Dream of Feb 2nd-3rd, 2009

A wonderful dream I had a while back. I wish I had more like this.

            Sitting on a gray cushioned steel bench that had a slight incline, I could almost touch the gritty and scratched floor with my shoes. Garbage lay tucked beneath the benches and stashed in corners; posters and advertisements were plastered on the domed rectangular ceiling of the bus. The steel support poles were cold and the clean windows had symbols and vulgar words scratched into its surface.

 

            I held a cheap red backpack on my lap and watched as a few other passengers boarded the bus by the front entrance. By their blank and unremarkable faces, I realized they weren’t in any way taken aback by the size of the bus as I had. It was the size of a large mini-van and had been remodeled to include taller ceilings, a steep and narrow staircase, and rows of steel benches that lined the walls.

 

            The captain stomped aboard and shoved the door closed and sat in his spinney, low-back driver chair. He flipped the intercom on and held the receiver close to his mouth. “Welcome to ScotAirCo,” he announced in a flat voice. He yanked on a lever that made the bus lurch forward. “I’m Scot, your captain. We’ll be on our way to…”

 

            Images beyond the windows swirled by in streaks of full color and the engine below the fake tiled floor growled as the bus took off. The world in the back window remained steady as it retreated into the distance. The bus was channeling through a tall and columned hallway made in dark cement, as if we were traveling beneath a highway bridge. Within seconds, the world was gone and there was nothing but sky and clumps of clouds.

 

            After a few hours, we descended and flew close to the ground. I pressed my face against the window to see the land below, wiping fog off the glass and glancing down again.

 

            We were sailing over an expansive rocky and gray field; sharp mountains black as obsidian clawed at the horizon. Small towns with golden lights huddled around glassy lakes that dotted the barren landscape. The starry sky and the land below melded together in a blanket of twilight and darkness. The bus became cold and I shuddered, leaning back.

 

            When I looked up again we were weaving through a quiet forest. The trees reached the sky, blotting it out, and soft green mosses tumbled and carpeted the floor. It was as if we were travelling through a great cathedral so large and dominating that it flooded the entire earth, empty, spacious and domineering.

 

            The forest disappeared and we now flew over open countryside, cultivated for farms and industry. The land was clean and vibrant and we descended as if to land. As we neared, I spotted a tall structure on the side of a flat, cobbled road that looked like an old fashioned two storey tavern. On the front wall the words “Cinema” were painted in large blue letters.

 

            Confused, I found myself on a wooden landing, the ScotAirCo bus tethered to an electric light pole before me, a pair of portable steps placed in front of the door to allow Passengers aboard. The bus gently hovered, shifting about in the breeze.

 

            Captain Scot stood beside me, wearing a blue and black checkered hat.

 

            “What movies are playing?” I asked.

 

            Scot mumbled a title I didn’t understand. “It’s running at five this evening,” he added. “You’ll have to leave at one though to get there in time.”

 

            Confused even more, I thanked him and left the station for the cobbled road. 

 

 

…Such a strange dream.