Dream

Posted on October 11, 2002 in Dreams

A very fragmented dream. These are the parts that I remember:

1. I’m one of the escorts of a group of teenagers at some kind of zoological park. We miss the tram that will take us into “Hidden Canyon”. When they try to jump on it as it leaves, the engineer tells them to wait for the next one. They come back to mill around the stop, but then some of the boys see that the tram has stopped farther on down the line. They run to it. I call them back. Somehow, they’ve gotten into the paddock and are running with the animals — deer and sable antelope. I rush down and find myself next to a gigantic moose without antlers. It must be twelve or more feet at the shoulders.

2. I’m sitting in the waiting room of a railroad station. Trains pass up and down on the tracks. A group of soldiers who dress like sailors come through. They stare at me and the others like we were objects set up for tourists.

3. I get an idea for a story that I begin to write out in a reporter’s notebook. The gist of it is that a zoo keeper comes into the rhino paddock one morning and discovered the body of a teenager who the rhinos have trampled during the night. I have trouble getting the words right.

4. A housemate of mine — a small Pakistani man — and I escape from my mother’s house through the bathroom window. He’s very excited. This is the first time he’s ever done such a thing. I show him how to sneak past the windows as we circle the house. I nearly run into some kind of wire construction suspended over the sidewalk. It seems that my parents have the idea that they will grow a grapevine over these wires and block the way to the gate with it. We slip out the gate. As I motion to Saleem to hurry up, I accidentally press the door bell. Mom comes out of the house, calling me home. I urge Saleem to run faster and we make it around the corner where his battered Oldsmobile is parked before she sees us. As we drive away, I explain that my parents told me that I was their thrall until my majority at age 21. I’m eighteen now and I’ve just learned that I am free. We drive off across America seeking new experiences.