The Stuff of Dreams

The Beginning of a Dream

They say you can't feel in dreams. I think they say that to keep you from dreaming.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He cut the ropes holding him, looking to his comrades. The fires drew closer and closer to them. He didn't know if he would make it. The laughing, jeering crowd in the wooden stands enjoyed the panic in their eyes. Their backs were against the wall. They were huddled together like Christians holding each other in front of raging lions. Suddenly, the ropes broke, yet the fires came charging toward them. The panda quickly cut the others' ropes. It grew hotter. He could feel it. Just then, the fires vanished like a cloud. The panda looked to the back wall. It wasn't a wall, it was a curtain leading down a small stony corridor to bright light. "Run!" He shouted to the others. They all did, somehow magically free from their ties. The panda ran and ran. The shouts and disappointed screams grew colder and further. Then, bright light hit them. They were outside. Wide stretches of grassy earth only interrupted by gently breathing hills. His comrade, a small white pigeon, took to the sky. 

"Come on! To the hills," said the pigeon. The panda could see it too. In fact, he could see it from the height of the pigeon. He looked down and saw his feet floating off the grassy earth. His comrades, some running others flying, stormed the grassy sea and away from their captors. A song whispered through the air and entered their ears: 

And shall hear the trumpet sound in that morning

Oh, Shout of glory for I shall mount above the sky

When I hear the trumpet sound in that morning

A line of trees suddenly caught the panda's sight. His feet found the earth again. The leaves partially blocked the sun in the heart of the woods. The panda drew closer. The trees, growing taller, slowly formed a hallway. The warm grass changed to hardened tile, though not too cold on his bare feet. He walked slowly into what now seemed to be a conference room where a family hugged a large round gorilla. Maybe their uncle? The panda wouldn't remember. But he looked onto another hallway, separated by two double doors with windows. Through the windows, his eyes locked onto another creature, dressed in a black and white striped tank top. It was a tiger. A female one. She looked like she was jogging until she saw the panda. The tiger bolted for the other way. The panda chased her. He could feel his lungs exhausted from the initial sprint, but he ran faster. 

"You know," The panda called out as they entered the beginning of a massive, gallant, and airy hotel lobby, "it's supposed to be the tiger that chases the prey." The tiger might have said something under her loud laughter, but the panda couldn't figure it out. The tiger darted into an elevator that shut just as the panda missed it. She must be going down to the subway. The panda got into another elevator and went down only to feel the shaft shake like an earthquake. The panda opened the door and found himself in the frigid, lonely graveyard to the left of the hotel, and icy snow laughed at his face. The tiger had slipped away. 

************************************************************

"Po, wake up!" shouted Po's sister. The male panda grumbled out of his warm bed and yawned. The female's voice came from Po's door. "Come on, it's 6 o'clock. You have work at seven."

"Okay, okay," Po sighed. "Give me a minute." Po quickly grabbed his phone and opened his recorder app. He normally recorded any strange dream that was so significant that he had to get down as much as he could. And something like this dream was definitely worth recording. His foggy head and tired mouth mumbled out the words, and once he got the gist down, he got dressed for his work at the grocery store. He slipped into his black work pants. He grabbed a dark green polo shirt,  XXL of course, and shuffled out his small bedroom to the kitchen where his sister was waiting for him. "Hey, Mei."