I Had a Night Terror
Sometime last week I dreamt that I was eating lunch in a restaurant no better than those in your bus average station. The decor was drab; the food bland, but inexpensive. Depressingly, this was a place I'd been to many times before, and I knew I would return to many times.
I'd been here often enough to know the cashier and to strike up a conversation as I paid my bill. We talked at length on the unfortunateness of the condition of the owner's daughter. The proprietor's were a mom and pop duo with well known eccentricities. These eccentricities, though not malicious, had had terrible affect on their daughter as she grew up in their care, and was now quite predisposed to histrionics and ironic comments.
The cashier spoke to me of another daughter the owner's had, which I had never heard of before. I was further suprised to learn that this daughter had not be made a secret of or anything, she was spoken of frequently and openly. Somehow I had just happened to miss all of it.
So I asked "What's her story?" expecting to hear of another child warped by unusual parenting.
"Nothing. Perfectly normal." the cashier said.
My business concluded at the restaurant, stepped out into the adjoining shopping mall. This particular portion of this mall featured a large opening in the second floor, for the people upstairs to look down on all the first floor shoppers, as well as allow the passage of escalators and a glass elevator. I was on the first floor, no doubt being looked down apon, heading what appeared to be a farmer's market inside the mall. This market featured all sorts of fresh, farm grown produce in dirty wooden bins, which was highly incongruous with the rest of the mall's clean and modern appearance.
This was a popular place, and plenty of people were milling about. One old fellow, small and thin with thick glasses and short white hair, did not appear to be there for the purpose of procuring produce. Instead, he was hurrying about the narrow lanes at unsafe speed with an empty shopping cart. Women and children were forced to scurry aside as he came barreling through. It would have seemed that he was deliberately trying to to hit people if there was any evidence that he was the least bit aware of their presence.
Anyway, regardless of the chaos and carnage being left in his wake, he continued to zip all over the place, never slowing or seeming to have any more purpose in mind.
But soon, some of the men in the area grew weary of this speedy menace and his antics. They gathered 'round him, stopping the elderly bullet train and is basket with a mighty laying on of hands. As he struggled vainly to free the shopping cart from the hands of these more muscular interlopers, the old man began to cry out in monosyllabic sounds. "AAAAA! EEEEE! OOOOO!" he shouted in protest.
As the vowels were being recited, another man appeared on the scene. This one, possessed of a died black bowl cut and a bizarrely pronounced pear shaped torso, I happened to know was called "Dangerous Dan". I had no idea, however, of what made him so dangerous. Nothing about his appearance offered any clues.
Dangerous Dan managed to pull the old fool away from his shopping cart and lifted him off of his feet. Then, flipping him upside down, in a piledriver-like manuever, bonked the old man's head aginst the ground. The old man, now rendered unconscious, was gently laid in a heap on the floor.
Bt this seemingly unnecessary violence turned the crowd aganst this would be savior. The old man, in their collective opinion, probably needed medication more than physical assault. So the throng of fellows who'd assembled to end the old man's rampage now took care of Dangerous Dan in much the same wasy Dangerous Dan had taken care of the old man.
Understandabley, Dangerous Dan protested loudly. "No! We tried to take it out! We tried to take it out... and we couldn't!" he said as he lay on the floor, next to the unconscious old man.
To the assembled onlookers, this made about as much sense as the old man's cries of vowels. But the meaning of this was known to me. What they had tried to 'take out' was a demon which had possessed the old timer. The attempted exorcism had failed, and they now had to curb his demon influenced behavior with whatever means available to them. I guess that included sending the old man off into dreamland.
As I stood by in the crowd, merely watching these events unfold, I suddenly became aware of the presence of some of my friends in the crowd. One of them turned to me and said "After this, let's go to Silver Shore".
I don't know what Silver Shore was, and never found out. That's when I woke up, and had to go to work. Something tells me I would have rather gone to Silver Shore.
I'd been here often enough to know the cashier and to strike up a conversation as I paid my bill. We talked at length on the unfortunateness of the condition of the owner's daughter. The proprietor's were a mom and pop duo with well known eccentricities. These eccentricities, though not malicious, had had terrible affect on their daughter as she grew up in their care, and was now quite predisposed to histrionics and ironic comments.
