It was a pretty lucid dream. I mean I thought I was actually there. I could feel everything, hear, smell and see every detail that I normally observe every day. But my emotions were totally wrong. I was really pissed off. I didn’t know why, but this guy just pissed me off. And there I was surrounded by all my new friends from summer camp, beating this guy until every last ounce of liquid in his bodied sprayed out. I crushed his ribs, ripped out his throat with my bare hands and flattened his skull until his brain matter was oozing out. No one interfered, no one stopped me. My ferocity in anger was so great that they all just ran away.

When I finally came to my senses I was in the deans office with the camp dean, my parents and police officers. I had killed that guy. I couldn’t even tell you what made me do it. The feelings of such pain and remorse for what I had done washed over me so powerfully that I had to force myself awake.

I woke up back in my familiar cot at camp. It was a bright, clean morning. My sheets were white and I was a little sweaty from the intensity of the dream. One of the guys in my cabin was moving around getting ready for breakfast. I asked him what time it was. He said it was time to get up and go to breakfast. So I did.

Then I had to wake up from that dream, my phone was ringing. My cousin had texted me about getting engaged. Then I went back to sleeping without dreams.

Watch the stars
As they glimmer in the sky
So much brighter than
The lights down here

Where they reflect on our faces
So frail and pale and worn out
Mindful of all the things
We’ll never be

The lights from the city
Hidden down in the valley
Look so bright from here
When its so dark all around us
We have nothing to fear

And we’ll say
Wake up!
And see the sun
How bright it shines
As it comes up

Hold my hand
We’ll walk together
Through this wilderness
Where we lost our selves

Walk with me here
On all the paths
Winding through this place
We’ll find the one
That will take us away

Into a sunset that burns so bright
And melts away to smooth moonlight
Look deep into the still wells
That will tell the story
Of how we met

We were almost out of the marsh-land when we stopped as some bubbles erupted from the mire nearby. I had a bad feeling about this, but we went to check it out. The bubbles continued for a bit as we got to where they were coming from and then abruptly stopped. I reluctantly reached my hand in. I touched something familiar. I looked in anguish as I realized the human body we were pulling out of the soggy muck was my father.

With tears, I hauled him into my arms and we continued on out of the marshes to reach the village beyond the range. We could bury him there and find rest.

Needless to say we were immediately intrigued and decided to check it out. Each show had it’s own character and you could pit various shows on the different machines against each other as a fighting character. So my friends and I made two teams. One team was a particularly technologically advanced team of mechs, manbots, and robots, covering topics like international politics, and my brother’s personal favorite: TREES. My team was a mish mash of pirates and ninjas, all highly trained, highly brutal and somewhat skillful. They covered the topical gamut of Hilary Clinton and Bill Clinton as well as Mahmoud Ahminejad. I lost decisively.

So, I, somewhat bored and discouraged, managed to peel my friends off these machines to head back to my place to start the party. The party was pretty good – I don’t really remember much. But near the end of the party, I decided I wanted to go to WaWa. I promptly picked up my keys and chugged the rest of the beer I was drinking on the way out to my car.

Now, I live on a very peaceful street full of rich people who never talk to each other because their yards are too big. So when I tell you that I was surprised to see three cop cars staking out at different places on the block you’ll understand I’m understating my emotions a little bit. In fact, I was pissed. So I hopped in my car and figured the best way to get around the cops was to first make my car jump really high in the direction of the cul-de-sac. This seemed to work like a marvel except a) when I landed I hurt my car and b) a little gremlin appeared in the passenger seat. Nevertheless, the cops, dumbfounded by my extraordinary vehicular abilities could not find me. Me and my new gremlin friend peacefully made our way to the WaWa.

Calm lasts only a moment and then I’m off seeking some form of passive entertainment. This particular night, I managed to find a 3 foot graham cracker and decided it would be a good idea to use it as a skate board in the empty pool. It really doesn’t last long, nor does it particularly impress myself to the party-goers.

Eventually the party moves inside and we are inside my friend’s house. Soon it is time to go and my friend explains the way to go home, and Sarah and I climb into my car and begin to head home. We reach our exit and there is an abandoned road block. We decide it would be best to walk the rest of the way since we’re at the exit and already close to home.

Soon we meet a bum and a prostitute setting up a shelter beneath one of the overpasses. They stop us to ask what is going on. But we thought they would know better than us. But no, their beater van had given up a little down the road and they were sheltering for the night.

We press on to make it home and get off the expressway to find the road blocked again. But this time there was a soldier at the block. He said we could not pass and we asked him why. He said, “this place no longer exists.”

It all happened last night when I was at church. We were in a new building that was on the side of a hill. It was a cabin we were renting for a retreat weekend. Suddenly the building began to collapse on one side because the stilts holding it up could not bear the weight of the building. While everyone was screaming in fear, I was screaming with excitement.

