River Jungle

I dreamed that N and I were traversing a jungle. We were following a wolf pack that had just lost its leader. We created an elevated blind so we could observe the pack, figuring this was the night they would choose a new leader. I had collected a number of ropes and metal poles from an abandoned river side dockyard.

I used the poles to make us an elevated platform to keep the predators at bay should they suddenly discover us. During the night, the wolves became agitated and started the process of fighting over the former leaders mate. Somehow a leopard got into the mix, and before the pack could recover its cohesion, it had killed seven or eight of them.

In the morning we went down to find out if there was something wrong with the leopard, other than being dead. It looked like it had been, up to the attack, a young healthy male. There was not even any significant tooth decay or damage.

We had lost the wolf pack, and as we made our way back to the dock I realized that I'd been hoping the leopard would get away, seeings how the wolf pack was quite unnatural this far down in the jungle. The docks were busy, two large freighters and a tug with several barges had tied up over night.

N stripped down to a bikini, intent on trading her favor for decent food. I was flabbergasted, but figured "what ever she wants, we're divorced now." I wasn't even sure how we had ended up on this trip up river together. I packed up the makeshift platform fixings and while she tried to impress the sailors, I lashed together a steel drum raft and headed down stream.

River Trip, Reenactment, Memories

I dreamed that N and I were traveling along a river in a ruined post apocalyptic looking landscape. We came across a village nestled in the arms of full fruited orchards and well stored shipping containers full of merchandise that never made it to its original destination. They were threadbare and starving, none the less. I discovered, after a short while, that there was some sort of warlord in the region who demanded that they only take food that had fallen on the ground, and items that fell out of the containers to the ground as well. To do otherwise was to face certain death.
I also discovered that the group had not seen this “benefactor” in a very long time. I managed to knock over a rack full of long coats and jeans. N managed to dislodge several apples on each tree that she climbed. The townspeople were glad to have scapegoats in us and rushed in to take clothing and food. Their benefactors never showed up. I showed a bunch of them how to determine if the food they found in any sealed containers was good or not. (Look for the bulge, listen for the vacuum filling in.)
We tried to warn them that winter was coming and they needed to prepare both food and shelter if they were going to survive. In many ways it was if people just didn't remember about there being seasons. We took some of the fruit and dried it before packing up and heading out.

In another dream I was talking with a person who had a 1950's era warplane, and tried to get him hooked up with some 1950's costumers so they could come and fix up his hanger as a sort of living museum.

In yet a third dream I was digging through a bunch of old stuff at my parent's house, trying to find some old models that, as the dream wore on, I realized didn't really exist. There were plenty of interesting things, including about a dozen shirts my mother had cut out all of the pieces of, but had never sewed together, an old balsa airplane model, just needing to be skinned, a collection of wool jackets my father had amassed and I think every package of homework or drawings any of the three of us had ever brought home and put on the refrigerator door.

Musical Interludes, Lost Wild Child

       I only spent a little time, when I was younger, on learning the instruments my brother and sister played, trumpet and clarinet. In my dream this morning I was trying to play the trumpet, but could not maintain the proper 'buzz' with my lips to make the sound ring true for any length of time. (I had never really progressed much past the bugle stage any way.)
       My ability with the clarinet was slightly better, and my sister was there to coach. I tried combining the trumpet buzz with the clarinet reed, resulting in a weird alien sound. I had somewhere found an electronic clarinet, in addition to the normal buttons and studs, it had a set of electric buttons that changed several of the sound characteristics. It still needed the reed mouthpiece to work properly, but seemed to be a little bit more forgiving than the traditional instrument. When I started playing with the various electronic settings my sister said "You're on your own here, I never had anything like that."
       I played around a bit, added some rhythm elements and a chanter like found on bagpipes. It was exciting, but I kept having trouble keeping the mouthpiece of the clarinet in front of my teeth, I kept pulling it in and chewing on it, making it nearly impossible to play correctly.

