Thunderscream

Several summers ago, when I was living in Lake Ridge, I was in the middle of a dream (the bulk of which I can't remember) in the morning. Outside, it was raining heavily. In the dream, someone right in front of me, practically in my face, was getting ready to scream.

And just then, as I woke up, a huge roar of thunder came from very close by.

I have a hard time believing that the coordination of the dream scenario and the real world lightning strike was a coincidence — people screaming in my dreams is, in itself, a pretty rare thing, and to be perfectly timed to a very close lightning strike (also somewhat rare, though not as rare during the summer) is... Well, I think I can come up with a couple possible reasons for it.

One possibility is that the lightning struck brightly, and I registered it unconsciously through my eyelids while still asleep, and somewhere deep down, I knew there should be a really loud noise following shortly thereafter, for which my dream world constructed the image of someone getting ready to scream.

Another possibility is that I woke up to lightning and thunder, and only after waking up did I imagine that I had dreamed of somebody about to scream, but for whatever reason, the chronological order of the memory was quickly scrambled.

I guess the third obvious possibility is that there was no real correspondence between the dream and the events going on outside my window, but the salience of the experience caused me to assign more meaning to it than was really there. A good point of evidence why this could be the case: I can't recall ever having had another experience quite like this.

Chilling fox and waving bear

I had just woken up (not actually, but in the dream), and was lying in bed. My bed was in the basement, but it was near a small ground-level window, out of which I could look at the back yard. I saw mom and dad in the back yard, along with the dogs. But I also saw a red fox there. Surprisingly, it wasn't doing much of anything. It wasn't scared of the people and dogs there, it wasn't trying to attack anything or run away. It just kind of stood around.

I grabbed my point-and-shoot camera, which was in my bed with me already, zoomed in on the fox, and took a couple pictures and a short video, expecting the fox to run away at any moment. But the fox never did go anywhere. It was just chilling.

-

Next dream: in the back yard of our current house, near the far back gate of our tall wood picket fence. My dad was sitting in a lawn chair, facing away from the fence, and next to him was a news anchor — Brian Williams, I think — interviewing him.

I walked up towards them, and suddenly I caught sight of a large brown bear in the woods behind the fence. I waved to it, and it got up on its hind legs and waved back, with a vacant expression on its face, then started ambling towards us. I told Dad and Brian Williams to get moving, and we fled towards the front of the house. Every once in a while, the bear would get back up on its hind legs and wave again, then continue ambling over towards us.

We got out to the front yard, and headed inside the house (which now more resembled our Cantilever house in Lake Ridge).

Technical difficulties with the cookie bike

I had a high-tech red motorcycle, and I drove it from Lake Ridge to Dale City by way of Smoketown Road. Then, I was making my way back, again on Smoketown Road, somewhere on the stretch between Minnieville and Cavalier. I had to weave between a few bicyclists on the road, and then suddenly I realized that the only reason my motorcycle was still moving was because I was pedaling it. The engine had gone dead.

I stopped and tried to fiddle with the controls. I looked at my high-tech dashboard and decided to give the operating system a reboot (it looked like a compact version of Windows 7). However, when I pressed the hard button on the dashboard to shut down the OS, it went into hibernate instead, so that wasn't going to work. Then I thought maybe I was out of fuel, so I looked at the fuel gauge, but its digital readout showed that I had almost half a tank left.

Somehow, I got back closer to home (maybe Wainscott), and my mom was outside trying to help me troubleshoot. I recalled that we were using a special fuel — basically, gingerbread cookies, though we called them something else which I can't remember. My mom had some more with her, and she took a bite of one, and I could see from her expression that it tasted kind of weird. Maybe the cookies changed over time and they had lost their efficacy.

The bathroom aquarium access terminal

So I'm in this bathroom, which is more or less the same layout as the upstairs hallway bathroom at the Cantilever house, but slightly roomier. But the bathroom is linked to an aquarium-like facility a few floors below (I'm picturing a big, tall, open first floor of a skyscraper, with fancy shale floors and an artificial river flowing through the middle).

