04/04/02
Old Hyena Tales
I actually had this a few days ago so it's rather vague by now.
The part that I remember started out as me watching a sitcom of some sort on TV, only it's like I was in it as well. That guy who used to be on Boston Common, and is now on Yes, Dear (I believe), was searching to patent a "new wonderful idea" of his. Apparently this idea involved those little Valentine's Day heart candies, only instead of saying positive things, they said rude things, and they came in different sizes and textures (there were soft, marshmallow-like ones, for example). He thought this was a really great idea that everybody would go for, but his friends thought he was nuts. This didn't dampen his enthusiasm. He was very psyched about the whole thing and dashed off to find a patent.
He ended up in some kind of store or restaurant/cafe and I was with him now. Everything was light, like white and/or pastels; I get the impression of a big but low room with lots of cloth-draped tables and lots of people about. Very light and airy but not in a way that annoyed me; sophisticated. His plan to obtain a patent was to first impress everyone with these candies. How to do that? Free advertising. We would set out and show these things off to everyone we could, in "inconspicuous" ways. His inconspicuous ways consisted of tossing these candies on people's plates and rubbing them against random people as if on accident. And so this resulted in one lady getting goo on her dress when he rubbed a large mooshy heart candy on her. "Oops!" he feigned, as if it were unintended. I rolled my eyes; I feel there was another lady who was with us, and she was just as exasperated. We KNEW this plan would never work. What we were doing was just being MORE annoying!
The lady was kind of annoyed also at first but the guy expected her to rub a bit of the goo off on her finger and taste it and be like, "Mm, this is actually kind of good." Perhaps she did...but her dress was still stained. So she went to the bathroom to see to it. I followed her, and it was sort of as if all of us went together. The dream shifted somewhat so now I was the one tending to my stained clothing; I stood in a bathroom stall (why not at the sink?) trying to wash it off. Yes, it was annoying.
The group of people I was now with--we were teenagers, high schoolers--was leaving, so I had to hurry up and join them. There were only two I can remember now, a boy and a girl. The boy may have been Russell E., and the girl, I can't remember her name, but she was very short; perhaps her name was Rachel also. I knew them both in high school, Russell from elementary. They were walking out of the bathroom into what seemed to be a restaurant or a bar now. It made me think of a cross between the Gold Nugget (now the Chee Seng Gardens) and the Indochina Gardens (our two Chinese restaurants). The walls were dark red, lots of browns and red tones, kind of dim yellowish lights lighting the place. (The lighting throughout the rest of this dream was very poor.) It was nighttime out and I sensed we had to hurry somewhere. The others were striding on ahead of me and I hurried to catch up. I can't remember paying for our food, as I felt we had eaten; so I'm not sure what we did before we did go out the door.
It was dark outside, very dark, with no stars or moon, but there were streetlights all along the road. We were in some town, but it seemed more like a suburb or even a residential area, falling into decay; perhaps we just quickly passed out of the "city" into a residential neighborhood? Or it was just a neighborhood bar? Whichever it was, we were walking along the right-hand sidewalk heading away from the place. (It would have been on the left side, our side, if we had turned back to view it.) The trees that lined the paved yet worn street were bare and so was the street itself; I can't remember any cars, even parked. I think there may have been short driveways to other houses but all was dark and silent. There may also have been old fences along the sidewalks. This place had seen far better days.
I "heard" somehow (radio?--from one of the others with me?) that the temperature was supposed to be around twenty degrees, but it was balmy out...strange. And as we went we saw some little kids dressed in costumes occasionally run past, in the same direction we were going, so I feel it was supposed to be Halloween. Or perhaps Halloween now fell in March?
Whatever the case, at first as I said I was behind my two friends, but I hurried so much to catch up that I ran on ahead of them. I was jogging now. They were walking briskly and they merely watched me as I went ahead. I didn't slow down; it was so balmy and nice that I enjoyed being out here, rather like in one of my "darkness falling" dreams. (This did share some similarities.) The streetlights were very, very dim and it was hard to see even with them on, so I think I was jogging in the road itself now. The trick-or-treaters had all vanished; and after a bit I realized that I had run so fast I had left my friends behind. Yet I still didn't slow down. Stupid, stupid move.
Because this was when I heard noises coming up the road behind me, and stopped and turned to see I was being chased by HYENAS! Yes, hyenas...very odd. o_o I don't remember ever actually SEEING them so much as SENSING them; maybe I caught just a flicker, as it was so dark. It felt like a little bit of light was centered on me, and everything else outside a few feet was outside the range of that circle of light.
I specifically remember only one hyena, but I felt there were more, in a sort of pack, chasing me down this dark road. I began to panic and tried to run again but they were catching up. I KNEW it had been a bad idea to run on ahead of the others; of course there were wild killer hyenas in this town! That was why no one walked alone at night, because of these things! *rolling eyes*
As I hurried futilely to escape, I suddenly remembered an old story I had heard about how to ward off hyenas. Similar to tales you hear of how to ward off a bear attack--fight back for a black bear, for example, and play dead for a grizzly. Because everyone knows that black bears are cowards that won't fight, and everyone knows that grizzlies are NOT cowards, and WILL fight. Well, the magic trick for repelling hyenas was...to laugh at them.
I kid you not. To get rid of these buggers, all I had to do, apparently, was laugh. Just like they did. So I stopped, turned to face the creatures that I knew were just behind me, yet which I still couldn't see clearly, and started laughing maniacally, as I felt a hyena would. I sensed them stopping in confusion, listening to me. I waved my arms and cackled like mad and they backed off. It was working! The old story was true! I was so pleased with myself for proving it! I think I started to turn away and walk off on my own again, perhaps to find or wait for my friends, whom I'd left so far behind...I seemed to be practically out in the country by now. I wouldn't have been too surprised if Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman went riding by.
Well...turns out I was wrong again. :)
I can't remember exactly how it went, but I do remember that when the dream ended, I had a hyena chewing on me. I was trying to ward it off but I think it was gnawing on my arm. Everything was so dark...I could still see a bit because of the streetlamps, but I never got a good look at my attacker(s). I didn't feel pain either; it was more like I was just being licked and gummed. But I was fighting it off desperately, and losing the battle. As I woke up I was thinking, "Oh, this is SO typical! I finally get the chance to prove that deterrent right, and it turns out to be WRONG! I'll KILL the morons who spread that story about the best way to ward off a hyena...!"
Who knows if I would ever have gotten the chance though, as before I could escape, or before they could kill me and eat me, I woke up, thank God. :)
Mystery Cat
I woke up with a really bad feeling. I don't know why. All I can remember of the dream I had right before waking was I was outside in the dark with Ma--we had just returned home, or were we just going somewhere?--and I was carrying Cosmas. I noticed a similar-looking cat standing by the side of the highway. I called it and wondered if a car would hit it if it tried to cross. Then my alarm went off, only I thought I was waking myself up at first, and I hated to wake up just because I was tired, not because of the dream.
But I had a really awful feeling. It's faded mostly by now, but I still have it. I don't know why.
2002 Dreams
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