       In an other dream I woke up with a small kid curled up against my sleeping bag. I was camped in a forested area, a small stone bound fire was just embers a few feet from me. The kid was not someone I recognized, and seemed unnaturally small for the size of its head. I rummaged around in my bags for breakfast, pulling enough out for both of us. My pack was actually up a tree several yards away from where I was sleeping. I knew there were bears and wolves around.
       The kid woke up when I stoked the fire, making it large enough to cook with. (The watch fire was really to keep a low level of smoke going, to keep the animals away.) For a moment she looked like she was going to run away, she looked out into the forest, sighed and settled in, pulling the sleeping bag around her tattered and too small pink clothing. At one time it may have had a 'Hello Kitty' design on the bib of the overalls.
       I gave her some water and dried fruit. She ate, watching me with almost totally black eyes. I shared my bacon and eggs with her and had some orange juice (from concentrate) which she turned down.
       I spoke to her, but she never responded, except in that she would help when I mentioned I was going to do something, and seemed to listen intently, no matter what I said. When I picked up and broke camp, she helped roll up the bag, and then helped move the stones back down to the creek bed. She washed in the creek. I gave her one of my plaid shirts and she changed into it, rolling up the sleeves and wrapping the shirt around her twice. She used some of her previous clothing as a belt, a strip torn from her too short pink pants. I took the rest of her old clothing, wrung the muddy water out of it and put it in one of my spare bags, just in case someone might be able to use it to identify her later.
       I flipped open my phone, but only the GPS portion was working. (I wish I could remember the coordinates.) I plugged in the charger to the solar array on top of my backpack and set out to work my way uphill, hoping to come into range of a cell tower so I could call someone to come a get the girl.
       As we climbed the game trail to the top of a nearby hill, she invented a game where she would race along with my walking stick, jumping to the spot where I planted it, and then she would wait until I swung it forward again, running to catch up to me, and then leaping to the new spot. Every time she landed she would grab the walking stick and turn and smile at me. Her grip on the walking stick encouraging me forward a little faster. I found myself wondering how long she could keep that up. As I watched her run and jump I realized that she was older than I had initially thought, more like ten or eleven rather than six or seven. She was humming some sort of tune, I didn't recognize it at first, but then realized that it was "Happy Birthday" with lots of odd little flourishes and improvisations.
       I sang the birthday song to her, and then, to my surprise, she sang it back to me, again with lots of odd little improvisations and animal sound flourishes. Some of the animal sounds seemed to be echoed in the forest around us. I began to feel like we were being followed, or paced, really.
       We came to a part of the trail that led into an open meadow and the top of a hill. We were on the edge of a couple of acres that had been clear cut some time ago. There were small trees getting started amongst the ferns and grasses. She looked nervously at the forest edge and then followed me out into the meadow. She barked "Happy birthday" back out to the forest.
       There were echoing barks, and a couple of whines from the shadows of the forest. We had been followed, but I suspect from her behavior, they were friendly, almost a body guard. I believe the forest animals, wolves I suspected, had actually delivered her to me, and were keeping on eye on us to make sure nothing bad happened to her.
       I smiled and said "happy birthday." to the shadows in the forest. I tried to keep us as close to the edge of the forest as I could, taking a little bit of a longer path to reach the top of the hill. The girl didn't seem to mind. By the time we climbed up to the top of the hill I was able to make a cell call, and to give them my position. The local sheriff was sending a helicopter, although they seemed mystified because there were no reports of a lost little girl in the area. If it weren't for the bag of too small clothing, I would have been worried that her family might be lost out there, but I suspected that she was lost out here a very long time, at least three or four years.
       I pulled out my camping lights and began to charge them up (hand cranked), she sat and charged up the flashlight, then while playing with the dials discovered that it was a radio. She eagerly tuned it to a music station and began humming, and occasionally singing along with the music.

