04/03/01
The Fugitive In The Tunnel
This is only one that I remember last night, and it may have parts out of order. I know I had quite a few for some reason but this is the only one I seem to remember.
How did it start? I'm not sure...I have the feeling I was on vacation with some people, Ma and my brother perhaps included...in any case, I ended up outside, there was a woman who was a fugitive, and suddenly I was a cop, chasing her.
It's like I was pretending, or controlling it as it went along, yet again. I was pretending to be one of my detective characters. We started off down this really sandy rocky path in a grassy unlevel area with some trees off to the sides. It must have been summer, it was warm. She was perhaps in her late twenties/early thirties, blond or light brown hair, and was sprinting like mad. I was running as fast as I could behind her, but I couldn't catch up, no matter how hard I tried. She wasn't pulling away from me, but even when I put on a burst of speed she kept the same distance between us. It was MADDENING. I was supposed to be a guy, so maybe that's why I couldn't run as fast as she did. Plus, I was running strangely, like something was weighing me down, or like I had to keep my hands in a strange position, maybe a starting position. It was difficult to say the least.
We seemed to turn right, I think, and completely reversed direction, still on the sandy path, only now there were trees rising to both sides of us several feet away from the path. I picked up a big rock in my hand as I went and considered chucking it at her, hitting her between the shoulderblades and knocking her down. For some reason this must have been allowed in my department, I guess. ^_^ She cast a quick look over her shoulder as if knowing what I was considering. I hefted the rock, more in threat than with actual intent, but she kept running and so did I. Well, so much for that. I don't think I dropped the rock but I kept running after her.
Somehow, we came to a sort of tunnel and she ended up going down in it, and I had to follow. We had to pretty much crawl on our bellies, it was so narrow and small; it was rocky on at least three sides, perhaps with a dirt bottom; but--we could see perfectly fine. Light was coming in from somewhere. The rocky tunnel was sort of orangy-coral in color. She scrabbled along ahead of me, gaining more space between us. Drat it. I pushed myself along on my chest. I don't know what she'd done--it didn't seem to have been very bad--but I REALLY HAD to catch her.
The tunnel "forked" in a way. Not going off in two directions, but a sort of "island" popped up--a natural divider--which temporarily separated it into two branches which joined again after a little while. I could see beyond the divider so it didn't obstruct my view of her. She took the right side and wriggled through and continued on her way, into darkness. (Yes, it got VERY narrow and dark ahead.) I tried to follow her, but...the tunnel was far too narrow for me. Not really left to right, but up and down--I was too big to fit through. :(
I backed up and tried taking the left way, which looked like it had more room. Yet I couldn't fit through THAT, either! I was beginning to get incredibly frustrated--she was still moving on ahead of me, and I was letting something as stupid as THIS stop me?? I tried out both of them again, even tried really SQUEEZING my way through (I don't remember the actual squeezing, it's more like I THOUGHT of trying and knew it wouldn't work), but no luck; I just couldn't fit.
*sigh* Well, I'd lost my fugitive.
Only--I saw her coming back toward me. Apparently, the tunnel came to a dead end ahead and the only way out for her was through ME! She was aiming for my right, so I scrabbled over there and pulled out my gun, waving it at her face and coaxing her to stop. (I was talking very calmly and persuasively, nonthreatening--"Come on, just stop and come with me, you know you have to.") She didn't seem to notice me at first, but finally she did, and had no choice BUT to stop. Yahoo! I'd finally caught my fugitive!
I don't remember us actually crawling out of the tunnel, but I do have a vague memory of walking her back to where we'd come from, and through some kind of tourists' building. Like I said, I was on some kind of vacation. It's funny. Now *I* was the "prisoner." And I don't think there was anybody else--no cop--with me. Once more, I was pretending the whole thing. As I walked through this building I put my hands wrist to wrist and pretended they'd been cuffed; I had a piece of colored cloth in my hand and for a second pretended to be the cop asking if I wanted to have the cloth put over my wrists so nobody could see the cuffs. I imagined everybody staring at me as I walked past.
