12/17/04
The Island Waits For No One

A Mackinac Island dream! :) But a rather irritating one. >:/

I cannot remember the beginning, but my memory picks up with me traveling with a group of other people, being led around by a woman tour guide. We were near Arch Rock only the scenery was WAY different. In real life Arch Rock is right above the shore, projecting from the East Bluff; but in my dream, it was inland somewhat, with a lot of grassy open area in front of it, like a field; and piney woods behind it. Arch Rock itself looked much different, which I'll get to in a minute.

The woman guide stopped here and turned around to talk to us about Arch Rock, maybe its legends and how it was formed. I think she mentioned the best place to take a photo of it, and I stepped forward to see if this was so. My view of the arch was very weird; it was like walking to the side of it in real life, so the arch disappears and all you can see is the tall side of the outcropping, with a mini arch set into it, called the Sanilac Arch. In my dream it's like there was this tall thin outcropping (it looks thin from the side), but instead of just the Sanilac Arch, it was like I could see the openings of BOTH arches, and it was such that it resembled a giant stone needle with two holes in it, way up. At some point, I stopped and looked up at it, but it loomed over me so tall and ominous that I felt very anxious, and I started edging around it in a different direction. I made some sort of comment to the lady, like, "This is DEFINITELY not the place from which to take a shot!" She kind of smiled like she understood. I tried walking around the arch to the left, but the view was not very good, so I walked back to where it looked like a towering needle and decided to take my picture there.

I had a digital camera, probably the Polaroid, because it was taller than it was wide and the button was on the top right. I turned it on and watched the green light flash, then aimed it up at Arch Rock. (I think the woman's story had had something to do with Sanilac Arch, which I only recently in real life learned is in fact a real arch, plus its name.) I pressed the button to take a photo but all that happened was the light flashed, and then I got a red light on the camera. Puzzled, I brought it down to look at it. I was confused but I think I worked out that the batteries were very low, and rather than just "die," the camera was giving me the red light as a warning. It would not take photos when the batteries were so low.

Just in case I was wrong, I tried it again, with the same results--no photo. "But I just changed these batteries!" I exclaimed to myself, and I did have a very strong feeling, almost a memory, of having recently changed the camera's batteries when they had last gone dead, maybe a day or so ago (in the dream). How could they have gone dead already?? I started to grow upset, but decided I would get some batteries from Ma, who was there with me. I had left her behind a little bit so she could sit and relax while I walked around, and she was supposed to be in this high area not too far behind me (where the lake should have been). I went walking away from the group and up this high, STEEP grassy slope which was then kind of like bleachers in the sunlight, and reached Ma's seat near the very top. I believe I found like her jacket and belongings here, but Ma was nowhere to be found. I knew that she had gone somewhere, maybe to the bathroom or to get something to eat.

I grew very exasperated. "Why does she ALWAYS leave, right when I need her??" I asked. I sighed heavily but decided I would just have to go find her, no matter where she was--which was probably way on the other side of the island! I nearly panicked, but then calmed myself down and thought of the most likely place she would be, if she had gone and wanted me to find her--Marquette Park, back in town. (In the dream, Arch Rock seemed MUCH further away from town than it really is.) And if not there, then at the restroom area, or maybe on Main or Market Street. Once I reached her she wouldn't be too hard to find, but I had to figure out where to look. And the walk back would take up a good chunk of my exploring time. All I'd had time to do so far was see Arch Rock, not even get a picture of it. :(

Well--I walked off toward town, as quickly as I could--like powerwalking! I wanted to find her fast so I could see as much more of the island as I possibly could. It was late afternoon so I had to hurry! My walk back to find Ma gets very weird here. First, it was as if I had to exit wherever I was--which was outside--yet to do this I was going inside--and I had to cut across this...parking lot area...which was being utilized by men affected by some sort of trauma. Traumatic injuries, or post-traumatic stress, I'm not certain, though I lean toward the former with a tinge of the latter. There were these preppy-looking men in this parking lot, playing tennis as a means of recuperating. O_o It was all very weird. There was a low building to the right, and I walked up this steep asphalt slope to get inside it, hoping they would not mind that I was cutting through their...recuperative area.

