The Art of Dreaming

Bead

"Orange you glad we met?" I asked the man.

He was nothing but a blur of colors now that burst into a shower of dollar bills. A black duffle bag had been left in his place. I counted on my three fingers on one hand and two fingers on the other hand to calm down. I reached into my shirt pocket and removed a match. Bending down to the floor I lit it on fire and the room changed, its red walls shifting to a turquoise. The flames spread to the corners of the room. Light came through the one window in the room. The floor dropped and water started to fall from the ceiling. A deep bass sound filled the room in a moan. The turquoise tiles continued as the floor descended and I was now floating the water was so high. I took a look underwater and found a small wooden door. It must have been what the guy in sunglasses was talking about.

I took a breath before diving to open the door. I fell through with three fish and we all landed on a beige carpet before they turned into crabs and scuttled away. I was soaked but the carpet was dry. This room was well lit and a young man sat on a couch playing guitar to a girl around his age and an older man. He was singing along with the music.

"Tun, tun, tun, tun."

Unlike the card game, I wasn't involved with this hand. I picked myself off of the carpet and followed the crabs up a set of stairs. The cold breeze made me shiver as it pressed against my wet body. There was no second level apart from the top stair. Just a view from a cliff high up. The wind took pieces of me with it like confetti. Some of my shirt. Some of my pants. Some of my skin. Some of my flesh. A flower grew out off my left eye socket and replaced my eye. If something is meant to be it will be, no amount of struggle can stop destiny. This moment made me understand that. Yet I still grabbed for the pieces of myself that flew away. Each one I was able to pull back made a sound like a violin. I went mad, slapping these loose pieces of myself back into random places on my body. I put shirt were flesh should be, skin were pants should be. They were my pieces, I was okay with being shuffled. I could smell dinner so I removed the flower from my skull and gave it a kiss before tossing it to the breeze.

The elephant's back was surprisingly easy to walk on as I nimbly made my way towards its tail amongst the watching eyes. Jumping from the elephant to a balcony. I cleared the pink painted railing and landed on my feet. Trion fixed my glasses which had become crooked somewhere along the way. Her face wasn't melted anymore. I respected her for fixing my glasses.

"Always be truthful." I told her.

Dinner was 800 hundred pieces of sushi and a dog jumped on a seat at the table. 

The dog started to speak, "The phenomena of Nature. The sun, moon, stars, wind, thunder, lightning and rainstorms. So on to rivers, seas, mountains, waterfalls, fountains, stones, and rocks. Show me mirrors, swords, jewels, scarfs and garments."

"Of course," I said, "I have them."

I pulled out a book about Shinto and gave it to the dog. With its mouth the book was placed into a bag. Six hermit crabs climbed out of the bag and onto the table. They each began eating the sushi, soon there were only a few pieces left. I quickly grabbed a piece of sushi and shoved it in my mouth.

The rice sprouted into a forest coming out of my mouth. All I could hear was Troin telling the dog how much of a good boy she was. I wish somebody would pet me and tell me how good I was. The forest outgrew my body and fell around me. I was surrounded by a jungle now. I took the toothpick from between my lips and picked at the spaces of my teeth. A potted plant sat at the base of a tree. I looked at my bookbag to see if I had any room for it. Looking through the clear plastic of my bag I could see a winter jacket. I removed the orange jacket and traded the tree for the potted plant. Now I had a potted plant in my backpack. It's hard to know if life ever does get better than that.

I patted my hair down with my hand and walked through the jungle. I knew that it had to be around here somewhere. Signs of life were everywhere, just not to the untrained eye. Temples sat behind mountains and miles of more jungle. A lady appeared beside a tree.

"Are you a part of this world?" the woman asked.

"Do you live in what you create? I asked her.

"Are wool part wool wool?" she asked.

"Wool part wool wool, wool give ah tiv." I answered.