(idea) by stash Mon Jan 15 2001 at 0:10:27
A Long Night

  • Watching an avante garde stage play with Genery. We have to leave a few minutes before the ending and we've been instructed to exit the building by going on stage and walking out through the back. We comply and are congratulated by the cast and director as we make our exit. Hired for a babysitting gig by one of my CS professors, we stop by his house beforehand to pick up the kid's favorite toy: a large monkey with a tin drum. It's pretty late at night and the prof is sleeping soundly as we sneak in the front door. Genery comments on the fact that he's an enormous human being. We pick up the toy but accidently awaken the man. He's not upset and engages us in conversation for a bit. While we're talking, a faint voice comes from the front door asking for food. Somehow we know it's a ruse and the prof runs into his room for a gun. I jump down the hallway thinking Genery will follow but she stands there dumbfounded. I grab her and push her down as a dark shape appears in front of me and makes a quick gesture towards me. I feel a little prick near my arm and continue my movement of falling to the ground. Once there I feel the area with my other hand and discover I've been stabbed and am bleeding profusely from the left side of my chest. I am able to communicate this much to Genery before I pass out from blood loss. Dream ends.

  • Sitting on a bench, a friend of mine appears, David Shue. I haven't seen him in a long time and he berates me for not staying in touch with him. We then join a group of people, including my dad, and drive to a nearby house. I am forced to drive a manual shift car which I am a little rusty at, nearly getting into an accident as I attempt a u turn in the middle of Farmer's Lane near the freeway onramp. We arrive at the house and are greeted by the actor Christopher Plummer. The other people I'm with depart, leaving me with Plummer and his secretary. They tell me they're going to make me into a movie star and begin to take digital photos of me. There is a live feed to a workstation on the desk but it's going through some realtime transform and my face looks like an alien's head inside a metal cage. This gives me the creeps and I back away. Plummer shows me a digital pad with slides of computer generated girls, as if to entice me. I keep backing away and Plummer loses it, shouting metaphysical curses at me which imply that he knows I think this is a dream but I am sadly mistaken. Fire then leaps towards me and catches my shirt. I stumble out the door and run down the street. I have the rare existential fear of the lucid dreamer who encounters a self aware dream demon. As I catch my breath I wonder if it all wasn't an illusion, as his threats had implied, if my whole waking world wasn't actually the fantasy and this horror film the reality.

  • My girlfriend's roommate stands over her sleeping form and asks me, "Does she always wear ear plugs while she sleeps?" In my own bed, I shrug in response.

  • Between dreams: I glimpse the background dream machinery. I witness the dream compiler physically assemble a reality from the dream source code.

  • Swimming in a river near Yreka, California with my friend Adam's entire family and my friend August. A cardboard display has scanned photographs of Adam's brother Erik's new baby boy, Sage. Everyone is so proud and happy for the new addition to the family and this river party is to commemorate the event.

  • I meet Mario at a closed gas station at the top of a hill near some railroad tracks. He drives up in his white Suburu and I tell him I'll meet him somewhere else in town. He agrees and drives back down the hill. I climb in my white Ford Escort, eyeing the locals across the street at a convenience store, and follow him down the hill.

I like it!