The Art of Dreaming

Manufacturer

I had my feet propped up on the edge of the couch and stared at my blue socks. Checking my watch I breathed out and relaxed I had two hours before I had anywhere to be. Smoke spilled in the windows and fell down the walls like it was heavy. I was on my tenth cup of yogurt. Troin sat in a loveseat beside me, her legs crossed on the cushion. 

"Skr, va ohsa. Ohla." she said.

She sang a note and a guitar appeared in her hands. She started with open strumming before placing her fingers on the strings. The harmony was starting to form and possibilities were opportune. She switched a finger from the fifth to the sixth string and aimed for a D. The sound was rich with an ambiguity. She kicked me with her leg to start singing. I tried to remember a song that I knew and nodded at her. 

"Tun, tun, tun, tun." I sang.

She played her progression, a thumpy and droney song. Shuffling her hand around the neck. The melodic lines changed and she switched keys. A translucent cubed-prism appeared above her head and started to change colors. The sound waves from her guitar started to come from the cube now. Everything around her started to appear wavey. A cape appeared around her shoulders and lifted up with the aura that was forming around her. I was meditating on her and my mind grew clear. I realized changes aren't; what I thought they were. 

Err! The game buzzer went off and halftime started. I looked at the scoreboard. What I Thought: 10, Actuality: 78. What I Thought was getting destroyed, the game was nowhere close. The Extreme Shuffle Boarding arena was pack. Actuality had an insane course set up for the night. You started in an area where you had to hope somebody else knew what you needed. Once you got your puck out of that nightmare you had to ask other people to do everything for you. If somehow you completed that portion you were packed together with the rest of your team and told to wait. After the team had waited for long enough they were allowed to walk on a moving platform. Only some of the team would be given pucks, the rest got ejected. 

The course itself was a terror, there were still some people on it that had been playing for 80 years already. I walked out to the concession area and hopped on a golf cart. I began to drive pass all the stands, the clown stand, the butterfly stand, the sunglasses stand. I parked at a meter and walked to watch a girl group perform a K-pop routine. 

"This is your mind!" they sang together.

At least that's what the subtitles underneath them dancing said, I couldn't actually understand the words. I bowed towards the stage and walked away. I walked passed a conman stand.

"U ab le?" a man asked.

"No thanks." I answered.

"Ay ee ut ut." the man said, I ignored him.

He might have been a conman but it was too bad about his brother. I did hope he was just trying to con me as I walked away. I could smell the smoke of his cigarette still lingering in the air. The hall opened into town, this same path cut directly through the city and woods too. I held the book in one hand and looked at the crowd.

"Some people ask me why I wrote the book Concession Hall Rd: The scenic tour."

I pointed to a picture of the path cutting through a waterfall.

"It was scenery like this that inspired me. I mean, the waterfall is walking on the path too."

The crowd began to applaud and line up for autographs to get their books signed. One was a large 2-headed turtle that had on a very nice suit. He held his book out and I took it, opening it to the cover page.

"Tah as bu, san a on raa." the turtle said.

I had a vision of us playing in the river when we were younger. We were splashing in the water. I kept a watchful eye on the turtle making sure nothing bad happened. The next person in line was a ninja. They threw a bunch of flowers in the air and pressed their hands together. Their gaze told me to be creative, have fun and discover myself. Then the book disappeared out of my hands and the ninja was gone. 

8, 12, 14, 15. Those were the numbers on the trash bins I dropped the clues in. The detective game was about to start and I had a big shift in mood. I was excited at who would come out on top. The world was unforgiving, but here a person could prove themselves. Someone asked me where what I thought mattered before. The answer was here, testing future detectives.