American Life

Dream 2/23/2017

     I'm in an arcade in the mall. I step into a photo booth and snap a picture of myself. I reach into the drop box where the picture should appear and find several photos of previous picture takers along with napkins and an envelope. I take the envelope. Inside I find a load of money. I fold the envelope in half and slide it into my pocket with the full intention of taking it to the mall security office so it can be returned to its rightful owners.

I leave the mall.

     I'm exploring the barn at my Middletown, Indiana house. I walk over to a shelf and inside a box find stacks of home videos. I am ecstatic because I thought they had been destroyed.

     Walking down a street, I come across a dark, Gothic mansion. Locals call it Thorn Mansion. Somehow I find myself inside the large house. I find no one except for a wax statue of a man. The house hold lots of interesting artifacts but nothing to keep me here, so I leave.

     Someone plays a video game that I used to know. It looks so familiar. It is called "American Life." I used to play it at my cousin's house in Illinois. The game consists of the player creating towns and watching them grow and interacting with people and houses.

     My jeans lay on the floor. Inside one of the pockets I find the envelope full of money. I start looking through the bills and notice that much of the money is foreign. I don't recognize the currency at all.

     Some friends and I search for a restaurant to eat. The driver and I agree that we should eat at either Arbys or Jimmy Johns. My friend Adam says that he's craving Taco Bell. Also he is broke so I need to pay for his food. We decide to eat at Taco Bell. Dream ends.

I WAKE UP

Escape

Dream 2/21/2017

     I'm running through an uptown high rise trying to escape the men chasing me. I make it to the roof. The bad guys are right on my heals. If I don't hide quick, they will see me so I slowly start to shimmy down the side of the building. The bad guys catch up and one of them points me out. They start shooting. The next floor down has a strange walkway on the side of the building. I make it to the walkway where they can't see me. I hear one of them say to the other, "I think he fell.".

I run.

     The walkway wraps around the building so I run all the way to the other side. I climb back up onto the roof from the other side. One of the goons sees me and pulls his gun. I pull a revolver and shoot faster. He falls to the ground. Dead. The men on the other side must've heard the shot so in a panic I find my way to the escape.

     I meet up with my group of people. We try to make it out of the building together. I see one of my friends halfway down a hallway. Behind her appears a girl who is bad. I aim my gun the best I can and shoot. My friend falls to the ground. I shot her in the stomach. The bad girl gets away. Dream ends.

I WAKE UP

Timber

Dream 2/16/2017

        It's Easter holiday. A large group of friends and family gather at my old house in Middletown, Indiana. Much of our stuff is still here.

        I walk to the family room, which used to be the garage. I look out the french doors to the large backyard. I see a truck. Whose truck is that? I see two men chopping down a tree. It's one of our favorite trees that holds a tire swing that was hung by my dad. I walk to the front room and ask my sister if she hired lumberjacks to cut down the tree. She didn't. We run to the backyard and call the men inside. We ask them why they're cutting down our tree. They said they were hired to do it. My sister jumps in and says, "no, I didn't hire anyone to cut it down." They suddenly change their story and say the previous owner hired them. I ask them what the previous owners name is. One of the men looks at me and smiles as if to say you caught me, Chief. "You slick piece of shit," I say to him. We tell them to get out of our home.

        I'm having a serious craving for something sweet. I grab a bowl of caramel ice cream. When I'm finished, I join the rest of the group in the kitchen but I'm still hungry. I start hunting through the refrigerator and freezer. I find another box of caramel ice cream. I look for my bowl and see it on the table next to my grandpa. It still has remnants of ice cream coating the inside. I reach to grab it when grandpa starts joking and says, "no, it's my bowl. It's my ice cream," he says. I let out a snicker and take the bowl. I enjoy my second round of the frozen dessert. Dream ends.

I WAKE UP

Swell Timing

A Dream from My Past

I'm walking through a large, empty mall with my mom. We sit down at the food court and talk. We decide to leave the mall. We walk and walk and walk and walk. When we get to the entrance, she remembers that we parked at the other entrance. I decide to wait while she gets the car.

I'm walking up a snowy trail in Middletown, Indiana. There is a house on my left but I don't know who lives there. I keep walking. I think about the movie Schindler's List.

I browse the shelves at a local, used bookstore hoping to find an interesting read. I pull one from the shelf. It's King Kong. I loved the movies but never knew there was a book. I buy it.

I'm in the basement of a youth pastors house. I'd say about forty teenagers are here listening to the pastor speak. Another kid insults me. I decide to leave. As I'm walking up the stairs, the whole group of teenagers erupt into a brawl. Swell timing. Dream ends.

