Scattered Dreams & Dragonflies

By cloth and crane

I believe our mind is truly a marvel. As life goes on, our minds slowly merge our memories. Along life's unyielding progression, those memories get interwoven. Somewhere between life's harsh reality and our mind's colorful and unique materialization, a beautiful, surreal creation is made, turning into a movie where we, as protagonists, secondary characters, or just viewers, partake.

Tonight, I was part of another masterpiece of my boundless mind. When I came to, I was walking with a group of friend's side by side. Their faces and voices were unknown to me, but within the dream, I felt a certain camaraderie with them. Somehow, we were close to each other. Our conversations were jovial. There was, at the very least, a certain level of trust in each other, so regardless of really knowing them or not, their presence felt warm and familiar to me.

We walked around a dark place, where the airs of familiarity still remained. It was a parking space close to my home, a mall I had visited for years since I was little. Late at night, the group and I walked alongside each other, sharing jokes and laughs, as friends would. Soon, we came across what seemed like a lifted wall of concrete. It was a few feet above our heads but not tall enough that we couldn't see what was at the top. The concrete block was fairly wide, so much so that we couldn't see its end from either side. We weren't right in front of it at the time, but its presence became apparent to me after looking forward for the first time. During the conversations, I had kept my eyes on the people walking next to me. Their faces were completely darkened, so much so that I couldn't tell who they were by their facial features. But somehow, that didn't influence my interactions with them. In the dream, I was completely content with the way I felt about them, regardless of their appearance.

"Hey, look at that," one of the people walking next to me said, pointing at the towering concrete blocks.

At this point, we were more than a few feet away, but we could still see the top. A few people stood at the top of the block. Oddly enough, I recognized them visually. They used to be students from my high school a few years back. We could see them as they walked along the sides of the block, unable to acknowledge us as we walked by.

"Remember that trend back in high school, guys?" I said, pointing upwards at them.

The people walking on top of the concrete block wore wine-colored pants and white shirts, resembling our school attire at the time. But the shirts were different. In front and in the back, they had what looked like very colorful graffiti plastered on them. I remembered that back in the day, graffiti was a big trend during our high school years. We didn't paint our school attire, no. Instead, we would get these books they called "Black books" and write inside whatever your signature lettering was as your graffiti. Among students who practiced this in school, they would share these books, leaving different designs and styles for each other. They would also write on walls with spray paint or markers. They even bought caps with a white background just to write graffiti on the front and wear them everywhere. It was a cool thing to have at the time. I remember partaking in it as well. I remember getting progressively good at making graffiti on paper. I never used spray paint, though. It didn't seem right to paint on walls, especially without someone's consent. So, I never reached that level. We all eventually grew out of it over the years. But alas, the people in my dream had these shirts. I alluded to it, remembering it from our old days to my friends. They laughed, mentioning amongst themselves that they remembered it too. You would think that intertwining them with those memories would give me a better visual of their faces, but it all remained blurred, and I was unbothered by it. Finally, with a few more laughs, we moved past the concrete wall and continued on our way through the familiar parking lot at night.

As we walked, one of my dream friends stopped us.

"Hey," he said, looking at me and the person standing beside me. "Now that you and your brother are here, we should go to the amusement park. I know you and your brother won't be here for long, so let's take a chance to visit! Besides, there aren't many people there now, since it's a weekday."

Upon hearing those words, I looked to my side to find my brother there. The blur on his face, upon being mentioned, was lifted and I could see him completely. He remained looking forward without saying a word. In the dream, I also remember lightly questioning how we could go to this famous amusement park at night. Aren't those usually closed at this hour? And even so, how would we get there? We were in a parking spot at the time, and in reality, the amusement park was many miles away overseas from us. All I know is that these questions ran through my mind, but as quickly as they appeared, contrary to my signature overthinking, they disappeared the same way. With a gentle nod from me and my brother, we were already there in this famous theme park, ready to enjoy the rides.

We found ourselves in front of a specific ride. I remember having a bird's eye view of the ride as we walked towards it. I had never seen it before, but it also felt familiar in a way. From what I could remember, the machine was many feet in the air, held up by wide tubes stabilizing it high above the ground. The top of the ride had its entrance onto a sand pit that, as we sat down in line, would start vibrating, pushing us little by little forward until a crane grabbed us by the chest and dragged us downwards, eventually circling down to the beginning of the ride, where we would get out. I remembered, as I got into the ride, having a bird's eye view of myself as I walked in and got ready. I remember the machine starting and feeling the pulses and vibrations of the machine, slowly dragging me into the crane. I remember feeling the sand brushing against me constantly due to the continuous vibration. The sand would occasionally touch my face as it jumped higher through the pulsating sand. All of this I could feel as I watched myself from a bird's eye view while inside the machine. It felt almost like watching someone a few feet in the air with a drone, all while feeling the same sensations of the person I was looking at.

After the crane grabbed me, it started the descent. I could feel the way it tilted downwards, slowly picking up speed with every moment. I squinted my eyes a bit to keep them open against the cold wind hitting my face. Around us, it was still nighttime, but somewhat closer to the morning. Looking up, I could start to see the sky getting clearer. It was almost morning, and yet we were riding a machine that we never thought we would be riding on anytime soon. I was the first going down the ride. I could feel the coldness of the crane as I held on to it. The crane had a tube that went through it down to where our feet rested. The ride was so high up that I never imagined looking down. My eyes remained anchored to the slowly moving morning sun as it showed itself. It was truly beautiful, the sight of the sun as it rested gently across the horizon. Truly a momentous view, but something else interrupted my enjoyment.

I felt my grip on the crane change; its texture turned much softer. From cold, sturdy metal to a soft, warm cloth. Soon, I felt myself engulfed in a piece of delicate fabric as it pushed me in a different direction from the ride. For moments, I felt weightless. Looking back, I noticed the crane was no more; I had been separated from the machine and taken by the strong winds surrounding the environment. Since we were so high up, it only made sense for the wind to be colder and stronger, and that it was. I could no longer tell where I was, with every gust of wind pulling me in a different direction. The long cloth scattered around me, not allowing me to see where I was. Then I noticed a sudden pull in the opposite direction from where I was being moved. The cloth was being grabbed by one of the employees. They pulled hard on the cloth, attempting to bring it back to the ride to save me. At that point, the cloth was no longer engulfing me; instead, I was forced to hold onto it, as the wind continuously blew against it, pushing me away. With every moment, I felt my grip getting looser. Afraid that I would fall, one of the workers attempted to move closer to me. He had a long rope that he could manipulate, moving him along the cloth in my direction. It looked more like a snake he controlled that stabilized him as he moved towards me along the cloth.

Soon, the worker arrived and managed to grab me. His face showed no signs of relief or tension. It seemed like any workday at the office. Business as usual. It made me think if something like this happened often on a ride like this.

"Oh, thank you," I said, relieved, as the worker slowly used his tense rope to pull us back into the ride. "It's thanks to you that things like this don't end up in tragedy, you know?" I said, giving him a nervous smile.

The man replied with a distant "yeah," as if it wasn't a big deal that he had just saved someone from falling to their death. As he pulled us in, I remembered the feeling I had when I was lost for moments in the air. The familiarity of being pulled into the sky without control.

"I remember this," I said to myself as we returned to solid ground.

"Do you?" the man replied back.

"I do...I think I dreamed this before..."