The cashier spoke to me of another daughter the owner's had, which I had never heard of before. I was further suprised to learn that this daughter had not be made a secret of or anything, she was spoken of frequently and openly. Somehow I had just happened to miss all of it.
So I asked "What's her story?" expecting to hear of another child warped by unusual parenting.
"Nothing. Perfectly normal." the cashier said.
My business concluded at the restaurant, stepped out into the adjoining shopping mall. This particular portion of this mall featured a large opening in the second floor, for the people upstairs to look down on all the first floor shoppers, as well as allow the passage of escalators and a glass elevator. I was on the first floor, no doubt being looked down apon, heading what appeared to be a farmer's market inside the mall. This market featured all sorts of fresh, farm grown produce in dirty wooden bins, which was highly incongruous with the rest of the mall's clean and modern appearance.
This was a popular place, and plenty of people were milling about. One old fellow, small and thin with thick glasses and short white hair, did not appear to be there for the purpose of procuring produce. Instead, he was hurrying about the narrow lanes at unsafe speed with an empty shopping cart. Women and children were forced to scurry aside as he came barreling through. It would have seemed that he was deliberately trying to to hit people if there was any evidence that he was the least bit aware of their presence.
Anyway, regardless of the chaos and carnage being left in his wake, he continued to zip all over the place, never slowing or seeming to have any more purpose in mind.
But soon, some of the men in the area grew weary of this speedy menace and his antics. They gathered 'round him, stopping the elderly bullet train and is basket with a mighty laying on of hands. As he struggled vainly to free the shopping cart from the hands of these more muscular interlopers, the old man began to cry out in monosyllabic sounds. "AAAAA! EEEEE! OOOOO!" he shouted in protest.
As the vowels were being recited, another man appeared on the scene. This one, possessed of a died black bowl cut and a bizarrely pronounced pear shaped torso, I happened to know was called "Dangerous Dan". I had no idea, however, of what made him so dangerous. Nothing about his appearance offered any clues.
Dangerous Dan managed to pull the old fool away from his shopping cart and lifted him off of his feet. Then, flipping him upside down, in a piledriver-like manuever, bonked the old man's head aginst the ground. The old man, now rendered unconscious, was gently laid in a heap on the floor.
Bt this seemingly unnecessary violence turned the crowd aganst this would be savior. The old man, in their collective opinion, probably needed medication more than physical assault. So the throng of fellows who'd assembled to end the old man's rampage now took care of Dangerous Dan in much the same wasy Dangerous Dan had taken care of the old man.
Understandabley, Dangerous Dan protested loudly. "No! We tried to take it out! We tried to take it out... and we couldn't!" he said as he lay on the floor, next to the unconscious old man.
To the assembled onlookers, this made about as much sense as the old man's cries of vowels. But the meaning of this was known to me. What they had tried to 'take out' was a demon which had possessed the old timer. The attempted exorcism had failed, and they now had to curb his demon influenced behavior with whatever means available to them. I guess that included sending the old man off into dreamland.
As I stood by in the crowd, merely watching these events unfold, I suddenly became aware of the presence of some of my friends in the crowd. One of them turned to me and said "After this, let's go to Silver Shore".
I don't know what Silver Shore was, and never found out. That's when I woke up, and had to go to work. Something tells me I would have rather gone to Silver Shore.
posted by Jamie S. Luxton III | 7:53 PM
5 Comments:
I had a night terror of vampires and sharks and World War III while dozing on a bus once and when I woke up I had punched one fellow passenger in the nose, rammed my cane through the chest of another and bombarded a third with high doses of radiation.
Silver Shore is the new restaurant on 5th ave. Come on down for the $9.95 all you can eat buffet!
Who cares about night terrors, the daytime terrors are much much worse.
I had a night terror where I was chased by the fourth reich in Frusenland. I kept tripping on bloated corpses and visceral goo, while my left arm hung limp from numerous attacks from a brutish man with a russian shashka. Then I hid in a small convennience store and ate slurpees. Mmmmm... I guess it was a pretty splendid dream.
Best regards from NY! » » »
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