I WAKE UP

Paperback Writer

Dream 2/11/2017

     The town I am in is nearly empty. Dead. Nobody is here except for the ferry operators. The ferry is a hover ship. It hovers twenty feet above the ground. I take the ferry and tour the ghost city.

     In South Africa, I visit a library. Whenever I visit a bookstore or library, especially one in another part of the world, I like to check if they have any of my published books. I move down the last names of each book on the shelf until I get to "Laverty." Wow, they have one. All the way in South Africa. I grab it. It's my guitar tutorial book. It teaches beginning guitar students how to play chords and then songs with those chords. This particular book seems to have been used a lot. The pages are frazzled and there are papers left inside, probably from the last user.

     The clerk asks if I want to check that one out. I mention that I'm just looking at it because I wrote it. He is pleasantly surprised and tells me that I can just have it if I want. I tell him, "no, it looks like it's getting good use here." I put it back on the shelf. Dream ends.

I WAKE UP. 

Morning Glory, Evening Grace

Dream 2/7/2017

     Something strange starts to occur in the night time sky. Stars from all over start to get sucked to one point in the sky. Everything in the sky flies to it. This takes place until the morning. I walk outside and find several neighbors looking up. One neighbor is holding a video camera. I ask a couple what is going on? They tell me it's been happening all night. I wonder out loud if it is a black hole. They don't know. Nobody does.

     My mom is driving the car. She drives though a wooded area into a clearing where an iced over lake is found. It is the dead of winter. She drives onto the ice. We all command my mom's attention. "I think you are on the lake right now," one of us says. We coach her on how to get back to land without crashing through the ice. "Stay in the middle, mom, and go very slowly." She gets back to land without any problems.

     My sister, her kids and I take shelter in a small cabin in the woods by the lake, far from civilization. That night, we hear someone or something in our cabin. It breaks through our door. It's an Extra Terrestrial. We run but we cannot escape. The alien kills us all. 

     The next night my sister lies down along with her kids and go to sleep. I stay up. I know that aliens are going to attack like they did the night before when we died. I search the house for any weapons. I find a chainsaw. "That's a good one," a familiar voice reckons behind me. It's my brother-in-law, Chad. I look down and see another chainsaw, only smaller. I give the big chainsaw to Chad since he is over six feet tall. I take the little one. 

     We wait. Late at night, early in the morning, several aliens try to break into our cabin. Chad tells me that if we truly want to beat them, we need to become aliens ourselves. One of the aliens outside is not evil, so I ask him to make me an alien. He has me look into a little mirror-like object and I see my eyes change. The same happens with Chad. We start fighting the aliens one by one, killing them, protecting my sister and her kids. Most of the space beings are dead, but one gets by us and walks into the bedroom where my family sleeps. The alien is Gillian Anderson from the X-Files. She gets close to my sister ready to kill when I grab my buck knife and throw it. The knife stabs straight through Gillian's head and pins her to the headboard of the bed. Just so that I know she is dead and won't come back, I stab her multiple times in the face until her face looks like spaghetti sauce. 

     In the evening we weren't sure we would live until morning. But in the morning, we knew our victory by each breath that we took. Dream ends.

I WAKE UP

Basketball Tryouts

Dream 2/6/2017

     I walk into Liberty's high school gymnasium ready to tryout for the basketball team.

     So many more people are here than just the ones trying out. The bleachers are full. The coach hands out practice jerseys to the first group for the scrimmage. I'm not in this scrimmage so I find a place in the bleachers to sit, next to some friends. The players start to scrimmage.

     Our team is the terminators. Several people in the stands hold terminator memorabilia from the movies to cheer for the players. A couple of girls walk up the bleachers wearing terminator cyborg masks. The students around them cheer while the girls find their seats. I'm sure they just bought those at Target or Walmart. I look down and see a girl watching a video on her phone. I can hear it as well. The video she is watching is of a dream that I had earlier this night.

     During the scrimmage, the gymnasium lights start flickering on and off until finally the gym goes pitch black. The hallway lights on the second floor of the school are still on, so I don't know if a fuse blew or if a couple of students are in the hallway where the light switch resides, and they are just messing around. The players continue their game in the dark. I don't know how they can see at all, but I guess the tryouts must go on. Dream ends.

I wake up

Coward

Dream 2/4/2017

     I am in a small, western town, similar to the towns you would find in the 1800's wild west. My dad is here as well.