Dream shifted again, now I was outside with my family, outside the tourists' building, and we had the fugitive with us. Only now...she was an old lady. Practically senile. She'd been running, I guess, because she didn't know what was going on. (How she ran so well and fit in the tunnel is anyone's guess!!) I felt sorry for her and suddenly not so proud of my capture. It's one thing to catch a young fugitive, but another to catch some senile old lady. Funny thing is, now that I think of it, remember how I said the woman running from me didn't seem to have done anything seriously wrong, yet it was imperative I catch her anyway? I feel she was kind of out of her head and didn't really know what was going on. Perhaps I had to catch her to protect her rather than to imprison her.
At some point the fugitive part of the dream ended--perhaps they took the old lady into custody--and I think we went back inside the building. Now it was kind of like walking through an airport. We were on our way somewhere, but I'm not sure where.
(A brief aside--some time in here I ended up back at home in my bedroom, only it was bigger and my bed was in the middle of the room, away from the walls--kind of threatening for me. Plus it was a lot higher off the floor. Like an island. It was daytime and light was coming in my room. Everything seemed pale blue. I can't remember exactly what happened but I was either going to bed or just getting up and something just WASN'T right about it all. The timing, I mean. My schedule was ALL off. I feel Ma and maybe my brother (why does he keep showing up?) were in the living room. Perhaps I wanted to listen to some music like I do before it gets light out, but it was already light, it was either time for me to get to bed or get up, and I felt so confused and out of sorts. Something had screwed up my schedule and I was very resentful. *sigh* I didn't know WHAT I was going to do.)
In any case, back to the tourists' building...we started walking along this hallway with windows along both sides. I feel we were on a second floor, or at least higher up from the ground; everything was tan or in earthtones, rather pleasant. It was a nice modern building. It makes me think of the UAW where my dad works with all the glass along the walls. At some point we stopped and then started again, and my right sandal felt wrong. I stopped and found that the strap, the part going over the big toe to connect to the inner side of the sandal, had come loose. My sandals, BTW, were powder blue, including the straps. I stopped the group I was with and tried to fix it. It had just popped out of its "slot" in the sandal--the strap end fit in like a tab on a cereal box. Well, supposedly. Just because I could fit it back in didn't mean it would stay. I knew that. I asked if anyone else had a safety pin and they started hemming and hawing so, getting all exasperated, I began digging in my backpack. In one pocket I couldn't find one and began to get frustrated. Ma was saying something but I tried to tune her out; I finally found one in the bottom of the pack and tried pinning the strap to the sandal, one end of the pin in each. No luck--it was too loose. Tried pinning the two together directly, pin through both. No luck--it started tearing the strap. I kept repositioning the pin and it kept making it worse--now it looked like the OTHER end of the strap was coming loose. I was getting so frustrated and angry, I demanded that one of the others help me somehow, as they were just standing there waiting. I can't remember what they did to help, or what I did; all I know is that eventually I was walking around normally again, though I know the situation wasn't properly solved. Perhaps I just put on a different pair of sandals; I remember at one point looking across the room and seeing MY sandals, only now they were the purple ones I wear at home, and going over to put them on. So...not sure what happened right there.
We just kept walking around this building, but somehow it was fun. I can't remember exactly how this part went but at one point we came to a sort of stairway and stopped to talk. There was a stack of newspapers or books or something and I was looking at some funny pictures and laughing. Man, I wish I could properly remember this, it had a lot of detail to it but it's all muddled in my head right now. I also remember a lot of big boxes of computer games sitting under a coat railing, like those they had in elementary school, and going through the boxes; I found what was listed as "Ultima II," though in my dream it was supposed to be the part of the game RIGHT BEFORE the part I played in real life, so that would make it, in REALITY, "Ultima V." There was some game about a woman, kind of like Xena, only the box text was all vague about her--"Is she a prophetess? Is she a Druid or a shamaness? Is she all? Play the game to find out..." Something was vaguely Egyptian. There were some other games and such and I found them interesting but in the end I ended up leaving them all and not picking out any. They were used, and some were old, but I'm not sure if they were free or not.
