12/29/04
The Market Street Experiment


This is very vague and muddled. I take note of it only because it supposedly happened on Mackinac Island.

I don't recall if this is how it started but I think I was at some kind of store, like an old general store with a wooden porch; it seemed to be late afternoon or evening and the sun was close to setting. Maybe like six or seven PM as it is in summer. I think I was with a group of other people my age (as always, I seemed younger), and I think we went in the store and I was doing some things, but I can't recall what they were. I believe when I came out I had to retrieve my sandals and put them on and somebody might have remarked about that, like, "You're going to wear sandals?"--as if they thought sandals weren't appropriate for the terrain I would be walking. I just nodded and put them on and went back out onto this porch which ran around the corner so it fronted both the front and side of the store; I think there was an intersection here too, because there were streets to the front and to the left (on exiting). The streets were lined with buildings like a small city and people were walking around and such.

Some other people, like stereotypical Fifties gang members or bullies or something, showed up, so I tried very hard to avoid them. Maybe they were just snobs and I didn't want to be teased. I think I hid behind something or edged back into the store to wait them out.

After that I left the porch and set foot in the street. I think I used one crosswalk, then another, only I took the second when it wasn't my turn, and I believe I had to dodge to avoid being run over by a car or horse carriage or some such. I think maybe I pretended I was a horse rearing up or something. I felt a little stupid for nearly causing an accident and took this side street to another street which would have run parallel to that out front of the store, only I think it was further down. I stepped out into it and turned to face the direction which would have been facing away from the side of the store...and now found myself standing in the middle of a long paved street with low buildings on both sides. This was Market Street, Mackinac Island.

This street was practically DEVOID of other people! I mean, almost completely ABANDONED! I stood there feeling kind of anxious because I had been intending to go walking down this street for a while, but now that there was nobody left I wondered if I was even allowed down it! I tried hard to remember what time of year it was, since the island practically "shuts down" in winter and the streets are used for snowmobiles, the footpaths for skis. I figured somehow that it was late autumn, maybe late October since the trees seemed almost bare; it was warm out, but I guess that's what it was. *shrug* And October is about the last month that the tourists really come to the island before it settles down for the winter. Had I come too late then to walk Market Street?

I shook my head abruptly. "The island doesn't close at night!" I snapped to myself. "It stays open. And it doesn't close just because it's autumn! I can walk as long as I want." And so I did just that, and started walking toward what would have been the East Bluff, if this had been real life. As I said it was evening and long shadows were falling across the street; there was a person here and there, but I felt they were islanders; yet I felt very peaceful here.

As I walked along I suddenly spotted this kind of geeky-looking girl coming at me. She was my age (I seemed to be in my late teens or early twenties). Or maybe she was catching up with me? In any case, she wasn't so much geeky in a nerdy stupid way as she was in a hyper-smart, intellectual genius-type way, and I really REALLY wanted to avoid her; I just had these extreme feelings of irritation, as well as the feeling that she would taunt me, like the bullies or snobs I had nearly run into earlier. She wasn't a HORRIBLE person but I knew we had a history and it was of not liking each other. She had longish dark hair and glasses and may have resembled a real-life version of this bookish girl in an anime called Read Or Die which aired recently (I watched only part of it).

Anyway, she was headed straight my way and I knew she intended to confront me. I tried to think of a way to avoid her but couldn't. And suddenly she was at my elbow, grabbing my arm tightly and starting to talk. I will have to paraphrase since this was all very jumbled and garbled and even in the dream I really had no clue what she was talking about.

"I wanted to find you," she said, "and bring you along and make sure we got the experiment right. We've been working on it night and day, it's taken ages, and now it's almost done but we have to put the finishing touches on it and make sure it's just right before we can move ahead..." The only part I really recall is her saying she needed me to come and make sure they got "the experiment" right, but she babbled and babbled so much about it. Still holding my arm, she started dragging me bodily down the street, and I had to stumble along after her. I was surprised by her matter-of-fact yet not unfriendly air; I'd really expected her to tease me. Instead she was yammering at me like we were...well, not so much friends as classmates or lab partners or something. Not REALLY close, but at least on good terms. She just talked and talked and we finally came to a halt near a table or something set up in the street (closer to the right-hand (lakeshore) side of the street, except I then turned to face the other direction so it would have then been my left), and it was here that the "experiment" was set up. And now it gets even MORE garbled.

All I can be sure of is that this "experiment" involved a sort of humanlike head or bust which was for some reason meant to resemble me. That was why the bookish girl had wanted me along, to make sure it looked like me. The thing is, aside from a superficial resemblance, it really didn't. But that wasn't the point; I guess it was just supposed to SOMEWHAT look like me. I don't get the feeling that this was so much IMPORTANT to the experiment, as merely a choice they had made, to put a human face on it; they'd just happened to choose my face. o_o

This bust faced back up the street, the direction we'd come from. There was a small group of others here, including one or two guys, also our age. They were the others working on the experiment. The first thing I noticed about it was that it wore its hair in a long ponytail like I used to (in the dream, I believe I still had this ponytail, which I have not had in over a year as my hair was cut short last December). This ponytail, for some reason, in the dream was enough to show that it was supposed to be me. I observed this a bit, then somebody started fitting a plastic mask over the blank face of the bust. I first saw this mask from the backside, which was white, yet the sunlight hit it so that I could see the painted features through the back of the mask and I noticed that it was the face of a girl, albeit a very ugly girl! She looked almost cartoony, with pudgy cheeks and tiny piggish eyes, maybe red hair, freckles, and...a beard!! Yes, at first I thought I was seeing things but then when I looked more carefully I saw a few little lines of red paint below her lower lip, over her chin, and I knew those were supposed to represent beard hairs. I did not feel insulted, as I knew this was not meant to insult me; though I was puzzled as to why this girl mask had facial hair! O_o

I think the bookish girl then began explaining the experiment to me, the others in the group crowding around, and maybe after that I made as if to leave...but I'm afraid I cannot recall much else. Like I said...very vague and convoluted. :/



2004 Dreams
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