     A band of bad men storm our little town and start terrorizing the people here. I run to a shed far away from these evil men. I hide outside the shed, in between the shed wall and a barbed wire fence. I grab four or five blue and red milk crates and cover myself with them. I am hiding although I should be fighting for the safety of my townspeople. My dad comes and discovers my cowardice. Dream ends.

I WAKE UP

Pillow Fight

Dream 2/4/17

     After a high school basketball game, I decide to follow the team to a fast food restaurant. When we finish eating, the coaches stand up and announce that it's time to load up the buses. "Only the sports team members stand up and head toward the bus," they say. 97% of the restaurant stands up. Only two others and I am left alone. Once again I am left out of the action of the moment. Story of my life. Anyway, eventually I walk out to the parking lot. On the way to my Jeep, I see a pillow that I own lying on the ground. I walk over and pick it up. Right then, my neighbor Joe walks over to me and confronts me about taking his pillow. "uh.. no, this is my pillow," I say back to him. "no man, I had that pillow like ten years ago," Joe responds. I tell him that I had it most recently, I use it for dialysis every other day. Eventually we go our separate ways, me taking my pillow with me. Dream ends.

I wake up

Obstacle

Dream 2/2/17

     Today my class has taken a field trip to place with a bookstore inside a gymnasium. A friend of mine, who died several years ago, is back from the dead. I ask him what Heaven is like. He answers, "if you had muscles when you died, you will have those same muscles up there." I say, "What if you didn't have muscles?" He responds, "you can buy new ones." Right then, another friend comes to inform me that one of my stories has been published in a book. I go and buy it. I've spent so much money today on souvenirs. I open up the book and read my story. It's about a military commander during one of the great wars.

     Something else here is a giant obstacle course that reaches as high as the sky. It has so many levels to it and each level is different. There are several pathways to the top. Whoever gets to the top gets a prize. I start. I am determined to make it. I know I was never athletic but this is my chance to show my friends that I'm not a waste of skin. Different people go different ways. At one point I am with one group of people and at other points I'm with another. The obstacle course can trick you as well. It can make you think that a slide will take you downward, something that you wouldn't want, but then it could take you to a spot that has an easy access to the next level. The group I am in hits a dead end or a spot that we don't want to traverse. I take a slide that I think will take me back to the spot that I was just at, but instead, it takes me several levels down. I am so frustrated. But I am even more determined. I climb back up.

     I make it to the trickiest part of the course. It looks like one of those big slides you find at the fair but with the material of a bouncy house. The trick is that the people who have made it up faster are at one side of the slide with dodge balls. They throw the balls at the people coming down and if the sliders get hit, they have to return all the way to the ground to start again. The sliders have to slide on rafts. Several people can slide at once. If one makes it to the other side without getting hit, there is a conveyor belt that will take them up a few levels. It gives you time to rest and breathe. A girl from my class comes sliding from the other side to my side, I don't think she is looking, so I grab a ball and throw it at her. Right then, she turns and catches the ball. That means that I must go back down to the ground level. I am so disappointed that I want to cry. I feel the tears welling up in my eyes.

     There is a giant exit slide that takes you far down. I sit and slide. I pass some others on the way. It doesn't take me all the way to the bottom level, just a few levels above. So I explore those levels and take slides down. When I get to the second level, I find a hidden room with a hole in the floor. I look down the hole, at the bottom is a giant cushion. I jump down. I land on the ground level. I start heading over to the start once again. Everyone on the ground floor is playing a round of paint ball or dodge ball. There is a kid with a running chainsaw. He almost slices me with it on accident. I let a few expletives fly his way, telling him how stupid he is for using a running chainsaw so carelessly. I get to the start again. I remember thinking that It is going to take me hours before I get back to the point where I was eliminated. I begin. Dream ends.

I wake up

The Ebbon Mansion

Nightmare 1/29/17

I enjoy exploring abandoned places, especially scary places. I'm on vacation in Africa with a friends family. There is a mansion here that is famous worldwide for how haunted it is. I have seen videos on youtube of people exploring it. In one video, two men explore the mansion and don't make it out alive.

The father in the family suggests that we go check it out. They are all excited. As much as I like haunted, abandoned places, I do not plan on coming along.

We arrive at the mansion. We walk through a security gate. They have it set up like it's an amusement park ride. One part of the building is normal, they use it for business, it is clean, the electricity works, it's quite nice. But the other part contains the halls where ghosts tread. Grime covers the walls. The lights don't work.

