About a Dream

For those of you who don't know, I write another blog called The Encyclopedia of Counted Sheep.  It's somewhere between a dream journal, and a collection of short stories.  Basically, I use ideas that I get from my dreams as a creative starting point for short works of fiction, and I build from there; sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.  It all depends.  Check it out, if you want.  Apparently my subconscious has some wild theories if its own.  

I bring this up, not just as a shameless attempt at cross-promotion, but because today's post is about a dream I once had when I was a kid.  I'm writing about it here because there's more to the story than just the dream itself, as you'll see.  So, it's kind of like I'm guest blogging on my own blog.  It feels kind of weird, but that might have something to do with the painkillers that the dentist has me on.  If I was over on the other blog, I guess I would call this post "Footprints in the Snow", but I'm not, so I won't.  You might walk away from this story thinking I'm a little out of my mind, but I guess I'll have to take that risk.  Anyhow, without further pointless rambling, I'll turn the floor over to my guest blogger, myself, who also just happens to be me: 

I had this dream when I was about 12 years old.  There was this blonde girl that I liked at school.  In the dream, she was my girlfriend and we were walking through the halls of the school, holding hands, which is probably as exciting as my imagination got at that age.  We passed everyone I knew in the halls, and I could tell from the looks on their faces that they were suitably impressed.  I had a big beaming smile on my face.  Everything was wonderful.  I couldn't have been happier...

...and then I woke up.

Except...I hadn't really woken up.  I was still dreaming.  I just dreamt that I woke up.  Nevertheless, I was quite disappointed to learn that my little stroll through the school hall with the blonde girl hadn't been real.  I refused to accept it.  I got out of bed and ran out of the house.  It was a sunny day outside; one of those days in late winter, early spring, where the snow had melted back to little patches on the grass.  I went to the spot where the school had been in my dream.  There was nothing but an open field there now.  I stared at it, stunned and defeated, shaking my head.  But then I noticed something.  In a big patch of snow in the middle of the field, I saw two sets of footprints crossing the length of it.  It was real.  We had walked hand in hand on this very spot.  The school had faded away, but the traces of our feet remained in the snow.

I was so excited, that I had to tell someone.  I ran back towards home, and I went to the next door neighbor's house where this girl who I was friends with lived.  I knocked at the door, and when she answered, I asked her to come outside so that I could show her something.  She had the same melting patches of snow in her backyard that were everywhere else.  I pointed out a big tree that was next to one of the snow patches, and I told her that we had to sit down beside it and go to sleep.  She looked at me a little strangely, but she agreed.  Now, I'll remind you that this was all still a dream at this point, but inside this dream we sat down under the tree and "fell asleep" in a matter of seconds and we dreamt that we were running across the snow patch.  When we reached the edge of it, I yelled "WAKE UP!", and there we were under the tree again.  We got to our feet, and I showed her the footprints in the snow that we had made in our dream.  Then, in a voice that somehow didn't quite seem to be my own, I turned to her and said, "See, dreams are real."

The moment I said that, everything changed.  We weren't in the backyard anymore.  We were down at the town square, standing under the clock tower on the courthouse.  It was just getting dark out.  I saw the blonde girl in the shadows of some trees across the park.  I tried to call out to her, but it suddenly seemed like everything was falling apart and spinning out of control.  I realized that this was all just another dream, and I could feel it slipping away.  The clock on the courthouse began to spin faster and faster, and it kept chiming the hour over and over until I finally woke up for real, and realized that it was my alarm going off.

I thought about this dream all day at school.  I couldn't get it out of my head.  It had felt more real than any dream I had ever had.  I passed the day in a kind of dazed preoccupation.  After school I ran into the neighbor girl.  I was itching to tell somebody about this weird dream that I had had.  I started telling her about it, but when I got to the part where I had knocked on her door, she had the strangest look on her face.  She told me that she had had the exact same dream, only it had been from her own perspective.  She told me about how I had come to the door.  She told me about falling asleep under the tree.  She told me about my strange voice when I said, "See, dreams are real."  She told me about the clock tower, and how she had turned around and I was gone.  She knew everything.

I wasn't sure what to make of this.  Neither was she.  We tried for months after that to repeat the experience.  Every time we saw each other, we asked about about the dreams the other had had, but they were never the same.  Eventually we gave up hope on the whole thing. Clearly, it was a one time thing, never to be repeated. 

I have no explanation to offer for this, no theories.  I leave it to you all to figure it out.  Was it just the power of suggestion?  Did I just imagine the whole thing?  Was there some sort of psychic phenomenon at work?  Am I still dreaming?  Maybe you just think I'm completely full of it, and I just made it all up.  I can certainly understand that viewpoint, and you're free to think that, but I promise you that it's completely true.  I don't understand it at all, but it did happen.  So...what do you think?