Sorry, I’ve been ill since last Thursday, so I haven’t been writing. This was a dream I had during that time that I remember.
If you’ve ever read my dream “Escaping the Id,” you’ll know that my subconscious likes to mess with me, even when I am lucid dreaming. Sometimes when I lucid dream, I still lack the control of what transpires around me.
A bit of Narnia, a little Robinhood, and a dash of soap opera amnesia, creates a control-less lucid dream that ranks as one of my weirdest dreams to date. Like “Escaping the Id,” I spent the entirety of the night running through dreamscapes. This time, however, I was searching for someone rather than running away from my own unconsciousness.
I “woke up” on the tile floor of my old high school’s hallway. My friend (M) is looking down at me — I notice she has crutches.
“Are you okay?” she asks, trying to help me up with only one good leg. I get up and immediately know something is wrong. I had been with someone, someone that I could not remember, but I knew that it was important that I did.
“I don’t think I’m supposed to be here,” I told her. M just shrugs and says we should just head to class and then maybe go see the nurse to make sure I am okay. Confused, but with little reason to actually argue, I followed her into the stairwell to the upper floor. I helped her slowly up each step. There was a flood of kids heading to class, and we were suddenly pushed against the wall. My friend’s backpack fell off her shoulder and onto the floor her stuff spreading everywhere. Once the area cleared, I helped her pick it up. I paused as I reached for the comic book that had come out of her bag. Comic book. Comic book…
I suddenly remembered who I was trying to remember. It had been a fictional character, someone that I actually used as my “Inception totem.” Whenever I notice or feel that something is “off” in a dream, I look for him. If I see him then I know I am dreaming (as he cannot exist in reality.) Snippets of memories flood my mind. I remembered that I had been lucid dreaming earlier and that I had been with my totem…but something had happened and I was now stuck in another part of my subconsciousness with no control over what was happening around me. I had to find my totem, I had to return myself to where I had been earlier. The problem was, I couldn’t remember where I had been.
“I have to go!” I told my friend as I helped her up the last stair. She nodded with understanding and walked away. I was on my own. I looked down to see that my school clothes had morphed into a t-shirt and underwear (which is what I wear to bed.) I was not embarrassed, as I knew that I was dreaming.
Focusing on the issue, I knew that I had to jog my memory of where I had last been. I figured that searching around my old high school mind give me some sort of clue as to where I had been. My first thought was the band room — I had been a band student after all.
As I wandered towards the band hall, I could hear music coming from the auditorium, so I stopped to check it out. I found the band on the stage of the auditorium, preparing for a concert that was going to take place in a few minutes. I could hear the murmurs of the crowd behind the black curtain. I stood there debating if I should talk to my band director when a new, sudden urge took hold.
I had to pee.
Now, I was frantic. I wanted answers, but feared that I would now wake up before discovering where my totem was. I mean, I knew it wasn’t a life or death situation, but I really, REALLY wanted to get back to where I had been. If I woke up, I risked not being able to continue my dream…but I didn’t want to wet the bed, either!
“Can you guy’s help me?” I asked loudly to the band. They all stared at me in annoyance.
“No,” my old director stated. “We are going to preform any second. “
“Oh, come on!” I shouted. I wasn’t about to be told off by dream people while I was starting to cross my legs in pain. I jumped into the center of the band to get their attention.
Then the curtain opened. The band continued to glare at me as the start to preform. Luckily, I was able to pretend to play a piccolo. I didn’t have to…but I couldn’t help but feel a little awkward about being on stage in my underwear (of all the clichés.) So I just played along, slowly scooting my way over to the side of the stage while still being stared down by the band.
Instead of an empty sideline, there was a concession stand hidden just off stage from the audience. It was a little burger stand, and some guy in his 40’s was deep frying some nuggets.
“Are you sure it’s safe to do that here?” I asked him.
“Girl, I’ve worked here for seven years. I know exactly what I’m doing.”
“And I’ve been lucid dreaming for nearly five, and I can tell you that where there is open flames in my dreams…they become fire. So knock it off.”
The guy rolled his eyes, but the cooking food disappeared.
“Man, I really have to pee,” I said aloud.
“Just remember to check the costume room when you get back,” the vendor said.
Then I woke up and went to the bathroom.
Normally, I do not return to non-nightmare dreams after waking up, but this time I did. I was so geeked to start where I left off.
I was now in the costume room behind the auditorium. (In reality, it’s a small, narrow room with a few racks of costumes and mirrors to put on makeup.) I looked around the small space, finding nothing. then, I see a gap between the two racks that is darker than it should be in the well-lit area. I shuffle my way between them. I push between them and as I move, the clothes seem to grow larger and the floor turns darker. Like in Lucy’s arrival to Narnia, I was now transported into a forest…only it was summer and I was still in my underwear and t-shirt.
Realizing that I should have tried to put on one of the costumes, I tried to find something else to wear. Dream or not, who wanted to spend an entire adventure in their underwear? Luckily, one of the costumes seemed to have fallen into the forest from one of the racks. I picked it up — it was green with matching tights and a bow and arrow — I’m not a fan of Robin Hood, but I was willing to take the tights and a weapon over sleepwear. Who said a woman couldn’t be Robin Hood, anyways?
Just as I adjusted the tights on my feet, I heard a carriage approaching. A large, ornately decorated carriage. Was now behind me.
“There he is, get him!” the royal Prince John. I was annoyed at being called a man, but I also found it hysterical that it was Disney’s anthropomorphic lion Prince John, rather than a human. Despite this humor, I was in no mood to stick around and fight. So I ran.
I ran through the woods, hearing the carriage close behind me. I was deep into the brush when I stumbled onto the ground. The lush green forest floor had morphed into desert sand. Sinking into the new, soft ground, I found myself staring up at a large, Egyptian structure. It wasn’t a pyramid, but more of a giant stone stage with a incline ramp leading up to it.
