The Flying Ship

The Flying Ship

Saturday, January 1, 2011

A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I had a dream the other night.

I was standing on the front lawn of a white house. The old kind, with pillars on the porch. on the lawn were plastic pink flamingoes, and garden gnomes. I walked up to the front door, which has one of those signs on it that say "bless this mess" and have daisies on them.

I push the button on the door bell, and a funny little tune comes out. I wait a couple of minutes and then an old lady comes to the door. She apologizes for the wait, but says that she was doing her yoga, which would explain why it is that she is wearing a pink tracksuit and white runners. Her hair was white, and she seems like the kind of lady that you wish your grandmother was.

Anyway, she invites me in and asks if I would like a glass of lemonade. I thought for a bit then said, "sure". she pours herself and me a tall glass of lemonade. I take a sip, and its nice and pretty unremarkable. She asks if I like it, and I say I do. She tells me that the lemons come form the back garden, and that she and her two sisters sell them sometimes.

She then says to me, "well dear, I know why you are here, and you've probably got important things to do, can't just stand here talking to a silly old lady all day can you?" So we go upstairs past the bedrooms and she directs me to walk up a wooden ladder into the manhole. I ask if I can take my lemonade with me, and she replies that it is fine, so long as I don't spill it on the carpet. we both ascend through the manhole into the ceiling.

In the attic there is a small round table, covered in a red satin table cloth, and lit by a few candles in the corners of the room. On the little table is a crystal ball. She directs me to a seat.

"I'll need something that belongs to you dear" she says. I ask if I'll get it back, which she respond that I will, so I take out my swiss army knife and hand it to her. She has wrinkly old fingers, and she holds my knife in her clasped hands. The old woman sighs and nods, and the crystal ball glows faintly. She hands me back my knife, which I put back in my pocket.

She looks into the crystal, her brows knot and she frowns as colours spin in the ball like ribbons. I say nothing, only watch and sip my lemonade.

Suddenly, the crystal turns dark purple, the woman, her face changing from concentrating to fearful, panics and tries to turn away, and the purpleness flows out of the top of the globe lie smoke, and into her mouth, nostrils and eyes. She straightens up, looks me in the face, her eyes have changed, and says to me that "My future is as black as my cynical heart".

She leaps across the table at me and I smash my lemonade on her head, I scream for help, and as she leaps to attack me again, I see that her teeth have become pointed like that of a shark.

Her animal jump misses me, and I drop down the manhole, and run down towards the stairs. She follows me, and at the top of the staircase, throws me against the wall, and claws at my shirt, ripping at it and scratching my chest. Flailing hands go to my pocket and I pull out my knife, with one hand and my teeth, I open it.

I manage to push her off me for a moment. And as she snarls at me, I stab her in the chest over and over and over with my knife, I'm up to my wrist in hot red, it covers the walls and carpet and it burns my skin like hot water.

I stand up and look at what I've done, and, choking and drowning in her own blood, she laughs quietly, struggles for a moment to breathe before her eyes pop very slightly as if in shock. She twitches a tiny bit, then she lies still.

I stand there doing nothing, still holding my knife, when police officers kick in the door, and spot me, I look at them, and I try to stutter that she went crazy or something stupid like that, when a dark haired police woman interrupts me with "Please sir, just put down the knife" I do nothing. I don't even move as she pulls out her baton and hits me in the head.

I'm in a cell now, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, with my hands cuffed. There is a television just outside the door displaying a news story about an adolescent boy who stabbed an elderly woman to death in her own home. Apparently more news will be available as it happens.


I woke up after that. I don't recall what I did in response, but it was pretty late, so probably went back to sleep.



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