Fireworks, Croquet, and a Fox in my Bed

I don't quite remember how it began, perhaps it reflected some of the annoyance at waking up at 3:30 this morning to a double tap of something, on something across my room.

I was in a field, or perhaps outside of a stadium or arena, along with several of my family members, and a bunch of random children. It was decided that we would set off some fireworks. There was some concern as to whether we had the appropriate forms filled out, but I selected a plastic bag containing mine, and got in a pickup truck, where I awaited my brother and either my dad or my maternal grandfather, whichever of the two decided to take us to our expected destination, known familiarly as simply "The Land".

The trip never happened though, for I found myself somehow in charge of activities for all of the children, and I set about preparing for a number of different games, one of which particularly interested me, though I can't remember what it entailed. Then I gave one boy, who was wearing a red and white horizontally striped shirt, and blue and white horizontally striped pants, a croquet set, since it was his birthday apparently, and he also happened to resemble one of the children depicted on the box. But then he wanted me to play croquet with him, and since it was implied that he looked up to me (even though now in conscious reflection I have no idea who he was), so I conceded and left the others continue on their way to play the game I'd wanted to play, to set up croquet to play with this little boy.

I'm not sure at this point if anything more occurred, if there was a span of emptiness, or if it transitioned immediately, but I felt myself awaken, and began to notice something crawling around on my blankets. Each second brought an increasing sensation of dread; I realized it wasn't the dog, it felt too small to be him, plus I knew my door was shut. Was it the cat? But we didn't have a cat. In a burst of fear, I shoved the thing from under the covers, and then I felt it start to move back to where it was. My heart was pounding, and in all this I failed to fully realize I wasn't in my present bedroom, but rather one from the house we lived in during my high school years. I must have briefly dozed off, and suddenly became aware of something warm, soft, and furry lying against my right arm. Very, very slowly, I reached out my left hand and touched it. It was an animal of some kind, curled up in a ball, apparently asleep. Though it was too dark to see, I suddenly became aware that it was in fact a fox, and that it had some how come into my room, and decided to warm up next to me for the night. I remember having read long ago how foxes sometimes snuggle up against hibernating bears if it gets really cold. At this thought, I found myself start to relax, and to drift off to sleep, still in a dream, albeit rather lucid. Some people think that when you fall asleep in a dream, you wake up in reality; but my experience has been that it only depends and expands the subconscious realm, and often brings a piece of the conscious mind along with it. It was quite the endearing moment, my fox and I, but sadly it was to be short-lived.

A fragment of nightmare drifted in, as my subconscious began to ponder some unpleasant "what-if's". What if it's really a rat? It's not a rat. What if it's some unearthly parasite feeding off of me while I sleep? Wait, what? I reached over and lifted the creature up in the palm of my hand, and saw what resembled a tiny, brown tiger-striped kitten, with what appeared to be a line of yellow-brown vomit down its chest and around its mouth. It just sort of looked at me and mewled. Then my subconscious spoke, "blow some carbon dioxide on it." I blew softly on its face, and two large, spider-like fangs appeared, and began to move in ready of piercing my flesh. In disgust, I quickly threw it down along the gap between the wall and my bed, and woke up shortly afterward.

dinner and work

my family and i were at a restaurant of some sort, i think it may have been understood to be Viva. I've never been there for true, but i understand it to be a touch on the fancier side as restaurants go. not as high class as fine dining, but a step up from Red Lobster, and the like.

anyway, we were seated, had ordered, and were waiting the arrival of our entrees. one of the wait staff walked by, muttered something in French involving "garçon" and "avec," but i really don't remember his exact words, and considering my own limited knowledge of the French language, I somewhat doubt it was anything actually intelligible. my grandfather asked, "Was that French? Ask what he said." I thought about suggesting he ask my sister, as she was the one who'd studied French, whereas my brother had studied Spanish. But then something happened, and the french waiter became offended at something my brother had said (though as far as the dream went, he hadn't said anything at all), and absconded with a bacon dish, which rather disappointed me, as i was looking forward to it. Later on, the same waiter placed a vegetable dish I'd also been interested in, but left with that as well. I decided it wasn't my brother's fault anymore, this was just a very poor waiter.

Transitions later, another time and place, I found myself walking through a large corporate office, presumably the new location of my department (as we are scheduled to relocate somewhere in the relatively near future). after waiting in line behind a lot of people, and stopping in various "classrooms" (go figure), I eventually teamed up with two other "co-workers," a dark haired man, and a brown haired woman, neither of whom I recognized, but understood we were in the same department and were looking for the same place. we got away from the lines and wandered around the building more, which had become something more like a shopping mall. we stopped at a large overlook where multiple stair cases met, where below and in the middle stood an attraction like structure that resembled something of a "santa's workshop". But it wasn't Santa, rather it was "Bob's Workshop" or something along those lines. We all knew Bob, or at least of Bob, how he had done great things for the company, but had fallen under both ill health and disapproval of his superiors some how. we pitied Bob. Truth be told, I have no idea who Bob was, or was supposed to be. then we went looking for our own department again, and we came to a very small crawl-space, ridiculously small, probably something like six or seven inches square. We had to go through in order to find our place, and the man had already gone through and was beckoning us on. The woman was next, and I felt uncomfortable with the idea of her going through head-first, considering she was wearing a skirt and i would be behind her. But then she was on her back, and was suddenly pulled through rather abruptly. i started in, and a thin spectacled young man appeared to take my hand and pull me through. then he stopped and looked at me, and as a growing realizing of familiarity, said, "David?" I had never seen this man before, yet I also knew his name. "Marlin?" I said, "hey, how's it going, buddy?" He pulled me through and I arrived in a small, secret room, where my two other co-workers were, along with a handful of others, preoccupied with various tasks, scientific study and research, and a couple others over by a television playing something on a x-box.

it fades at that.