We start in the nice part of the building, sort of looks like a cafeteria mixed with a bookstore. Lots of people are here, awaiting their turn to venture through the dark zone. It gets to be our turn. My nerves are going at a million miles an hour. I do not want to be here. This family has no idea what they have signed up for. We start through the darkness. We end up in a large locker room bathroom. I can't take it anymore. I see a door to the outside. It's heavily locked. I kick it hard and break it down. I jump through to the outside. Some security guards at the gate see me and yell at me.

A woman who works at the Ebbon mansion needs my help. She is an investigator trying to find a thief who is still in the building. We go to the mall part of the mansion where there is three levels, but nobody else is here. We see a lady running. It's the thief. She chases after her, jumping from the third floor to the second floor landing, like James Bond. Dream ends.

I wake up

Stranger

Dream 1/28/17

I'm headed to a lake that is hidden in the middle of some woods. The lake is on my old church property.

On the way there, I come to a four way stop. Two other cars also stop, both Jeeps. Then, I discover that the Jeeps aren't even on the road, but each are off the road quite a bit. So, I drive on. Down the road, just a bit, I see a bouncy house that is turned over. I park my Jeep and walk toward it. The bouncy house is on someone's private property. I don't see anybody around, so I climb on top of it. I lye on top of the bouncy house, while a bouncy slide lays on top of me, partially, my head is still out, I can still see. Then, two girls-probably in their late teens-come barreling down the slide and crash into the bouncy castle that I am lying on. The slide tips over, as well as the bouncy castle and we all sort of hit the ground, not hard. The girls start laughing. I am afraid of what they will do now that they discovered a stranger on their property. They continue laughing, even after they see me. They don't seem to  mind. I tell them, "I saw your bouncy castle was tipped over so I decided to come lye down on it. They continue laughing, just like teenage girls. I tell them that I'll leave now.

I start looking for a way out of their property, but an electric fence has appeared. I wonder how I got onto the property in the first place. I find a gate but it is closed. I look back at the girls, now walking inside their house, and signal to them to open the gate. The gate slowly starts to open. I walk out and start running toward my Jeep. It seems so much further away than it was before.

A little girl, probably the teenage girls' sister, is dribbling a basketball down the street. She seems to be following me. I'm not terribly fond of children. I get to my Jeep, she gets there as well. I get in my vehicle and she gets in too. I drive on. As I pass her house, I see her father out front looking around, probably for her. I immediately am taken with fear. Have I kidnapped this girl? Her father will be so angry. I tell her to get out and run back home. She does. I speed away. I am afraid she is going to tell her dad that a stranger let her ride in his car. She will be able to describe my red Jeep to him. He'll call the police and they will start searching the area. I have to get away. I forgo the lake at this point. I can go another time. I speed fast down the road, trying to get back home. My house is far away in the country, the police won't find me, as long as I lay low for a while. I stop at an intersection. A car comes charging through at such a high speed, I wonder what is wrong with people nowadays? Dream ends.

I wake up

SuperGirl and DeadMan

Dream 1/24/17

I know a girl who has super powers. I'm not sure what they are, although, I think that she can fly. We sit in an abandoned baseball stadium that looks partly demolished. She flies from her seat to the outside of the stadium. I run to find her.

There is a bad guy. He dies. Then, like out of a horror movie, his rotting corpse gets up and comes after me. I run a very long distance. He never stops coming for me. I run through houses and crawl through windows, anything to throw him off my trail.

I'm in a basement. The basement has a bar. Will Smith is standing behind the bar. Dream ends.

I wake up

Destination Unknown

Dream 1/23/17

     I walk down a set of stairs that lead to an enormous underground bus terminal. It looks like Grand Central station. Due to stress in my life, I plan to buy a bus ticket to anywhere, to get away. I don't care where I go. I feel that I need to escape my life, so I am not concerned with the destination.

     I walk up to the cashier and tell her to pick a route for me. I'm secretly hoping that it will be New York City or something east. I pay the lady and take my ticket. As I walk to the bus, I look at my ticket to see where I will be going. My ticket reads, "Redding, California." This strikes me as odd because though it is so very far away, I have history with Redding. For starters, my dad grew up there. Second, There is a church there that I have visited and come to love. I am excited as I ride the bus toward the west. Dream ends.

I wake up

Pancake Breakfast

Dream 1/23/17

     The nurse at my dialysis treatment center has asked me to help her. She brings me to my old, childhood church in Anderson, Indiana. Several people are here. They are preparing for a pancake breakfast fundraiser for the youth group. My nurse has me go to the shed behind the church. There she has a machine that holds a piece of flat putty. I then take a hot knife and cut the putty into pieces. I don't know what the purpose of this is. Eventually, I go inside the church and help the youth group set up for the fundraiser. Dream ends.

