Dream: (unedited)
My living room had turned into some sort of urban jungle from the 1970's. Wood paneling, forest green corduroy couches, arm chairs without arms, low ceilings that seemed to press down on my forehead whenever I looked up.
There were two huge fish tanks on either side of the room.
Low - right to the floor.
Huge Mf's - public aquarium size.
And within each one floated a giant octopus. Aquatic glass houses facing each other - a watery world of 8 limbed ballet dancers slowly stretching and reaching.
Oh yea - the one on the right had a huge albino/pale gold fish. Perhaps a freak gigantic tuna.
And then there was the cat - Kineko: my little instigator. That's why it came as no surprise to me that something was going to happen to either the water dwellers or four paws...
It was feeding time for the fish - I had a few cans of shelled oysters to dump into each tank. Not sure what the tuna was going to eat. The smell made me sick - reminded me of my father gutting pike at my uncle's country house under a hot July afternoon sun. "Golden Oysters" from Japan. The rims of the tin were rusted. No doubt they had been sitting in a warehouse for years, but I didn't think that these octopi would be too fussy.
I dumped the shiny ooze into each murky green tank. Within a matter of seconds, tiny suction cups wrapped themselves around the globs and then disappeared into the underbelly fleshy lump of animal. The tuna seemed to float around undisturbed. Perhaps he was allergic to shellfish.
I tossed in some flakes of foul smelling crap into his tank. His fish lips puckered as he met each drop with an open mouth. Tiny soft pops with each gulp and then dive to wash it down with water.
Sitting in between these two tanks, I felt a serenity that is something in short supply around here. My mind wandered to cuba and my moments scuba diving.
I promised myself if I go again, this time I will get certified.
Bliss. No gravity, no sound, just floating. How simple life would be!
Kineko smelled the oysters.
What cat doesn't like that smell?
He tried to paw his way up the side of the aquarium. I knocked him off each time; trying to distract him with some burlap bag of "Acme XXX" catnip.
The tuna seemed to be lonely (that's what I thought in the dream), so I lifted it out and placed it under the couch to hang out with me. The phone rang, lost track of time and raced back only to see it waving its tiny fins in a pathetic surrender for H2O.
Grabbing some sort of orange bed sheet (what an ugly color for bed linen!) I rolled it on its side (damn that thing was heavy) and lifted it up to the tank. Knocking off the cover with one foot, and kicking the cat away with the other, it rolled out and into the tank - an albino anvil. I held my breath for a few seconds. what the hell did I do now! I killed it! But within seconds, it began to wave around from head to fin, and our breathing resumed.
But behind me - another disaster was waiting to unfold.
Kineko had made his way on top of the aquarium of the lone octopus. He dipped his paws into the water, taunting the mass below. Still covered in wet sheets, I tried to distract him. He jumped off, and then while my back was turned, jumped on again. This time, mr. 8 legs was beginning to figure out that desert was close to the surface. Before I had a chance to swat the cat away - a gigantic elongated fleshy whip broke through the surface of the water and blindly swung around. Kineko thought this was a new toy and tried to follow its movements. I shrieked and before my eyes, he fell into the tank. His tiny body, dwarfed by the sea monster hit the basin in slow motion - and no sooner than he could float back up, another tentacle wrapped around his leg. Plunging my whole upper torso into this mess, I pulled up his soggy trembling body out and ripped away the fleshy coil which had already begun its hungry choke hold.
Sobbing, I yelled at him: "Why did you do that you stupid cat!"
and then turned to the octopus: "You idiot! You weren't supposed to have him as a meal!"
but seconds after the panic subsided, Kineko bolted off into the kitchen and mr. albino settled to the bottom corner of his room, I realized that I was speaking a foreign language to these exchange students who just happened to end up on the wrong side of each other's territory, and that being a guardian sometimes meant just acting and not saying.
does this make any sense?
I guess it's not supposed to. It's a dream..
Oh yea, I was also taking a buss home when it took some strange turn from a busy city street into a winding country road. I asked the driver if I had missed my stop - he told me that I had ended up 30 miles from point A and would have to walk 15 miles back to the next buss.
I got off - loaded up my backpack and bottle of water, and underneath the scorching morning sun, walked on the side of the road, facing the oncoming trucks and tractors.
There was some sort of old wooden house - painted white. The typical "side of the road" home. The porch was littered with antique furniture and rusted windmills. Past the doorway were delicately cracked ceramic statues and plates. A frail old man greeted me and asked me if I was lost.
duh!
He told me to take this escalator up to the 2nd floor (it was in the middle of his house) where I would find a highway underpass which would lead me to the buss stop in question.
I took it with some other country bumpkins, and ended up standing in a concrete snakes and ladders jungle.
That's when I ended up in my aquatic life living room.
Ahh - Prozac. Gotta love the mind fuck it does to your dreams.
No comments:
Post a Comment