The bathroom mirror has sort of a computer interface to it, where I can select a species of fish and then I can examine it. So, after selecting a species, I flush the toilet, and up it comes, into the toilet bowl. It's a medium sized gray fish, maybe half the length of my forearm. I go back to the mirror and select another species, then flush the toilet again. The original fish goes away (presumably back to the aquarium). Nothing new takes its place, though.

But when I flush the toilet again, two slightly smaller gray fish appear in the toilet bowl. These ones like to jump, and one of them ends up on the floor, so I decide to transfer them to the bathtub. I have to use a towel to grab them since they're slippery. Even after I get them in the tub, one of them jumps out on the floor again. I put it back in and close the shower door.

They're still trying to get out, and when I look closely at one of them, resting on the lip of the tub up against the door, I notice that its fins are at the ends of really short proto-arms and legs, with just barely noticeable knees/elbows. I go back to the mirror interface, intending to look up coelacanths so I could compare their structure, but I guess I woke up.

Middle school annexed my bedroom

I was in my bedroom (this time, resembling the guest room upstairs in Haymarket, which used to be my bedroom, but I had the impression that the rest of the house more resembled a bigger version of the Cantilever house). I was recalling how the middle school used to use the house for school space, including making my bedroom part of the lunch space, and then eventually it was also a classroom. For some reason, it hadn't bothered me at all at the time, maybe because the room was always in good shape when I went to use it (and I guess I was in school too, though maybe not middle school, so I wasn't around when it was in use). It was my impression that they didn't really rearrange the room when they used it, so many people must have sat on the bed.

Dad's lost (and rediscovered) Valentine's Day cake

At the Cantilever house, I am in the study, reading or hearing on the radio about holiday traditions and thinking to myself that it would be easier to stay in the United States where tradition is less strict than in Europe (Germany, for example). Meanwhile, Dad had just discovered a cake that he had made for Mom for Valentine's Day 1992, which had gotten lost behind junk in the closet and never given or consumed.

The cake was frosted roughly with a thick, uneven pastel yellow color frosting. On top of the cake was a rust red frosted helicopter, somewhat crude and thin, but large enough that its tail hung off the cake. Next to the cake was an even larger jumbo jet, also covered with frosting. All were sitting on a large grey lego platform. Dad, amazed at his discovery, wanted us to see it, since he was proud of his creation, yet embarrassed that it had gotten lost and never presented. I muttered to myself about hating Valentine's Day and not really caring to see it, but I got up and went into the family room where he was to see it anyway.

Dad asked if I wanted some pizza (there were about eight boxes on the kitchen table, and Neil was unloading some himself).

Prior to that, in the study, I was on the computer playing some mp3s for myself and Greg. Some were ones I had composed and others were random ones that I had recently downloaded. At least one was a song by a female singer-songwriter which I was now second guessing why I had downloaded it in the first place. I was listening carefully to one of the ones I had made and was realizing how derivative it was of another song I knew well. The flow of the melody for the section I was listening to was almost identical (even in the same key), but the chords behind it were different.

Racheem's love

Later dream involved AOL Instant Messenger. I had apparently logged on for the first time in a very long time. A few people started bombarding me with messages, including one whose screen name was "Alyssa" and whose icon was the face of a magenta-haired female night elf from WoW. Apparently we were online friends from when I used to play TFC, and, although it hadn't been obvious to me, she was obsessed with me. She reminded me that her first name was "Racheem" (an image of her popped into my mind -- thin, hispanic or middle eastern, dark medium length hair -- above shoulder --, medium-short height, late teens). Interesting that I could now read all this text when I had seen none during my earlier lucid dream. She went on and on about this and that -- there was one point where she said she "sent my arm to her friend" -- accompanied by an image of me and ?Neil sitting on a couch (in Cantilever Ct. basement?) with a gag-arm hanging next to us. After answering other people's IMs, I had trouble figuring out how to go back to hers (the interface was atypical -- large window with tabs at the top -- new IMs had light blue tab text). When I finally clicked back, she had written four or five paragraph-long messages -- a few glimpses indicated that she was making some kind of emotionally charged confession. However, I saw that she had signed off while I had been clicked away. Then for some reason, her entire tab disappeared and I was annoyed that I couldn't read it. Wondered to myself whether it had been logged somewhere, but couldn't find it.

