Thursday, July 12, 2007

Horrible Dream, Great Philip K. Dick Novella

I walked by an high-ceilinged school room at a college with lots of big windows. Over on one side was a nook for storage, recessed at the side of the chalkboard. There was a large shelf there with a basketball, a few cardboard boxes with jerseys hanging over the sides, football cleats and helmets, sack of white cheerleader gloves and ... a very old man. I drew in my breath, what is he doing up there? Very concerned, he looked terrified yet resigned - a haunting and horrible expression if you have ever seen it. I followed his eyes downward and there was this student in a basketball jersey looking up at him. His top expression was blank but underneath he was cackling. He was holding a red rope. I zipped away, and dreamed something entirely else and forgot completely about it. 100% out-of-my-brain forgot, *poof*. But then, feeling I was on my way back someplace, I walked through this school, just moseyin' right along, and - *gasp!!* there is the old man, hanging from the red rope, part of the shelf kicked down. Its contents were all over the floor in the nook, spilling forward toward me.

I brought my eyes downward, and there, right in front of me, eyes wide and glaring into mine, was the student, the killer. He was pissed. I thought, hysterically, you did this in front of big windows! Were you just hoping nobody would walk by? I ran like hell. I did not feel followed. I call the police, and 911 has a recorded message. I try again, I try again, I keep trying, running the whole time. I draw a blank from there until getting over this hill in Bellevue, Wa., where I found a very green lawn and sat down, then laid down, then, my phone still in my hand hitting redial, redial, I fell asleep.

Paramedics with swatches of light blue tarp (?) and a detached look and feel woke me up and handed me my phone. One said, "You are okay. You need to get up and go home, you are on a residential lawn." I said, "I've been trying to call 911 for HOURS it seems! No one will answer the phone, someone's committed a murder at the school!" He said, "Listen, get up, here", and he handed me his hand. I got up, he said, "Where do you live, we need to get you out of this private neighborhood." I didn't know how to answer at all, I had no answer. He led me to the ambulance and kinda shoved me up into the back and closed the door. I thought, this kind of detachment and cold behavior is odd for paramedics. I sat on the stretcher. Hearing rustling behind me, I turned my head around, and there was the student in the basketball jersey, grinning.

I woke up sucking my breath in, eyes wide.

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