The Art of Dreaming

Hemisphere

It was necessary that I made it to this meeting on time. The secret doors were disguised as comic book shelves and I placed a comic in a different slot. This unlocked the doors and I slid in while nobody was watching. There was a short hall with a door at the end, a masked attendant stood by the door. He grabbed one of the boxes at his side and handed it to me. 

"Your mask." he said.

I accepted the box and removed the mask from inside of it. It was a yellow and blue dog mask, I put it on and the attendant opened the door. The place was filled with at least a hundred people wearing all different kinds of masks. There was a fight happening in the octagon at the center of the room. I walked past a woman.

"Troin!" I said.

"Ta na, u smi da." she said.

I felt embarrassed and turned away as quickly as I could. It wasn't Troin, it was a woman wearing a Troin mask. It was a mask party how could I have been so dense. I put my hand on my head and started to pet myself. I might be dumb but I was a good boy. The mask licked my hand in appreciation. As I kept petting the dog I watched the fight in the octagon. It was a blur of motions between the two fighters. One fighter got the other in a promising headlock and they began to grow. Stuck in this headlock position soon their bodies were pressing against the cage in all directions they had grown so large. Then the cage broke down and people in the crowd were being pushed toward the wall. A group of four people ran past me, the last one grabbing my arm and pulling me with them. I could smell her pheromones. 

"The Unalachtigo were a part of the Lenape tribe." my dog mask said.

I fell through a hole in the floor and lost touch with a woman that I might have loved. I landed in wet cement that was surprisingly soft when I landed but felt harder now. A man with a blurred face and orange construction helmet was waving at me to get out of the cement. A banner against the nearby fence said "I'm Working on a Show." 

"4 whole floors, that's pretty snazzy." I said.

I finally took off my dog mask and gave it a treat, it trotted away to a group of horses and laid down. The construction worker walked beside me and made hoof noises as I walked. I finally had everything I needed. I took the guy's helmet and filled it with wet cement, I put in water and a match. Then I took two steps back. The balloon man had appeared. He walked down the street with me explaining many things about life. Things about love. Things about nothing. The street stopped us while we walked.

"You got eyes, a nose, a mouth and ears?" the street asked us.

"I have those things." I said.

The balloon man started to walk away, I waved goodbye to the balloon man. Protector of air, however breakable that protection might be. I stood there waving until the balloon man was out of sight. Instantly thunder and lightning boomed and struck. The skies grew grey and I heard a story like it was written with the wind.

Once upon a time, there was a cloud. It floated and got heavier by the day. Then it rained and became lighter. In an eerie coincidence it started to rain as soon as the story ended. It was good it was raining though, the rain was acidic and I needed acid for my battery. I stood in place with the battery box in my arms collecting the rain. It was working, the electricity traveling through the wires and turned my car on. I had been stranded for almost the whole day on the side of this road. I put my key in the ignition and started it up, the engine roar to life and I smiled. 

"You are listening to Rah nu en Radio!" came through the speakers.

I drove off listening to the best hits of 2016. Or was it 17? Most of the drive I was just trying to keep the car on the road but bubbles would lift me up sometimes. Or the road would just disappear and I would be falling for a long time. It made me wonder what kind of butterfly I would be. Butterfly watchers know that some butterflies will go off by themselves while other butterflies will group together around one treetop. I didn't feel uncomfortable without other cars bubbling up and falling down with me. The car did though and took control of the wheel after the second time bubbles lifted us up. I opened the door and jumped out landing in a pile of snow.