Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Prank

At a high school graduation taking place in a dull hotel conference room with row after row of chairs. I am surrounded by my high school classmates and strangers. Each one of us has to stand up front at a podium to give a speech. I worry that I didn’t prepare anything and struggle to think of something wonderful to say. Then I realize that no one is listening to anyone else that is speaking, so I stop worrying about it. People are talking amongst themselves and drinking beer from cans or plastic cups. I look around and when I turn back, my beer and all the other containers have been cleared. A girl behind me has a shopping bag full of cups and cans. I point the bag then lean over and take a half empty cup of beer from the top of the pile. She says something to stop me and a teacher walks back from the front of the room and leads me to the front. I worry that she is going to make me give my speech next but she directs me to a blackboard at the back of the stage. The student speaking continues droning on while all of this has happened. The teacher tells me to write something on the board, but I can’t hear her. So instead I write something about skirts. Some people laugh and then I return to my seat. Most of the kids in the last few rows get up and leave early. Then are going to drink in a bar in a mall and I get up to follow them.

I am outside a school running down a sidewalk and through grass. I am trying to catch up to a guy walking ahead of me and I approach him as he joins a group of guys on a soccer field. I am excited about graduating. I don’t have to worry about grades now even though there are a few days of classes left.

I crawl through a barbed wire fence over dusty ground. The surrounding terrain is rocky and dry. There is a child’s bike lying on its side in the dust just beyond the fence. I finally make it through the fence and go into a brown castle. It is made from rock or adobe mud. Then I am on top of tall tower of the castle and it begins moving. The entire round top of the tower floats up and away from the rest of the building. I am floating in the top of the tower as if it was a hot air balloon. It is as big as a room and continues to rise. Soon it is floating high above the trees. I look down and see that the castle is part of huge amusement park although I see no rides. I worry about how far it will drift and how I will get back. But it lands a few blocks away. I recognize the area and think it isn’t far to walk back. I pick up and carry the top of the tower with me. I intend to throw it in the lake or put in on top of my office building as a prank.

Thursday, June 19, 2003

Cheese it, it's the fuzz.

I am in a car chase, driving my Honda civic Si. Cops are chasing me and I lose them among city streets. I park at a stadium and get out and walk. I intend to cut through the stadium to the other side to get away. I am walking through a crowd in an underground or interior passageway. Two security guards call for me to stop and ask if I am Brian Thompson. The cops must have discovered my car in the lot.

Monday, June 16, 2003

Writing that gets under your skin

There is a girl sitting in a classroom. She has poetry written all the way up her leg. The tattooed letters are formed by tiny daisies.

Sunday, June 8, 2003

Chase

Lane and Steve from work are driving a semi truck through a field. It is making crazy turns and circles at high speeds. I chase it on foot and jump aboard by hanging by a handle. Then I am driving the truck inside a hotel. It cruises through the lobby and fits neatly down a hall. It whips down hallways and around corners. Then Lane is driving and the hall is blocked by a train of carts like room service or the maids. She tries to make a turn and rig jackknifes. But as it tips over, it turns into several tiny trailers linked together like grocery carts in a parking lot. They fall on their side against the carpet of the hall.

I am hiking through the woods with a group of 4 people. We are our some kind of team following clues. I explore a winding trail on my own and it circles me back to the group. As I rejoin them, we see a series of orange flags hanging from branches across the woods. But the path we are on does not lead there. Someone suggests taking the trail I was just on since we know where it goes. I argue we can cut through the woods if we keep the flags in sight.

Friday, June 6, 2003

Pay your own way cowboy

I leave to get away and end up in line behind Mom and Dad going into a country bar. The cashier or bouncer asks if we are together and Dad doesn’t pay my cover.

Tuesday, June 3, 2003

Ninja training

I’m at the building site of a house. The wood frame has recently been walled by plywood. I walk up and start to talk to a small group of boys sitting up on a beam of wood. They sit almost level to my chest as I stand there. And they have been playing with triangles of scrap wood about the size of saucers. There game consists of throwing them against the wall behind me like throwing stars. Their scraps of wood fly into the plywood and dig in like a knife. There are even splinters of wood from the wall projecting around them. One of boys tries to run off as I talk but I sit him back down and borrow his triangle of wood. I throw it at the wall and it bounces harmlessly off.