Bridge Dangle

       I dreamed I was walking along a high bridge over a gorge with rushing water at the bottom. There were two monorail lines at about waist height. The bridge below the rails was open, with a 6 inch I-beam support every 24 inches or so. A blonde woman and I were walking along the top of the rail when we heard, or more felt, a rumble. We couldn't see the monorail in either direction.
       The vibrations got stronger. I stepped down and over to the other rail. The vibrations were actually stronger on that rail. We spoke about what to do for a moment, there really wasn't any place to go but down onto the support beams, and even then, I knew we'd have to dangle from them in order to avoid getting smashed if there were two monorails passing one another on the bridge.
       "They wouldn't let two trains on the bridge at once, would they?"
       "I don't think they would have made the bridge with two sets of rails if they didn't intend to use them."
       I spotted trains approaching the bridge. I noticed that we were about 50 feet from a buttress that would allow us to step off the tracks and out over the gorge. "Make for the buttress." I told the girl and she half ran for it, switching over to the rail with the train that looked further away.
       I followed, but slipped and ended up bent over one of the rusty i-beams between the rails. I'd managed to hurt something in my chest, and couldn't pull myself upright. I hung there, and realized that I would need to catch my breath, but by the time I could, the train would be on me. I wrapped my arm over the beam and ducked down below the beam except my forearm. The monorail roared over me, the rails and beams shaking violently. I just managed to hold on, feeling debris of some sort pelting my forearm where it was exposed above the beam. There was a turbulent airflow that pulled at me, helping to hold me up. I switched arms and moved closer to the center of the beam as the other train passed. For a short while both trains shook the bridge and then were gone. I realized that I didn't seem to have enough strength to pull my self back up.
       I then dreamed of driving my old Plymouth Satellite, Cecil, but remember nothing else of the dream at this point.

Victorian Drag; Refolding A's Boat

     I dreamed I was in a corset and lilac colored victorian dress, complete with bustle and bonnet. The reason was I was working with Scotland yard to catch a serial rapist. I had some cool hidden weapons both in the bustle and the sides of the corset as well as in the linings of the sleeves.
      While we were preparing for the sting, the queen came through on an inspection tour. She pointed out to me that I'd better learn to curtsey rather than bowing, or I'd give myself away. She then assigned one of her ladies in waiting to help me learn how to move more like a woman. As quickly as she'd entered the ward, she left. I thought I heard her asking the inspector general if we couldn't have found someone without a full beard. I'd sort of wondered that myself.
      Forward in time, I was at a play and then left with the crowd, walking "home" on a carefully laid out route in hopes of catching the rapist. I don't think I've ever been bumped and squeezed in a crowd like I was bumped and squeezed that night. I was angry enough to take the rapist out completely by the time I got out of the crowd. I was jumped from behind about six blocks from the theater.
      The rapist had pinned my arms and used the base of the skirt to try to tie me up. We knew that from previous witnesses, so the dress was break away. I broke free, pulled a couple of guns from the lining of the sleeves and the bounder gave up. "The beard should have been a clue."

      In another dream I found myself with N, A and C walking through a dense forest. Also in Victorian clothing. (Seems to be a run on that theme lately.) We were moving along the shore of a stream when we came to some severely over-grown docks. A insisted that the boat had to have been stolen as he couldn't find it anywhere.
      "When was the last time you actually saw it?" I asked.
      "Before all this undergrowth, and these huge cactus like things weren't here."
      "They look like triffids, almost." I poked one, but it didn't move. I remembered that there had been some heavy rains not too long ago, and that is what folks were saying caused the jungle to grow up around the place. I waded out into the watery plants and made my way over to the other shore, sure enough, the boat was there, underwater.
      The rain had filled the boat and it had sunk. I pulled it up out of the water. Plants had started to root on it, so I managed to pull them out. A explained that the boat could fold flat for storage. N said I could figure it out, as I was good at origami.
      "I'm just a beginner, N," but the boat was easy to figure out. I pulled it out of the water and re-folded it on the surface. It had a strange multi-fold closure at the bow, and in the stern two closures with snap like plastic hooks to keep it all together. There was a thin plastic strap that fit around a groove on the outside of the boat to hold it all together and a couple of seats to keep the side walls from collapsing. When I was done it floated with only an inch of draft or so. I figured it might hold two of us, but certainly not all four of us. I pushed the boat back to the group and climbed out of the water.
      We started discussing going up river to find the source of all the jungle growth. There did seem to be a tunnel of jungle over the river that would allow for us to pass. I wasn't too keen on the idea of towing the ladies in the boat while wading. I hadn't seen any jungle animals, yet, but something told me they were out there. I really didn't want to be crocodile food if there were crocodiles.
      "Even if there are crocodiles, they couldn't be very big, yet." A reasoned.
      I pointed to the 20 foot high triffid looking plant that grew out of the dock. "Are you sure about that?"
      "Good point," C piped in, "Maybe we should find another boat and ask if we can borrow it?"
      N agreed and they set off through the jungle growth to the boathouse to ask about borrowing someone else's boat. I didn't really think they would find anyone at the boathouse as the whole lake seemed pretty much abandoned.