Anyway, I spent a lot of time looking at these funny newspaper/magazine pictures while Ma and everybody else talked. I have the feeling that an "important" man and his entourage passed through. He reminded me of Castro. He was supposed to be high in rank and such but he was also sort of a joke, a buffoon--most people didn't take him too seriously. Including us. He and his "men" (they were all dressed in black with shades, like Secret Service agents) went past us and up this small set of stairs leading to a door on the right which went outside (now we seemed to be in a lower level); I stopped and accosted him while he was going up, calling out to him some kind of question. I was insistent that he answer so he HAD to stop, but all he did was kind of mumble something. I'd asked him something about himself and it was kind of embarrassing for him; like I was poking at him. He and his guys turned to go and we all had a good laugh at his expense.
Ma and the others got ready to go. I tried showing them a few of the funny drawings I'd been looking at. They had something to do with a paranormal magazine, I think; on the back cover of each issue they had a funny drawing. The others weren't as interested as I was, so I had to hurry to catch up with them.
The dream may have here shifted into "Storm Warning."
Storm Warning
This dream may have simply been a continuation of "The Fugitive In The Tunnel," or it may have been a separate dream.
I was with some others--probably members of my family--and we ended up making it home, perhaps from shopping, or else we were about to go shopping. (Maybe that was what had thrown off my schedule in the "bedroom" part of "The Fugitive In The Tunnel"?) It was nighttime now, or else late evening; it was dark out but I feel it wasn't really as LATE as it seemed to be. Maybe an alteration of my darkness falling dreams? My house was different, it seemed to be all wooden slats, golden colored, with a big front porch, a deck perhaps, with a window overlooking the highway--well, where the highway is in real life. This is strange. It was summer, or at least summery, but I don't remember the trees being full of leaves--I could see the sky, and I remember the lilac bush or something else being bare, and the wind picked up. Strange that there didn't seem to be any leaves yet it was still warm. (Maybe it was Indian summer?)
Now it was Ma, my brother, and me. We got home and I think we were getting groceries out of the car and we were going to make something to eat. I had a sort of anticipatory feeling, kind of happy and excited. I was going to eat with them and watch something good on TV. I was thinking about making a sundae. While they got the groceries and such I went into the front yard, or else onto the long porch; I was still exposed to the air, and pretty much outside. I looked up at the sky. It had clouded over and the wind was really blowing, but it was a warm wind. And now, it began thundering, and lightning flashed. LOTS of lightning. It was just all over, and it wouldn't let up. It wasn't raining yet, but it was certainly going to. A BIG storm was moving in.
Yet I was ANTICIPATING it. I LIKED it. I turned my face up to the sky and shut my eyes, feeling the wind whip my hair around. Opened my eyes and watched the lightning flashing between the bare branches. My brother came out and joined me. He wasn't afraid of it either, but I got the feeling from him that he wanted me to go inside. Even though, for a brief moment, he too got caught up in watching the approaching storm. He leaned against something metal and I turned to go inside, where it was light, and kind of hinted at him that he shouldn't lean against the thing like that. (I don't know what it was; some kind of pole sticking up out of the ground, metal, tipped sort of like a spade or something--not FLAT like the kind of spade you use to dig--kind of like a pointed-topped mushroom, a head on a pole...kind of hard to describe.) At first I think *I* had been leaning on it, but then he did and I hinted that he shouldn't, if he didn't want to become a lightning rod! Now the roles had switched, and instead of HIM coming out to get ME, *I* was the one telling HIM he should come in! I headed inside--the difference between the dark windy outside, and the bright calm inside, was so great. He pushed himself away from the pole and followed.
It's funny, the porch seemed to be suspended above the ground by a few feet. That's not the funny part; what's funny was that we seemed to be standing on the porch, near the safety of the house, yet we also stood out in the yard, in a potentially wild, dangerous spot, at the same time. Like being caught between wanting two things--the unpredictable but exciting storm, or the safe home? The grass was very tall and wild, the tree branches were whipping, the wind was warm and the lightning was flashing like crazy; but inside it was bright and peaceful and there was going to be food and TV and companionship...
I actually didn't want to choose either, or rather, I wanted BOTH. I ended up going inside.
There were more dreams but that and "The Fugitive In The Tunnel" are the only one(s) I can remember.
2001 Dreams
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