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Last Night :: Every Night :: Tomorrow Night
book ban, the foxes in the wood (lucid)
2002-01-09
I was on the bus to school. I felt uncomfortable and frightened. I was going back to High School and it was the first day. I felt intimidated by the other kids and afraid of what would happen. The bus was fairly full. My backpack was full and bulging. The bus driver was a blond lady who seemed blunt but nice. We got to school and I dawdled. There were tons of people outside the school, getting into groups, working out their schedules, getting directions and socializing. I lingered on the bus, afraid and confused. Only a boy near the back, the bus driver and I were on the bus. Suddenly, Merry came onto the bus, her nose bleeding, crying and clutching her books. The bus driver asked what happened -- some teacher, or the principal, had ripped up her books and hurt her, because she had brought non-school books to school; apparently a distraction from learning. She held up the torn pages of what were once her books. I started shaking and worrying, because I had a bunch of books in my bag, and I started quickly hiding them, zipping the bag shut. Among many others, I had the Hogwarts school books by Rowling. I shoved them in and zipped it just as the man who had ripped Merry's books up got on the bus. He came over and eyed me up and down, a sneer on his face. He looked at my page, and his hand hovered over it a minute, as if to imply he knew something against the rules was in there. The bus driver started yelling at him, telling him he had no right do do what he did. He chuckled dryly at her, and didn't take her seriously. I was going to be late for my first class, so I finally got off the bus, frightened. I had the attitude that if I didn't like it or did bad, I just wouldn't come back again. I'd dropped out once, I could do it again. I was so scared but I saw one last group of stragglers outside the school and joined them. A woman was directing them, and told them to be sure to get their schedules from the office. They started to go inside, and I followed, part of the group. They all seemed confident and relaxed. A girl was talking to the others and said, "At least we won't get lost, everything's marked." They went down the hall and then went into a classroom near the end. I looked at the door, expecting to see it was the office, but it was some sort of science classroom. I went in and the two girls who had been leading were doing something at the front of the classroom. There were already a lot of people sitting at the desks in the room, looking absorbed in something. I asked one of the girls what she was doing. "Getting our disks," she said, nicely but as if I should know that. I reached up and took down a grey 3.5" floppy. I looked at it, then at hers. Hers was grey too, but had something written on it in black sharpie; obviously these had been used before. I realized then that the group had already gotten their schedules and gone to their first class. They went and sat near the back of the classroom. I told the girl I didn't even have my schedule yet. The teacher, a kind-looking woman, came in, and I grabbed my bag and quickly slipped out the door. Suddenly, I realize I'm dreaming and start flying. I remember how many people have trouble staying in a dream once they're lucid, particularly when they're new to lucid dreaming, and that if you feel the dream fading, blacking out, or like you're waking up, you should spin. I don't seem to be having any trouble though, and I fly through the school, feeling very happy. I fly down the halls, thinking, I have to remember to record this dream when I wake up. I come across a table with stones on it. I look at a little gemstone chip and decide to turn it into a person I wanted to see. I can't remember who -- maybe Merry, or Buffy for whatever reason. I close my eyes and express the intent that the chip will be said person when I open them. I open my eyes and look. The chip has changed but it certainly isn't a person. I laugh, and start doing it repeatedly, closing them and opening them, making the chip change. I think at one point it turned into a squirrel. I'm highly amused by this activity, but was never successful with the original intent. I wake up and remember my dream. Suddenly I'm hit with the thought -- was I dreaming lucidly, or dreaming about having a lucid dream? I go back to sleep. I'm at a plant nursery. I look at plants and wonder if I should buy any, but know that I shouldn't spend the money. I go out and into another building, which is semi-transparent like a greenhouse, white and brightly lit. It seems somewhat large and empty, but there are shelves along the right wall, and a couple large tables in the center. There are many small started houseplants on the shelves, some under glass, like miniature greenhouses. There's a large grow light hanging above them to warm them and give them full spectrum light. Three people are working in the building. One is a tall skinny woman, who's over at the shelves, doing something with the plants. The second is a heavy-set woman wearing a floral print, sitting at a table in the middle. She seems somewhat stern or grumpy, but strikes me as knowledgable and probably the boss. The other person is a girl who looks something like one of the girls who works at the barn... dark, long hair and a medium complexion. I have a feeling the building is employees only and I shouldn't be there, but I go and look at some of the houseplants anyway, wishing I could have them. There are some tropical looking ones that have huge stalks that