Ancient Egyptian people stood in Egyptian god masks on the stage in a circle. They were looking down at something in the center. I climbed up the ramp and onto the stage. I peeked between the broad shoulders of the Egyptians to catch a glimpse of what they were surrounding. I see a mummy lying in a coffin-sized hole carved out of the stage. It lacked a sarcophagus.
“What are you doing?” I asked Horus (or Ra, I can’t be sure.)
“We are reviving Tutankhamun,” he answered.
“But, he’s been dead for thousands of years…” I said, unsure about their plan.
“Why do you think we preserved our pharos so well?” he asked.
There was a crack of lightning that struck down in front of us, hitting the mummy in the chest. It twitched and yawned, then moved like someone who had just woken up from a deep sleep. The Egyptians surrounded him, catering to him like the king he was.
There was no moaning or creepy mummy curse; the young pharaoh just grumbled something and then clawed a bit at his face.
“He needs eyes,” Anubis said. “His have disintegrated…”
“You!” he said, pointing to me. “Do you have eyes worthy of our king?”
“No,” I lied. “ I have cataracts.” The dog-headed god gave me a skeptical look.”
“Prince John has far better eyes,” I said quickly, pointing at the carriage that had somehow managed to follow me into the sandy landscape. “They are worthy of medieval royalty, after all.”
“Then they shall suit our pharaoh for now,” he said, walking towards the carriage. I continued to stare at the resurrected mummified king while attempting to ignore the screams of Prince John. Anubis returned with the prince’s eyes in hand and popped them in the sockets of the pharaoh. King Tut blinked a few times then nodded with approval.
“This is not your place,” Horace/Ra said, noticing that I was still there. “What do you want?”
“I’m actually lost,” I said. “But I have no idea where I’m supposed to go.”
“Go that way,” He pointed to the horizon, which looked like a black, foggy mist.
“Are you sure?”
“I am a god. I am always sure.”
I shrugged, and decided to follow his direction. He at least was willing to directly help me. I started the long journey to the foggy abyss.
I was tossed into a raging storm of wind and misty darkness. I landed on a grassy hilly area, which I realized was a dream-scape version of my childhood neighborhood. The space between house was wider, the hills were larger, and the houses were bigger. Recognizing the very-familiar setting, I knew I was close to my goal. Despite knowing I was already asleep, I felt exhausted! I just wanted to find my token and return to the part of my dream that I was “supposed” to be in. The storm had torn my Robin Hood costume away and I was back in my sleepwear.
I stumbled through the wind and rain, towards some houses near the lake (which was also far larger than it is in reality.) I felt like one of those houses was important, rather than my actual childhood home.
I approached them, eyeing one that was buzzing with activity. As I got closer, I saw someone in the back garden. It wasn’t my token, but it was another fictional character that couldn’t exist in reality, so I had a feeling I was at the right place.
“Where have you been?” he asked as I stumbled onto the porch. The rain stopped.
I rolled my eyes and stumbled past him and into the home. My parents and brother were there, doing their own thing. I could see some of my extended family members and my fiance throughout the massive home, along with random people both real and fictional. I wandered around, trying to find my specific room. I saw dozens of bedrooms, each belonging to family or close friends, each room seemed to reflect their personality. (Random people/ fictional people did not seem to have their own room.) I was getting annoyed as it was not what I was looking for.
I saw an actor walking through the maze of a kitchen that was stocked with food and chatting people who were enjoying their meals. I called out to them.
“Hey, Danny Devito!” I shouted. He turned to face me. “Where is my totem?”
“Heck if I know…probably upstairs,” then he walked away.
I climbed the stairs to the second floor.
The second floor seemed to lack the numerous bedroom that the ground floor had. This floor was a huge open space, there were some sliding doors, but they were all open and made of glass, making the space feel even larger. There were no people on this floor, it was quiet.
There were lines of bookcases across the walls, each one packed with books. There rest was full of lab equipment. One chemistry lab, one with some huge computer, a planetarium, and a room with a capsule-shaped machine that was burnt and broken. I knew it was important, but I had no desire to go near it. It scared me. I chose to check out the planetarium instead.
I stood in the empty, white room. Trying to remember what had happened to me. The place felt familiar.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” I turned to see my totem at the entrance of the room. This triggered my memory. I remembered that I had created this home in my mind — a place where my passions flourished, where people I loved or enjoyed/found entertaining could come and go at will — my personal heaven. I had been on the second floor, experimenting on traveling through dreamscapes with my own transporter machine. It was just my totem and I, working on this insane project. Something had gone wrong, and I had been thrusted to another dreamscape and hit my head on the floor of my high school, getting amnesia.
“It’s been a hell of a dream…” I groaned. I felt tired, even in my sleep. I approached my totem and grasped his shoulder. “I’m ready to take a nap.”
“A dream within a dream?” he asked smugly.
“Pretty much,” I laughed. As I said this, a regular wooden door appeared between two large bookcases. I smiled and walked towards it.
The room behind the door was a bedroom. It was plainly decorated with blues and greens and furnished with light-colored wood. There were some books scattered around on the desk and bed stand. The bed was large (California king size) and faced a wall-mounted flat screen television. I flopped onto the bed. My totem stood in the doorway.
“Goodnight…” I yawned, snuggling into the the pillows.
“Or good morning,” he replied before closing the door. Then I was asleep.
I had a brief dream about shopping for lunch meat with my mother before waking up.
Dream Score: Really weird/10. I find it hard to give this dream a numerical score since it had several different scenes and emotions, but I would certainly mark it as a positive dream rather than a negative one.
Dream Journal 