Dreams
At first, it was nothing. I was just in Cristy's house (not her real house, but a much bigger one I had dreamt up before). We were playing some strange type of card game with rules I don’t remember on the kitchen counter. We didn't talk. Hell, we didn't look at each other. We just put down the cards as the game required.
I woke up then and saw it was still early, so I decided to go back to bed for a bit. I almost instantly I fall asleep again, head barely touching the pillow before I fell asleep. This time, my dream was not as placid.
I saw only black at first, but soon letters began to form. "The House with 22 Rooms" said the white letters. It was very painfully obvious to me, in that way that obscure facts are so painfully obvious in dreams, that I was seeing a movie. Not watching. Seeing. Soon they faded and others took its place. Names and positions came on momentarily, one by one, and left before anyone could appreciate what James Graffor contributed to the movie. I noticed, however, that the black background had begun to fade into a black and white scene while the credits had been playing. The credits stopped and the scene had begun.
It was a well-lit bathroom that, despite its cheery light, had a very somber attitude about it. There was no sound. Two kids were playing with ball near the door. They played in the same manner that I had played cards with Cristy. No thought or feeling went into it, they just played as if they had too, but didn't mind all that much. The camera panned to the right to show a large sink with a woman in it (very painfully obvious it was the kids mother). She was naked and bathing, back arched and legs crossed. Her nipples had censor boxes over them and her hair was the of the style one associates with Marlin Monroe. The camera continued to pan to the right and showed a man (obviously the dad) with a rather large dick getting into the tub. The woman noticed him and got out of the sink, standing to one side. The man came over to the other side of the sink and began talking to her. The camera centered on the sink with the two lovers on either edge of the screen. The camera slowly zoomed out and showed a bed coming out of under the sink, its side pressed against the side of the tub. The man suddenly stepped out of the tub and slipped, impossibly, through the small gap between the bed and the tub. The woman then went under the bed as well, and just like that, the camera zoomed out enough to show my face, staring into the camera.
I idly realized, though not enough to wake up, that I was dreaming and as such, seeing me stare back at myself was a bit strange. Pulling back, though, I see that I had just been looking into a mirror. Now, at least, there was some sound and full color. I look around and see that I'm in my bathroom as it usually is, save for a bed pressed against the tub. I don't move, not wanting to disturb the people under the bed. I move backwards towards the door and wait. After a bit of nothing (still deathly quiet), I check under the bed. No one's there. I saw them go down there, so I know something's weird. I think, "I must be dreaming. Pinch damn it!" and do try, but my fingers fall off before I could. I sigh and think, "Now I'll never know", and instead look around and forget about the fact that I may be dreaming. I lost my last chance out before the bad shit started. I go out the door, but without any real recollection of touching the door, I end up in the TV studio of the school.
I was at the table near the back of the room with Mario, trying to make up a game with beads. I look to my left and see Daniela by the door, flirting with some guys. Pisses me off, but I seem to not care enough. Mario and I kept working on the game. Someone else was helping us. It felt like it was a few days before school ended, us just sitting there doing nothing, feeling as if we were missing something because of it. Daniela came over and said hi. She hugged me but then went straight back to the guys by the door. That made me hate her. Someone looked up at the clock and get very quiet. Others started to do the same and rather quickly there wasn't a sound to be heard. Mario had picked up the beads and was walking slowly to the door. I got up and followed, wondering what was going on. Someone opened the door and left with a look that said, "I'm getting out before this goes down". Assuming a huge number of people were going to steam down the hall, I grab Daniela's hand and leave since, mad as I was at her, I didn't want her to suffer. We walk out the door and go down the small hall to the side of the main hallway we always leave by. We stand by the door that leads out and hesitate, afraid of something. Finally I get impatient and open the door and we walk outside.
As we leave the bell rings. The sky is that iron gray color it gets when it's cold and may rain. There was a bit of a breeze, enough for the branches on the trees to sway, but not much more. It was very cold, but I didn't notice, or care. We walked towards the Science building, a rectangle added to the grounds after the main building, connected only by a open but covered hallway on the second story. The building has two stairs ways, one on either side. I walk past the first flight of stairs since I imagined that Daniela wanted to eat, but she let go of my hand as I walked passed it. She looked at me as I walked a bit further without her and turned. She called me an idiot and went up the stairs. I kept going down the long side of the building to buy her some food anyway, but I realize to late that no one was selling food. I keep walking to the other stairs, as they're closer, and walk up the first flight. I reach the landing and turn to go up the next flight a notice that it's not there. I look down and it looks as if the second flight never existed, but a quick look up shows where it had connected to the second story seemed as if the stairs had crumbled. I look to in the corner of the landing and see TC. He looks at me, the crumbling bit of rock that used to be the last few steps of the stairs, and at me again. Then he just laughed. It was all very quiet except for that laugh.