Demonstrating word meanings

Near the end of a semester, talking about a word list for a made up language with two female peers. Someone throws a ball or something into the street on the other side of a narrow strip of woods and I cross the street to get it, demonstrating the word "abase" - to cross. Other words included "birch" + "jum(b)".

I also dreamt I woke up once and failed to write this down. Was in the old house and my alarm hadn't worked on the last day of classes.

A blissful encounter

Throwing frisbees with a few people in the front yard of the Cantilever house. I throw one from the street up towards the house. Suddenly a girl (with black hair) comes out of nowhere from behind me and starts hugging me. Her chin is hooked over my left shoulder. I was so incredibly happy at that point that I could have stayed like that indefinitely. So now I know what it's like.

Beth's holey driveway; our new weird pool table

Extremely foggy rollercoaster/suspension bridge. We go off the track before a big rise. Pity. I come up to a driveway as Beth F is swerving a large van into it. It tips and falls sideways (driverside up) into a van-sized hole at the base of the driveway. I'm acting somewhat romantic as I offer a hand to help her out of the van. This van may be the same van that appeared earlier in the dream, after I was being sought following my great help in an investigation.

-

Me and dad at home. I am setting up a new pool table in front of the back doors in the family room. I notice that on one of the sides the corner pocket is offset about 4 or 5 inches to the right and the side pocket is too. I remove a few top layers and see that the holes have different possible preset positions. Interesting.

A meeting with adventurers, a frolic in the front yard, a throbbing ear

Something like Lord of the Rings atmosphere. I've come to a lodge or meeting ground some miles from the foot of a lesser mountain. I have a story to tell to the people meeting there, which is very relevant to their lives. I wander into their sitting circle (on the floor). A certain Avent (young fellow) is answering a question about his name (whether it is a family name, if it has to do with his adventurous disposition). His answer seems affirmative. Then, it is his turn to ask something of another person in the circle. It goes on in this fashion. I grow restless, stand up (I was sitting to the right of Avent) and go outside.

At this point the storyline starts to break up. The yard outside the lodge turns out to be our front yard at home. I am so ecstatic to see it that I dive and tumble partway down the hill and start rolling around merrily. The front way of the lodge and to the lodge's left (upstreet) are lines of conifers. But as I look longer, it becomes our street and the houses across and on Wainscott.

I've moved out to the street and am looking (from upstreet) back at the house. It is notably different from our real house. I remarked to myself how nice it would look if the palm trees were accompanied by small standing pools of water. Then I remember we have a swimming pool (we have always had swimming pools at our house). It is near the street at the bottom of our hill. I go in for a minute, then come back out. During the time outside I've given some thought as to how much longer till summer (it seems to be March or early April).

I come back inside and look in the mirror. My hair is wet but interestingly sleek. The middle looks combed up while the sides fall down onto my forehead and in front of my ears. Mom notes that I look handsome. She goes on to ask me about the difference between the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring and the forest part. (credibility?)

I tell her to hold on. My right ear is absolutely throbbing. I go to the mirror and try to get the water out of it (from the pool) but it doesn't seem to be working. I can see the skin under my ear throbbing and I can hear the thumps of it.

(I woke up to find myself in an odd position, probably the cause of the sound (my heartbeat) -- my right arm was asleep.)