And then when I entered this building and continued walking...I was now walking through the UAW Family Center, where my dad works in real life! Somehow this all made sense in my dream. :/ The UAW is full of long windowed hallways, and in my dream it was no exception. I just kept walking and walking down these halls, down little sets of steps, through more halls, past people and rooms, etc. etc....it wasn't exactly like the UAW, but it was a good facsimile, for a dream. I walked very fast, with a purpose. As I turned into another hallway or took a door or something, I had a sudden fear of losing my way--honestly, I had no clue where the hell I was going! Some people passed by me and I shook off my fear and told myself, "I'll just keep walking fast, and heading whichever way seems right, and if I get lost I'll just take another way. If I keep walking I'll eventually find my way out." Nonsensical thinking, but in the dream it made sense--I guess if I was calm enough I could keep my head and not get lost for TOO long, though in real life I'd be too anxious of getting lost to just keep walking!! It was almost a feeling of the hallways themselves letting me find the way, so long as I went with the flow. *shrug*

Well, at one point I ended up following this group of little kids on some kind of class field trip with their teacher, and I decided to kind of go in their direction for a ways since they knew where they were going. I think we came to this stairwell area and there I parted ways; they went down one set of steps and I took the other, I guess. It was weird here, because the steps formed a sort of sharp turn, with railings, and it's like they went down into the floor, winding around at 90-degree angles...can't really explain it. It was almost like being on a stepped ramp or something, in the middle of a bigger, darker room. Somebody, the teacher I think (an older woman?), gave me a sort of suspicious or disapproving look, wondering why I was following them so much, but as I walked off on my own, I didn't have any interaction with her. I took this little twisting set of steps down into a sort of basement or loading area, and it was all brown and gray and dim and washed-out looking. I think the kids had been going down to an area where cabbies were known to wait, and maybe I passed by that (even though we'd gone separate ways--confusing), because I felt that was as good a place as any to exit the building. (At least, that's the only reason I can think of for going that way, now!) Oh--I forgot to mention something. I had ALMOST gone along with the kids, but then had doubled back and taken the other way, when I'd realized they weren't going where I wanted to go. So that was when we parted ways. Anyway. Something else must have happened here, which I can't recall, but eventually I located Ma. Finally!

She was sitting in a high bleacherlike area (again!), which seemed to be...out front of the Cheboygan Memorial Hospital! o_O I know, very convoluted. We would have been facing it, and it's like there was an aisle up through the seats, and a wall behind us, and everything...so bizarre. In real life we would have been right in Main Street! Well, I got up there and was now sitting beside Ma, on my right (we were facing where the hospital would be, though I don't recall specifically seeing it), and on my left was...D., a girl I know only from her postings on a Web community I'm a member of. (Her username is a variant spelling of a kind of tree spirit.) I have NO clue why this girl, who I have never even seen a picture of, would show up in my dream, since our interaction with each other has been zero, and I don't even have an opinion of her, that I'm aware of--I don't know her well enough to have one. :/ But here she was, keeping Ma company. I sat down between them and started to tell Ma of what had gone wrong with the batteries, and said that I would need more. I would need two AA batteries, whereas in real life the camera takes four. For some reason, Ma couldn't get them; I think she and D. were up here eating. So I turned to D. and asked her to buy me some, and I gave her a $10 bill, the highest bill I had on me; I think I also had one or two $5's, and some $1's. Not nearly as much money as I'd wish, and I hated spending any on batteries, but it was a necessity. D. took the money and just kind of stupidly looked at it. She seemed terribly "out of it" in my dream, dazed and dumb and slow. I felt quite irritated since I was in such a hurry!

She seemed reluctant to go get the batteries. "You can keep the change," I said as incentive, though it galled me to have to give up so much money just for batteries! D. reluctantly accepted and got up to leave. There was something in here about a horse--maybe she had one with her, or brought one back--but I don't know. After D. left I turned to Ma and started telling her of how I had had to find her--"And then I had to go down into the cabbie area, where the cabbies wait!"--but somehow I kept getting interrupted. Ma was listening, at least--I seem to remember her commenting on the cleverness of passing through the cabbie area to get out of the UAW building--but it seemed like every time I tried to explain something, something would happen, and I'd have to wait and then repeat myself! Quite bothersome.

D. returned now, but...she had no batteries!! >_< All she had was something like a little ball of green string or fiber or moss or something! I don't know if she bought it with my money or not, but she was holding it and staring at it like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. And I was so miffed! Not that she might have paid for it with the money meant for batteries--but that she hadn't brought back any batteries at all!! "Where are they?" I asked in confusion. "Didn't you remember the two AAs?"

D. was still rather dopey and uncommunicative. I think she said that they didn't have any batteries, so that let her off the hook, but I was still greatly upset. I could not take any pictures now of the island! :*( My earlier upset returned, and even as Ma and I left the bleacher area and went off together, I just felt so awful. -_- I tried to hide my upset at first, but after Ma and I were alone, it grew worse.