I went to the other set of stairs and got to the top. Instead of a familiar open hallway two stories high, however, I was several stories in the air and on the roof. There were picnic tables up there. Daniela was sitting at the closest one, flirting with some other guys now. I sat next to her and neither of us acknowledged the other. It was windy up there and I was glad to have a sweater. I looked over and saw that the guys were gone but Daniela was still there next to me and looked very cold. I take off my sweater and turn to give it to her, but it's too late, and I'm in another room.
Not another room, actually. Just back in my bathroom. The light was on, but you could tell it was dark out. I walk to the window to look, but something in the mirror stops me. I see a huge black man yelling at me, though no sound came through the mirror. He seemed very, very mad. I find that I'm thirsty and take a sip of water from a cup on the shelf behind me. The moment I do, though, the man becomes near insane. I realize that he's thirsty. So in the infallible logic of dreams, I turn on the faucet under the mirror, knowing that will get him water. He looks better for a moment, but then his cheeks begin to billow out and his eyes being to leak tears (or tap water). I turn the water off, but I just get yelled at again. I try to find a comfortable amount of water, but I always got yelled at or he was about to die. Finally I turned the water on just a little, figuring that would be enough to keep him alive, and went to the window.
I look out and see that it's dark. I think "That's good, maybe I stopped dreaming" and I open the window to make sure what's there is supposed to be there. Once the windows fully open, I see my fence at an angle, like it should be, and train tracks on the other side. A train goes by on the tracks, making a huge amount of noise, though not for long. I think, "Good, everything's where it's supposed to be". Except that our fence is supposed to be parallel to our house and there are no train tracks behind us. I turn around and the man in the mirror is still alternating between yelling at me and blowing up. I ignore him and walk towards the door. Again, without remembering ever touching the door, I'm somewhere else.
This time, I seem to have only gone a few steps. I was in my sister's room as it is now. Large bed in the far corner, drawers in front and beside me, all the same, except the window in the far wall was now much bigger. I could see out it easily and saw, not the dark 3 AM angled fence and train tracks I saw before, but instead I saw a large back yard, with a tall fence surrounding it far back enough that I didn't feel it really imprison you in the yard so much that just showed you where it ended. The gate was open, and several girls’ bikes were in the yard under a large tree. This was not my backyard. The ground was covered in leaves. You could tell it was fall. Not the south Florida fall either. A real Fall. Reds and oranges and yellows all were bright in the view; even the fence and the bikes were bright warm colors, but it all had the feeling of a superficial cheerful cover over a very, very dead place. I look at the bed and Rikku, my kitten, pops up out of the covers, playing happily with a string until she sees me. She acts as if she's never seen me and is very afraid. So I turn to leave and end up in another room never having touched the door or walked in the hallway between them.
I was in my living room now. Everything looked like it should have, except outside. Even that, the only differences was that it looked like Fall, just as the backyard did and a single black pole stuck in the lawn that wasn't there before. I look down and I seem my mother. She's sitting on the floor, leaning against the arm of the couch, playing the original Harvest Moon on the TV; even though it was actually an emulator run from the computer Daniela gave me. I look back and see a small black computer tower where mine used to be, with a small black monitor. I looked outside again and noticed something. All the houses had a dead look to them. They had that look that houses get when no one lives in them for years on end. There were leaves all over the street to, as if no one used it anymore. I knew there was only my mom, the kitten, and I in the world. I watch my mom play, and she was alternating between farming and throwing skeletons against the virtual walls so they won't kill her. I ask, "How did you hook up Nani's computer to the TV?"
She looked at me strangely and said, "Who's Nani? Did you mean Nono? He gave me the computer." She patted the computer tower. Nono is grandfather in Greek or Italian.
"No", I said, "Nani is my nick name for Daniela"
Again I got the strange look.
"My girlfriend?" I offer, hoping she'll remember, wanting desperately for her to.
"You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend,” she said, disinterested. She just continued to throw skeletons against the wall in the game. I notice the TV is one we haven't had for a while and immediately realize it's three years ago, despite not having lived in this house that long. I look outside again and see the black pole again. This time I notice what it is though. It's a sickle and, with a small tilt of my head, I see a caricature of the grim reaper. Such a thing shouldn't cause much fear in anyone, as it looked like it was just a man in rags, trying to be scary. This being a dream, however, I knew, like I knew the man and woman in the bathroom were married and that the man in the mirror could get water from the sink, that this guy was very much Death, and was very much interested in me. He began to walk towards the door as I pleaded with my mom to help me. She just kept watering crops and killing skeletons though, sometimes ignoring me, sometimes saying "Stop bothering me." I started to cry, knowing that running wouldn't get me away from that wraith and only by getting her help could I live. She just kept ignoring me, and I cried harder knowing that of the only live creatures left in the world, one feared me and the other didn't care if I died. The wraith passed out of view of the window and was at my door.
I woke up then and, once I saw that I was not going to die and the most I had to worry about was my cat, Misha, making me lay in an awkward position, I promised myself that I wouldn't go back to sleep for "just a bit more" for a while.