Wednesday, June 16, 2010

A dream - hanging day

Leah and I were above a vast map of the Earth, and we were flying over it, but she was having trouble navigating it. I told Leah to grab onto the horizon, and pull it towards her, as opposed to trying to move towards it. She did that, and we flew across the landscape together. We passed over houses, lakes, trees, and mountains. We flew over a field that had words cut into it like a crop circle, advertising a band called 'The Pigs', dressed in heavy metal biker jackets. We both thought it was funny. Then I realized that we were right over Michigan. We started to descend rapidly, and I found myself in the college library where she had taken me when we were there together. I looked for her, but she was gone and I was there alone. I called out Leah's name loudly, but she was nowhere to be found. A guy who was working there, a bartender of all things, got very angry at me for making noise. He approached me and threatened me. He pushed me against the wall, and I pushed him back. He tried to hit me, and we fought. I finally pushed him against a wall which butted up against a part of the ceiling that was lower than the rest of the ceiling. His head hit this part and lacerated his scalp badly, and he just stood there crying.

Then I found myself lying down on a couch at Fr. Justin's house. But the house was old and rustic, almost like the inside of a barn... but I think more like an old log cabin. I felt very fatigued, and it was an effort just to keep my eyes open and to sit up straight. Fr. Just was showing me a piece of wax that had been formed from a rectangular wooden box, with the bottom of the mold having some kind of design engraved in it. The piece of wax was shaped like the box, with the design on top. I wanted to get a closer look and asked Fr. Justin if I could see it, but he handed me the box, not the wax. I started to sink deeper into the couch, feeling very very tired. Then he showed me an icon, but it wasn't painted, it was engraved. I sat up higher, and had a little more energy. He showed me another icon, but this one had been cut through the wood, with the parts of the wood that were missing forming the shape of the icon figure. I became greatly interested.

Then it was Leah showing me icons, but I lost interest and turned my head to the right and watched TV. I forgot that she was there trying to show me icons, and just watched a silly sitcom on TV. After it was over, I laughed and turned to you to see if Leah had thought it was funny too. She was still holding the icon, waiting patiently for me to finish watching TV. I realized that I had forgotten all about her.

After all that happened, I was homeless and wandering through the streets of Mt. Pleasant. I saw a litter of kittens, barely a week or two old, thin and starving, playing with each other and rolling around in muddy puddles. I felt sorry for the kitties, and I had some food in my pocket... part of a muffin, I think... and I put it down for them to eat. I kept walking, and my old friend Clint was with me. He tried to get me to take a shortcut through the yards of people we didn't know. I didn't want to do this, but I did anyway. In one yard, the people who lived there saw us, and I panicked and ran. I came to a fence that was electrified, but I was able to crawl under it. There was a larger wooden fence beyond it, and I climbed over it, but my clothes got hung on it and ripped.

Then I was in a desert, still homeless and wandering. I saw a little boy in the distance, and army Bradley vehicles were moving towards the boy. They were going to shoot at a terrorist who was driving a jeep towards the boy, and I was afraid the boy would be hurt, but I couldn't do anything. The gunner in the Bradley fired, and the jeep turned over and the terrorist was killed. However, the little boy wasn't hurt, and he approached the wreckage and stole an AK-47 which had fallen out of the jeep.

The boy went home and the village elders questioned him on where he got the gun, but he wouldn't talk. Finally he said that his dad had given it to him, and this infuriated the elders. They said that they would have to hang his dad. However, the boy didn't have a father, and he snickered under his breath at this. When the elders found out the boy didn't have a dad, they said that they would hang him instead. Some villagers protested that he was just a little boy and shouldn't be hung like an adult, so the elders decided to just show the boy how they hang criminals.

It was 'Hanging Day', a holiday that happened every week for this tribe. They took the boy to a gallows, where about five men were lined up. Ropes were put around the necks of these men, and they were slowly hoisted off of the ground. Their hands were tied, and they could only struggle vainly as they slowly choked to death. The boy watched all of this, moving from one man to the other, observing each one closely as each one of them choked. It took a long, long time for them to die.

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