take up most of the pot, something like bonzais. I make small talk with the girl, as she worked with the plants. Then the heavy-set lady started up a conversation with me, mostly about plants. I told her we had a lot of plants, including a very tall (here I held up a hand above my head to show) kind of plant which we kept in the bathtub. I told her we also had a bunch of hanging plants on the curtain rod over the bathtub. She said something about that being an unhealthy place for plants -- which I do know, and feel guilty about, so I interupt her, lying, "We have lights," meaning grow lamps/full-spectrum. Somehow, the nursery morphs into being my grandparent's (dad's side) house, or else they now live at a nursery. Or maybe I woke up in-between these two dreams. Inside their house, we were gathered in the kitchen -- my mom, dad, uncle Sam, aunt Robin, grandpa and grandma. Mum and grandma are trying to work on dinner. I told everyone to relax and that I would cook for everyone. I open the cupboard where there's a variety of meats and vegetables. I pull out vegetables and start chopping them up... various kinds, such as celery, cucumber and green pepper. I then look around for meat, which I won't be eating, but know my dad and grandpa will expect it. I was thinking about turkey, but I realized how long that would take to cook, so I found a package of some sort of ham loaf, in plastic. I just slice it up cold. As everyone is dishing up, I realize what a poor excuse for a meal it is -- raw veggies and a few slabs of meat. I realize there are no grains or other starches and feel a litle guilty, but everyone seems to be eating and not saying anything about it. From the other room, the television makes some sort of sound. Robin recognizes it and says that Junkyard Wars is on, and she's very excited because she loves the show. However, she's only seen the version aired for Deaf people, and it's somewhat different than the regular one, and she misses out on a few of the important or common phrases in the show. We all go to bed in a largish room with many beds. I have a bed near a window, and Jane is sleeping in a bed across from me. Everyone is asleep and it's quiet. I look out the window, seeing a dark wood across a dirt road, everything silver, bathed in moonlight. I watch for a while, and see a fox running down the road. He disappears into the forest. I say aloud, "I saw a fox," but everyone is asleep. I slept for a while. When I woke up, I looked out the window again. I saw whate might have been a coyote, or perhaps another fox. I then saw a bear coming out of the forest. It walked bipedally, and I realize it must be someone -- or something -- in a suit, though it looked just like a real bear. A stuffed bear cub was attached to the front, to look like it was clutching the big bear. I saw another two foxes running down the road. All of the foxes were bigger than real foxes -- coyote sized. This time I say, "I see foxes," loud enough to wake up Jane, and she comes over to my bed to look out the window with me. We watch the foxes running into the forest, awed. We went outside to look for foxes. We talked to the bear (who seems alternately to be a gorilla). He tells us many things about the foxes and the wood. I get the impression that we're the hills or mountains we're in exist in a place in this dreamworld that one would get to if they stepped out my back door and just kept going. Jane and I see many foxes. We see two white ones bounding away into the forest, and are very excited and awed. We see others of diverse foxish colors. We saw a fox climbing up a damp bank or cliff in the woods, and so we climb after to see him. He was beautiful -- reds and browns with darker grey edging, and a white saddle marking over his haunches. The bear/gorilla cautions us that he is not a real fox, but someone (a name that starts with A or Au) in disguise. The fox looks perfectly like a real fox, not someone in a suit, and we don't believe the bear/gorilla. But when we get to the top, the fox growls and hisses, and we realize that he's telling the truth. We climb back down. Apparently many foxes are other things in disguise. We go back into the house, and in the kitchen, we dress up a cat in a fox suit, so that it looks completely like a real fox. Another fox, this one real, comes in and they chase each other, around and under the kitchen table. Everyone woke up and we all started to get ready to go on a hike -- though something more important than a hike, like a quest or migration. I took off my boots one by one and gave them to Jane, while I put on another pair. I saw that Jane's feet were shaped something like Barbie feet from wearing high heels all the time, but she also had a boxy indent in the sole of her foot from wearing chunky heeled platforms. I was a little unnerved. I wondered why she hadn't shown us before and decided she must be self-conscious about it, so I didn't say anything. We all dressed in warm hiking clothes and went out and started walking down the road, in the direction that would be my house in this world. The bear/gorilla was some sort of leader. Along the way we met other people also going on this trek, and it seemed to be good natured, like a festival of some sort. There was a lady and her daughter, who was deaf like my grandparents, uncle and dad. I didn't speak sign language, but my mom spoke to the girl a little, and I understood. Mom asked her if she knew a particular singer or other performer, and she said yes. So my mom told her some information.
Last Night :: Every Night :: Tomorrow Night
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