No high school dreams here, though one person that I knew from high school and still keep in fleeting contact with did turn up. The first and perhaps only dream I remember started out strangely and took many shifts over it's course, never losing the weirdness. First thing I remember, there was someone stranded on a tropical island. A large tropical island with many people on other parts, but somehow they were stranded, they may have been injured, but I'm not sure if my mind isn't adding that detail after the fact. Regardless, I may or may not have been part of a crew that was sent to rescue this person. Our ship was an old wooden sailing ship, and why not? We couldn't get too near the beach because of the rocks, but we sent a row boat over. Well, they found the person easily, and sent part of the away team back to the ship to report and to guard it, and the rest of us (I think) stayed on the beach with this fellow. After that, it got kind of really weird and nightmarish. I noticed, that some of our people had just up and vanished. We were frequently going back and forth from the ship, and there had been a large fire we started at night, but now... people were missing. I didn't like it one bit.
And so the first setting shift occurred. No longer was there a possibly injured castaway nor a sailing ship. The beach was replaced by a house. Not a scary, dilapidated old manse, or a rundown abandoned house. No, it was a bright cheery modern house. Single level, well-furnished, a nice place to live. Except there were still people missing. My friends were missing. Eventually I discovered that the wall behind a series of couches opened into some sort of maze. I think it was at least vaguely extradimensional (whatever that means), but I seem to recall that the walls became permeable rather than opening, and the rooms in the maze were connected almost randomly. In any event, it was here that I discovered my friends. I was quite glad, even more so when I managed to find my way back out with my good friend Mandy. Now, thinking I knew the way out, I advised her to wait out here while I went and found the others. I entered the maze once more. I found a group of people and told them I think I found the way out, but we agreed that if we waited in what we thought was a central location, the others would eventually find us.
This seemed like good sense to me, so we waited. I played a guitar to pass the time. I played far better than I play in real life, of course, and I was completely absorbed in my playing. Next thing I know, I'm out in the living room again, and only Mandy is with me. I panic, as one might expect. I recall thinking that maybe if you stand still long enough, the maze teleports you elsewhere, but I even in the dream that sounded stupid to me. I tore at the couch cushions, and the closets on the wall trying to get back in but to no avail. At this point the order of events becomes confused for me. I was still playing the guitar, and a friend of mine (the one from high school) come into the room and asks me what I'm doing. Naturally, I don't think about the tearing up the living room of this house, but of the playing and I say something about how he can still play bass in the band or something.
Then Mandy and I wandered outside and talked to some people, all the while I was still playing. We wandered back in to the living room, and finally I stop playing, and Mandy wanders into a different part of the house. I was absolutely terrified. I didn't know if she would disappear again or not, and I couldn't follow her, as I was paralyzed with fear and indecision. Then, at last, I got a message from my friend Ginny, saying that she was sorry that they were taking so long getting food and they were on their way back now. The sheer amount of relief I felt cannot be adequately expressed in words. Then I saw my dear partner Rachel walking past the window to the door, and I very nearly lost control. I ran to the door and greeted her by throwing my arms around her and nearly crushing her with enthusiastic hugs. She seemed equally happy to see me, and I was glad. The entire experience had been a terrible ordeal for me, although, apparently, I didn't always recognize it. I was so very glad to have them all back.
There were other snippets of dreams, but I believe I will leave them out this time. I don't feel like writing anymore, after I've written and remembered all that. The emotions are too strong. When I think about the terror I felt at the thought of losing my friends, and my partner, of my own inability to act, and of the things that I should have done (like check on Mandy) and the horrible realization that I cannot be sure that what I saw at the end was truly the return of those important to me, or some horrible trick of the maze or the house.... Maybe I should let it go. "It was all just a dream," but then again, the emotions and their effects are absolutely real.
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