YAY THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!

As the building collapsed on one side the brick wall fell out. One of the bricks nailed me in the mouth and I lost one of my K9 teeth. I looked at it closely. It was a lot larger than I thought it would be. In fact it looked more like a molar. I knew the dentists had wanted to file it down when I was a kid because they gave me an overbite, but this was ridiculous. I looked at the tooth in continued wonder as I realized there were two cavities on this tooth. I was really surprised to see this because I’m usually very careful to brush and floss and rinse with Listerine every morning.

Eventually the thought struck me that I should probably go find my mom in the rubble. But man was I bummed that I had cavities on that stupid tooth.

I was walking along the old street that I used to live on. Not the ends, but the middle part, where my old friend Jon used to live. Jon and I stopped talking when I borrowed Batman from him and didn’t give it back until right before I moved away.

The area had really grown up. The neighborhood around the old elementary school was now practically urban except for this part of the block. The old houses were still there, but the road was newly paved. The yards were smaller now because the road had expanded and most of the houses now had additions. The grass in these yards was unbelievably well kept. It was bright green and so thick it was almost spongy. The strangest thing was that on this street the popular thing to do was to put the utility sheds right there in the already cramped front yards.

Eventually I passed by Jon’s house and peeked in. I didn’t see him around so I just walked onto the school. The school had been built up to match it’s new urban environment. Instead of the sprawling single story school that I remembered, the school was now a massive multi-story building that reminded me of a school I saw once in Philadelphia.

The school had become over-crowded despite its new size. There were so many students packed in all the hallways and causing such ruckus that I wasn’t able to get to my classroom. It was almost like a riot. Eventually I noticed one of the kids was spray painting all over the building and quickly the rest of the students joined in. I stood back and watched as the kids sprayed brightly colored graffiti all over the drab building until only its shape was recognizable.

I just shrugged and walked away. On the way back to my house I went by Jon’s again. The grass was green and those utility sheds sat on the front yards like it was their business.

No problem. We had lost JT, but gained an excuse to drink some of the beers that were now onsale at the eatery we were in. There were a lot of very good beers to be had here, but the real kitschy draw to the whole thing was the jugs that the beer was served in. They resembled the ball jars that moonshine comes in, but were made out of thick cherry wood. We all had a few cold ones and enjoyed the cheesy amusement park atmosphere, then headed out to find JT.

That’s when things started getting weird. As we wondered around the amusement park, we managed to get lost. Eventually we ended up at a less-than-cared-for end of the amusement park that looked like no one had used in ages. We went in and found what looked like an old shopping mall for small people. There were a lot of little stalls that lined the hallway, but they were all abandoned. Eventually we got tired of our exploring and decided to leave the dilapidated shopping center.

On the way out, my brother and I found some golf clubs laying around. We were pretty interested and started rooting through them to see if there were any worth keeping. There wasn’t any worth keeping. They were all clubs that were the length of my forearm. Nevertheless, some other annoying park goers were now peering into the mall at us pillaging these abandoned golf clubs.

At this point our friends with us had gotten bored with our explorations and had left to see the rest of the park. So Clint and I stared blankly back at these intruders wondering what exactly they thought was so interesting to stare at. Eventually, we figured they were plain old jerks as one of the boneheads came in, and told us he was alerting security that we were stealing the parks golf clubs.

Great. Just great.

But then just about that time, our friends came back with JT. When Clint and I told them what had transpired we set out to terrorize the tattle-tails.

On the way to our beach house rental, we passed many beautiful houses facing the ocean. They were many stories high and some had entire towers built with glass that contained gardens full of amazing trees. In some of the houses we could see the residents hosting friends in lush living rooms. When we finally arrived at our house for the week we were a little disappointed. Our house was simple, wood and not really that inviting. Nevertheless we unpacked, determined to make the best of it.

That evening as our day wound down, I decided to head out to the bar down the street. I had seen on the way to our house and wanted to stop by to check it out and have a couple cold ones. This bar wasn’t really an island bar at all. When I went in it more reminded me of the smoky brick and mortar pubs I’m used to on the mainland.

At least I felt at home. I made my way to the bar and took a seat. When I set down I was surprised to see two screens with one game displaying on them. The little screen reminded me at first of those GameMaster 50000000 bar units that you keep putting money into to play poker or pool or do some menial task that’s not too daunting for a drunken idiot. But upon further inspection it was really a personal screen displaying stats and possible moves to make on the larger, community screen. The game was a basic strategy game consisting of matching unit strengths with your opponent and trying to conquer territories on the board. Intrigued I pursued a game with the mowhawked punk kid sitting next to me, fondling a Red Stripe. What a poser.