NaNoWriMo 4

I got to 40,000 words tonight, so that means you have to endure another chapter from my book. This is Chapter 34. It's mostly about a dream. It actually is an exaggerated version of a dream I had not too long ago*. Again, I'll remind that this isn't edited or revised.

Chapter Thirty Four

It wasn’t that long before I knew she had fallen asleep. I didn’t want to move, because I was afraid that I would disturb her. It wasn’t that terrible of a position or anything. It was a little weird for me though. I’ve never slept naked before and certainly not naked with another person.

My mind wouldn’t shut up either. I would shut my eyes and try to sleep, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what had already happened that night and what was going to happen next. I was afraid that I had taken advantage of her, which is kind of absurd given the way the night had played out. I kept thinking she would probably hate me when we woke up. There was also another voice in my head telling my how absurd my anxieties were, but it didn’t succeed in getting rid of them.

It was probably an hour before my fatigue overcame my anxiety. I managed to actually fall asleep after closing my eyes. I like sleep. It is like a fast forward button. It always seems like no time has elapsed and you’ve just jumped forward in time.

It’s weird how you can’t fall asleep, if you’re really excited about something or really dreading it. It seems like you really should be able to force yourself to sleep if you’re looking forward to something, because it would make that thing closer. If you’re dreading something coming up, you probably shouldn’t sleep, so it doesn’t come up so quickly. Though, you may want to sleep just to get it over with.

Of course, the entire feeling like no time elapses thing is changed by having a dream you can remember. It still feels like you’ve leapt forward however long you’ve slept, but you still know time actually happened because you experienced it in the dream.

I don’t really have dreams that I can remember that often. I know that I have them, but they are usually easily forgotten. I will have one that’s vivid enough that’ll remember it on occasion. They’re usually pretty strange. The hallmark of my dreams is changing characters. I often will be with someone in my dream and who that person is will just change. It’s never dramatic or anything, it’s just someone turns into someone else.

Stress usually isn’t a trigger for dreams for me. I don’t really know what triggers a dream that I’ll remember. It may be loneliness or longing, but I can’t be sure. I just know that usually when I’m most anxious my sleep is pretty peaceful; the little bit of it I get that is.

I did have a dream that night though. It was unusual as dreams are. It was just Camille and I. She was wearing the same clothes she had been wearing the night before, but her red hoodie was missing and she was wearing her red chucks. I didn’t really pay much attention to what I was wearing, but I know I was fully clothed.

We were walking down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and my presumption is that we were walking home from school; though that was never made clear by the dream. We were just walking; we weren’t holding hand and weren’t particularly close to each other. It was the type of thing that I think doesn’t really exist anymore, but is idealized in fiction about the fifties. On both sides were farm fields. The corn in these fields was very tall; probably taller than corn ever actually gets.

Camille started talking about her Mom. She wasn’t saying the things she had said the night before. She was telling me about the thing her Mom did to annoy her. However, what she was telling me about was the things that my father does to annoy me. It was quite a long list and I was kind of pleased that someone had the same problems as me.

As we were walking down the road, suddenly we were confronted by the Notre Dame marching band. It beats the hell out of me why it was the Notre Dame marching band. They were definitely playing the Notre Dame fight song, which I think is the best in college football. I mean, there’s Michigan’s, but when you live here you’re allowed to ignore that.

We had to get out of there way, so we ran off the road. The road was sort of elevated, so we had to run down the slope into the ditch. The corn seemed even taller down there. She was right next to me as the marching band went started to go by on the road. She grabbed a hold of my hand kind of tightly. That made me feel all funny on the inside, which is weird considering we had done more than hold hands the night before.

It seemed never ending; they just kept coming and kept playing that song. She stayed right next to me seeming transfixed on what was happening on the road. Then, some tuba player stopped playing and looked over at us as he walked by. It didn’t seem like a big deal to me. However, she took off into the field of corn behind us. I watched the guy who was looking at us walk past and then start playing again before I took off after her.

I was running through the leaves and stalks. It went on and on and got thicker and thicker. I was beginning to think it was too thick for me to continue, when suddenly I burst through into a clearing. I looked around and saw that it wasn’t anything besides a clearing surrounded by corn fields.

In a lot of my dreams, the girl that stood across the clearing from me wouldn’t be Camille. However, this time it was still her. She had changed outfits though. She was wearing the stripper clothes she had worn at the club the night before. I moved towards her. The heat had suddenly become stifling and the sun seemed even brighter overhead.

I moved towards and began to notice that something wasn’t right. She seemed to be struggling and was rooted to the spot. Also, she didn’t seem to notice me at all. As I got closer, I saw what was holding her. There were two corn stalks holding her feet to the ground; they contrasted with her white stockings. I could also see behind her legs another stalk, which must have been holding her hands behind her back. I started running towards her.

I probably got ten feet from her before I tripped and fell to the ground. I tried to get back up, but couldn’t. I looked up at her. She was still struggling, but was still rooted to the ground. She also still failed to notice me.

Suddenly, behind her something rose from the ground. Once the dust had settled, I saw that it was a walking scarecrow. It was odd in that it was wearing a black suit. It slowly walked towards her. It grabbed her and the plants that had been holding her disappeared. She screamed, but soon seemed to accept as she was dragged back towards the corn fields.

I renewed my struggles to get up, but I still couldn’t. She finally noticed me as she was about to be taken into the corn plants. She didn’t scream for help or anything. She just shook her head as the tears trickled down her cheeks. I caught a final look at her before she disappeared into the corn fields. I was then suddenly free to stand up.

It was very quiet. I stood up and moved towards where I had last seen her. I thought I caught a glimpse of her as I got closer. Then I heard a loud female scream.

-Michael

*The walking with a girl, avoiding the marching band, and holding hands was the extent of my actual dream