the folks are a ways back. Geographically, the turn-around section has a small green with trees in it's middle. That section of grass narrows and travels down between the parellel strips of road going into and out of the turn. Spaced along the grassy section are small trees at regular intervals. On either side of the 6 foot patch of grass are parking spots along the way. 'South' of this strip is the main parking lot. I go from my parking spot at the northwest end of the turn to the southeast section of building which is on the right side of this area. There we find Shelley walking out with a lot of other people. I'm not sure what her purpose was in being here. Practice? A show? A game? I don't know. But she decided to go with the folks to wherever we're going. I say ok, and I'll catch up to them there. I walk back to the truck and I should point out that we've all been wearing dressy clothing... I'm in my Kashmere longcoat and wearing a nifty fitted blue work shirt with nice detailing like my Brooks Brothers favorite but I'm also wearing cufflinks. There is a conspicuous lack of a tie, thank God. And then just some nice suit pants and shoes (which in the real world would be deadly to wear in a wintry setting with any possiblity of snow or ice. As I'm getting into my truck a bunch of young guys are passing by on the grassy section in front of me. Two of them seem rowdy. The group looks young... probably college age, too old and big to be high school. Well, these two are yelling at each other and it's escalating quickly. I'm sitting in my seat with the door almost closed when I see the angrier guy of the two (on the left) bring up a bottle and smash it over the back of guy 2's head right in front of my truck which has the headlights on... dropping him immediately. I figure that was possibly a killing shot, remembering Rob Glidden's assault from a few years ago. So I'm back out of the car now. The other guys are not interfering with Guy 1, or Kid 1, whatever. The rest of them seem to be both shocked and in fear, but also this Kid with the bottle holds some unofficial power position over the group, like he's the leader. So I get out of the truck and my blood is up - this kid is going down...hard. I take a step forward and use my angry dog voice (the 'I'm going to kill you' voice that would scare people if I ever used it in public, but I've only had to use it twice to get Star to come when I've called her so she wouldn't get run over or cause a problem) Anyway, now he and I are engaged in a way. The rest are still shocked and either helping their other friend on the ground or dumbfounded and still watching what's going on. I'm trying to get this kid to drop the sharp remains of the bottle, but I find out that he's not drunk like I had thought.... you know, fight, bottle...drunk, right? No, he's flying on some sort of drug. His hand is bleeding from the bottle and he doesn't even realize it yet. As we're yelling, he is escalating out of control and I'm quickly realizing this is going bad. And still, none of the other guys are getting involved. Shit! So I flick that switch in my head that says "He's not going to feel anything, but he's going to attack me and I have to defend myself now... which means not just fighting, I'm going to have to hurt him... possibly very much so" and so I am preparing myself for what's about to come. But he has another idea as he pulls out a pistol.
I've already been riding the adrenaline highway and tense with the setting, but now the moment nearly freezes and I can hear each heartbeat coming painfully slow. I would call this the fear of death. Or more accurately, the fear of IMMINENT death - such as when the Corvette went off the road. In my head, I knew I was going to die heading towards trees and cement blocks. That was it and I knew it. Same in this dream. Nothing you can do against a pistol. In the meantime he has brought it up to fire.... and the first round goes wild. Is he messing with me, or is he too high-strung to shoot straight? I don't wait for another chance, I bolt behind the truck as another round follows me. I'm pretty sure the truck is armored... you know me, lol. But in the heat of the moment, that understanding has gone clear out of my head or I would have just jumped back into my seat and slammed the door. Somewhere between the fight and the gunshots, a crowd had drawn in... but was now scattering quickly. I ran around the right side of the truck and through a few people who didn't realize I was involved and that the gun would soon be coming this way. As I moved behind another car I dropped my jacket and tried to filter back through the crowd and disappear so this guy couldn't find me. I know, REAL brave right? But there's nothing I can do against a gun, and I'm not going to risk my life in this situation. If he was going to hurt someone ELSE, then yes, I'd risk it. But it's just this guy firing a few rounds at me, no one else. I should note that there were several more shots before I dropped the jacket. I had been counting the shots for some reason as it happened, but then I realized ...what the f_ck am I doing? This is a pistol, not a revolver. It could have 7 shots or 17, I have no way of knowing. That was the point where I decided to drop the jacket and mix into the crowd. So that was it... I got away. What happened next is a blur and I don't remember it.
And that's how it went in the dream, too. The next thing I know, it's the next day and I'm sitting in an office with a Police Officer answering questions for him. At first I think it's about the kid who got beat last night and what happened afterwards. So I'm at ease. But then I realize that the guy with the gun has turned up dead. Uh oh. And furthermore, it turns out he was murdered in what appeared to be his own bedroom - in his parents' house? Because of my involvement the night before, the police are questioning me. But as the conversation goes, it becomes apparent through intonation and body language that the cop thinks I did it. More surprisingly, he is asking questions in such a way as to suggest my response and he is acting as though he is helping me get away with it. For some reason, this kid was NOBODY'S favorite and he seems to have had a lot of enemies. They found his corpse and they found a big needle mark where the drug he used was injected. It had a name in the dream, three words making an acronym starting with A, but I don't remember the rest. Anyway, it's like a combat drug - maxes out adrenaline, is full of amphetamines, makes him fear nothing, etc. So he went nuts. But as the cop is talking, he's saying how a vehicle matching my truck's description had been seen outside the house. Then he says, nah, the witness was an old person so it was probably just as likely to be some nondescript dirty formerly tan van, right? So he keeps writing and asking questions saying they haven't found the kid's car yet. And I do a flashback or vision thing..... suddenly I am not in the office, but seeing through someone else's eyes as they squat in the tall grass trying very hard not to be seen as they watch a person dowsing a car in gasoline and toss a match in the back seat before getting in the rusty old van behind it and pushing it into a ravine.
So all of a sudden the dream has become a mystery. Who was this kid? His family seems to have been powerful, but for some reason people are covering things up. And then, why was he fighting with the kid he beat up? More importantly, why did the cop so strongly believe I had killed him? And why was he 'helping' me? Why didn't I remember the rest of the night before? Who burned the car and killed the kid at his house? So I wanted to write this all down, because it felt like the beginning of a good murder/mystery book. I also wanted to write it down because this all happened before when I dreamed the entire story of the book 'Once' by James Herbert in the first-person perspective before I ever read it, and this dream was so detailed that it had a similar feel to it.
Anyway.... just another night of dreams! (and little sleep)
Great book, I highly suggest it...
...and if you read it, try to put yourself in Thom's skin as though he were you.