"I can't take any pictures now," I moaned, as we headed toward the east shore; I had insisted we go this way, as evening had come on and the sunlight was dying away, and I knew I hadn't much time left to explore. :( We reached the shore road and started walking briskly; shadows were growing long, though the position of the road must have been different because it was not shaded. (The east side of the island is the dark side in evening, of course.) I decided I would have to just forget about all the other parts of the island I'd planned on visiting, and stick to the east shore and try to at least make out where some now nonexistent landmarks once stood (such as the Fairy Arch, Echo Grotto, etc.). I wanted to see if there was at least some rockface left. As I realized how much more I would miss, I grew more upset and started to cry.

"I didn't even get to see Robinson's Folly (a cliff)," I cried. "All I got to see was Arch Rock! And I couldn't even take a PICTURE of it!"

Ma was sympathetic, but could not do anything to help me. I felt so miserable. I resigned myself to simply seeing what I could, and taking "mental pictures" to better remember everything I'd seen, although it would not be the same, of course. It was really getting late, maybe around seven-thirty or eight at night (if it were summer), and I just grew more and more upset. I walked fast. Where had the entire day gone? How could it be almost over when I hadn't even gotten to see anything yet? -_-

Now this was also weird because the east shore looked like...the housing subdivision on Orchard Beach Road, not far from my house. >_< What a weird dream! There was no cliff, no bluff, no lakeshore that I recall; it was like walking up Orchard Beach, though maybe the lake was to my right (as it would be in real life on the island's east shore, heading away from town), and...kids were out trick-or-treating! So I guess it was Halloween! They were actually doing more tricking than treating, playing little pranks and having a great deal of fun, though we did not interact with them. Quite strange.

It's like I somehow left Ma behind, and I realized I was walking rather casually. I decided I would have to walk FASTER if I ever hoped to see anything and get back to town in time to catch the late ferry! So I started half jogging, half pulling myself along with my hands, almost like I was on all fours and using my hands to propel me faster. This has happened in dreams before, and it's almost like running on all fours, in slow motion--great leaping bounds, but so very slow, like going through water. Still, it was faster than I'd been going before! As I went I kept glancing to the houses on my left and wondering, when is that bluff going to start? It was all flat, low land here, with some trees ahead, but no bluff. I worried that I'd waste all my time just trying to find the BLUFF! I wondered when I would reach it, and hoped it would be soon!

I guess I eventually gave up, because I think then I was walking back to town, crying; "I wish I had another chance!" I sobbed, meaning I wanted to come back to the island a second time that year. But--the ferry ticket is over $15 :( , and as I suddenly realized, it was so late in the year, that returning would be pointless--it was either September or October (though earlier it had definitely been late October, I think it was somewhat earlier than that, as there were still leaves on the trees--though they were turning red). I was just unbearably sad that not only had my camera malfunctioned, but I hadn't even gotten to do anything worthwhile. :(

There was another bit which probably went in here somewhere, but I don't know where it fit. Basically I was with somebody, maybe one of my characters, and I was also talking in this jokey, character way about the Grand Hotel. I had a picture (postcard?) of it and there was the pool, though in my dream the pool was the equivalent of Hank's Pond, I think--it was out front of the hotel, though later I think it was out back. It was a gigantic aqua-blue pool with steps and fountains in it and everything...so beautiful. We were joking about the Grand and I said, "I wonder if the $10 fee they charge you to walk across the porch includes a visit to the pool!" (I think in the dream we assumed the $10 fee also applied to a brief tour of the hotel, though I do not know if that's so in real life.) We then made some kind of snarky joke about this, but I can't recall what it involved. Perhaps one of us either said that they would get a lot more paying visitors to the hotel if they included a trip to the pool, OR that the Grand Hotel didn't WANT just any old shlub dirtying their pool with their commonness, so no, a visit to the pool was NOT included! ^_^ I think I leaned toward the latter, while suggesting that they allow the former, as good business practice. I looked at this old photo of the Grand and that pool was so beautiful. I loved the tiled steps leading down into it, and it had fountains and everything. It may have looked like three(?) roundish pool sections joined together, instead of one long pool. The water looked so inviting, but I'm just a commoner and can't afford to pay just to get inside. :P So we settled for looking at this picture instead. (It seemed to be an antique picture, like a postcard from the Fifties or something.)

I can think of no real-life associations, aside from my obvious interest in Mackinac Island. (The malfunctioning camera seems to be a recurring theme as of late!) I was rather upset by something somebody had said to me online before I went to sleep, but I cannot see how that has any relation to this dream, aside from the fact that D. is a member of the same website as this other person, along with me. Other than that...no clue.



2004 Dreams
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