I wake up

Teeth

Dream 1/21/17

I'm in a town near the ocean. The town looks like it could be french or polish. The buildings look old and beautiful. As I explore the town, I find a claw machine on the edge of a two story building. There is no way to get to it except to climb or jump from a nearby ledge. I do. It excites me that it's hidden and out of the way, I bet there is still a lot of good stuff inside to win.

I quit IHOP not long ago, but due to a long period of unemployment, I am in desperate need of money, so I decide to return to IHOP.

My sister and certain people in my family are running an ocean observatory building, in the ocean, near the french, polish town. Fred Flintstone comes to visit. They discover that cows are grazing on the ocean floor. A giant shark is stalking the observatory. It attacks the building and causes it to sink and become submerged under the surface of the deep. There is also a half shark half killer whale that swims near the observatory. Dream ends.

I wake up

The Wild Is Upon Me

Dream 1/17/17

A creature-somewhat like a tiger-stalks the people of my town.

To escape the dangers that are upon us, a group of townspeople and I take an elevator to the rooftop of a skyscraper. We get to the top and lay our sleeping bags in a line, one next to another. We fall asleep together, safe and sound. Dream ends.

I wake up

Fixer Upper

Dream 1/13/17

     I know a girl named Heather. Her family owns a store/restaurant. The restaurant is in her home. I visit it. It's set up much like a hospital cafeteria. You get the food that you want and then you check out. I grab a Snickers bar. When I run my debit card at the check out line, the card comes back declined. It's embarrassing, "son of a bitch," I yell. I tell the cashier that I'll put the candy bar back, and I leave.

     My sister has just bought a new house. A fixer upper. A mansion that has been left to rot. She has our family and many of her friends over to fix the place up. My dad and I explore the giant house to see what treasures and secrets we may find. The place is falling apart. We must be careful where we step. Most of the family and friends are in the center lobby of the house on the second floor. My dad and I search for the attic. We ask my sister where the stairs are that lead there. She tells us. We look and eventually find them. I find a bunch of old clothes from the 80's and 90's era. I grab a retro sweater and tell my dad to wear it because it looks much like one he used to have. I dawn an old jacket as well. We stand in the balcony of the lobby room where everyone can see us. I yell for my mom to look. She does. Everyone gets a kick out of our new stylish rags. Dream ends.

I wake up

Ghostly Desires

Dream 1/11/17

There exists a serum, that when you take it, you are allowed to see the ghosts of people who you have known when they were alive and ones who you've been connected to. I take the serum. I instantly see and befriend the ghosts living in my house.

One ghost in particular, I fall in love with. Her name is Florentine. She is skinny and always wears khakis. All of the ghosts still have the remaining damages from their deaths. Some have horrific scars. One girl has a gash in her face and bloody eyes from the car accident that killed her.

I tell my sister about the ghosts and she decides to take the serum for herself. She joins the club. We have competitions. My sister and I race while the ghosts throw honey at us. Dream ends.

I wake up

A Head Full of Skin

Dream 1/7/2017

I'm babysitting a very fat toddler. The kid is obese. I have to keep a sharp eye on him because he keeps walking over to the staircase and trying to fall backward down the stairs on purpose. He may be trying to commit suicide.

My friends Matt and Aaron are throwing a house party. Matt shows me his sound equipment. State of the art. He's got a turntable, but instead of vinyl records, he's got cd's playing. My sisters and aunt are here. They are wasted. My aunt keeps telling us about a gathering tomorrow that we need to attend. I walk over to a group of people who are sitting down, one of them is the obese toddler, but he is much older. He's twelve or thirteen now. While the party continues, I sit alone at the dining room table and watch television. The reception is fuzzy on the TV. I can only half see and hear what I am watching.

The next day I attend the meeting my aunt invited me to. It's a Klan meeting. A Ku Klux Klan meeting. There are several people on stage in white robes. One of them looks like the pope. They are commemorating my aunt for something she did. At one point, the speaker urges everyone to walk over to another part of the room where many pictures hang on a wall. He mentions the significance of the pictures but they look like they've been drawn by an eight year old. I sit back down.

The speaker says, "These colored people think they deserve rights..." I interrupt with a round of obnoxious but purposeful applause. The crowd seems disturbed by my actions. The man next to me grabs me and squeezes my face until my teeth feel like they are going to break.

At the end of the meeting, the head honcho walks out of the building and I follow him. I intend to insult him when one of his guards, who is African-american, stops me. I start sweet talking her, "What if we go upstairs and we kiss and touch each other?" She tells me to meet her upstairs in five minutes. Dream ends.

I wake up