Dream Journal

I remember exploring deeply for long periods through endless underground caves, going deeper and deeper with smaller or larger groups of friends, equipped with flashlights, laser pointers for stopping spiders and scorpions, and perhaps a gun or other weapon. This time we had a large group including Joshua. There was a single small flashlight but we were only 15 minutes in when we discovered no one had brought anything more. A good supply of flashlights and batteries was always required. I had an absurd little weapon: a finger-sized device that stuck out inch-long green and red brushes and turned. This we used only to dispatch a scorpion in a tiny sand-covered room before the power ran out. We next had to descend into a room through a narrow opening where a crazy witch-woman was screaming. I wish we’d had the gun or something at this point.

Somehow we made it into her chamber and it was lit and she was gone; she’d gone to get something for us — a gift. While we waited, we talked. They asked how far it was and I said it took about 3 hours to get to the puzzle chamber where I had once gotten, but had lost my light and been unable to solve all 3 puzzles. They were large chambers, reminiscent of underground video game dreams. But my friends balked at the time, especially as we had spent 15 minutes waiting for the witch woman’s gift. Soon after that she reappeared, still green and monstrous but far less dead-looking and afraid. She presented me a hard hat with four flashlights containing full batteries! Thrilled, I strapped the hat on and continued, but I think the others had left.

The Catacombs seem a lucidity challenge — a struggle against distraction. And what lay at the bottom? Again, I had an intimate awareness of time passing through the night.