Dream Journal

We were on a cruise ship. There were two groups of friends that were friendly to each other. Out one door was a multi-level deck right out to the ocean. People were playing in the waves like it was a beach. But then some huge dark waves came — the biggest ever seen. A few friends stayed out there but I went near the door to the inside of the cruise ship. When the waves hit, they came all the way up to the door and washed me inside and down the hall. I went back to the door and some cruise staff said I couldn’t go out there but I said my friends were out there and went anyways. I couldn’t see them anymore. Back inside, I went to this big room and hung out with the second group of friends in their fancy car. My friends had built this amazing car that was purple and green and had a big tail thing with three spikes. It had two seats in the front, three in the middle, and two in the back. The three in the middle were in a V formation.

This group had been part of the dream on and off, like their group and ours were friends. There was a girl in this group who I kind of liked, and she apparently liked me, though I was shocked to find that out because she had a boyfriend. I never saw him, but I knew of him.

In THIS particular playing of the story, I kept getting in car accidents — big, head-on collisions that totally wrecked the cars involved. It happened twice while driving around town with some friends, and then again after I’d had three drinks, so I was a bit woozy. The policeman said I was in big trouble since they’d taken my license already. He wondered what they were going to do with me. I pretended that I was blind, hoping to distract him from the fact that I was drunk, and my friends played along. It worked somehow. He didn’t haul me away and the story could continue.

Then there was a show-down between the authority figures of the college and my friends and I. We were out along the street and there was a teacher that was a constant antagonist. There were accusations hurled at me, but we brought up something from the antagonist’s past that was worse than what he was accusing us of and he left in shame.

We got into the car, and another group of friends were in their car, and we headed out driving together. I’m in the V because I finally remembered I couldn’t drive. So we’re heading down the freeway, driving fast and crazy. I’m telling them to be careful and make sure NOT to do anything dangerous — I didn’t want to be involved in another accident. We passed some trucks, and then some semis carrying gasoline. The cars lost control and we careened into them, barely avoiding being crushed as we slid and smashed our way through the tipped, leaking semis. I saw fires start, and I thought we were dead for sure, but we were all flying forward outside the wrecked vehicles. We landed in a ditch filled with water on the side of the road, and, continuing at the same speed, careened off rocks and such as we continued down this rock-strewn waterway which turned from the road and went between concrete guardrails and into the city. We spilled out into the road downtown. The roads were water, but looked dark like roads. There were piranhas in the water. They were passive at first, but when I became afraid that they would begin biting us, they did.

I remembered this part of the story where we got on the sidewalk, walked into this travel agency storefront, out the back, around this corridor, and then we were near our dorm. As we return to the dorm, I’m cursing myself for continuing to drive when they suspended my license. How could I keep forgetting? Where was my memory? I made a mental effort to drive the point home. Do not drive. Remember! When we got to the dorm, I was with someone like Paul from high school. We started taking the elevator up and down between floors 4 and 2. Then I let it go higher than 4 (the top floor), and hit stop at a weird time. It opened to a totally bizarre half-floor! Someone had gone through all this effort to build a “scary” Halloween-esque scene up there, with painted doors that had heads poking out and spears and some words on the wall. Paul got nervous and wanted to take the elevator back down but I said no. Then — shwack! The elevator moved sideways and speared us through with a hundred spears. I felt the tightness of the spears impaling me. After a few moments, they receded and we’re spilled out onto the 4th floor. We started walking along, looking at people’s door decor, when these red spears shot up out of the floor. One almost got me and the other nicked Paul. I was like, “What the hell”? Paul said it was part of the whole scare thing we’d just seen and which some people in the dorm had been working on. The spears retracted, and then a few seconds later came out again. I was pissed. I grabbed one of the spears and wrapped it around behind another part of the wall.

In the final part, I was trying to save the dorm. This time I was resistant. I didn’t want to be the hero this time. I just wanted to walk away and not be in trouble. But people would die without my help. And my friends were there, helping me, pushing me on.

So all these people were planning this scary Halloween event. But I knew it was going to start the dorm on fire, so we had to short out the power — there was no time for anything else. I was afraid of being shocked, so a friend started on it while I hesitated. He stuck a fork in the outlet, and I tried to kick it in further, but knocked it out of the outlet. Then someone else stuck it in, got a shock, and I succeeded in kicking it in, but it didn’t spark. So we start adding water, food, pans, and lids. Someone went back to a live wire near the outlet and touched it, getting a shock. Aha! We pressed metal against it and the power went out (though the dorm was still lit by all the same lights). In my mind, an explanation occurred: “Through a chemical reaction (briefly explained, but not understood), the matter of the house turns to rolls of paper.” I exited the explanation and saw that all the walls had turned into big perforated paper rolls. I yelled down to all the people below: “Run through the walls of the house! Run straight through!” I did it to illustrate, and burst out between the rolls. Others followed along, and the house sort of collapsed, but I apparently saved everyone from the fire. That’s how the story went, at any rate. It almost seemed like we were kids, trying to relive a famous story, but not quite getting it right. And I’ve relived this story before.

Outside, before the house collapsed, I looked over at the dark street and thought, “Well at least the street isn’t filled with cop cars and military vehicles,” thinking how there was always something against us. But almost immediately after the collapse, all this traffic did start coming, and it was a parade of sorts. I was “unconscious,” meaning I was on my back on the ground. I felt a vague sense of movement above me. I wondered if it was marching feet, but I was lifted up and moved through a thick crowd to watch. It was a parade of celebration.

But then I saw the military buses coming. I knew how the story went: I was in deep trouble, but saving the dorm had made me a hero. Still, I dreaded what was coming. I walked forward into a brigade of troops. One boisterous man thought I was one of them and started yelling at me. I just kept walking down the hill. At the top of the next ridge in front of the street were lined up military officials of the highest rank. They called two people forward, but they called them by their actions, not their names. I stumbled forward in a stupor and leaned forward at the bottom of the ridge. The two who were called were friends of mine, and they went to stand above. Many others joined them. They saw me down below and reached out hands to pull me up. That was a key part of the story. I took the hands and was lifted up into their ranks, feeling safe from the retribution of the police and military. It was the end of the tale.

I feel like the saving of the dorm was the second half, and there was a bigger part where I was already a hero. At the dorm, I was reluctant to do MORE heroic things. But I don’t recall any further back than this.