Dreamland

Lucid Dreaming II

I'm working as a "gofer" in an old machine shop. It reminds me of a place where I used to work years ago, back East. Lots of WWII vintage presses & lathes with no safety guards, slippery oil soaked wooden floors, and dim flickering flourescent lighting.

I'm sweeping up metal chips in front of a mill. Our old black janitor comes walking down the aisle between the machines, dragging a mop in a wheeled galvavized bucket.

"How goes the battle?" he asks, stopping to talk.

"Not too bad, Andy," I reply. "I'm not too thrilled with the demotion and pay cut, but with the way business is here lately, I guess I should be happy I still got a job...Just gotta last a few more years and I can retire."

"I hear that," he says.

The foreman sees us talking, starts walking towards us.

"Gotta go, Louie's headed this way," Andy says, as he shuffles away.

"OK, catch you later," I say.

The foremanwalks up, hands me a tool order: "Get this to Bob on press three right away," he says.

"Sure thing boss," I reply.

It kinda bugs me, this guy I used to be giving production schedules to is now giving me orders and having me sweep floors. But I'm not gonna let it get me down, It's Friday. And besides, it's almost lunch time...

I walk up the worn wooden stairs to the tool room on the second floor. I always liked the tool room. It's a lot quieter up here, away from the machines. The dusty old wooden floors and storage shelves, kinda smells like a library, with a faint undertone of machine oil. And the way the sun casts a golden glow through the grimy cracked glass windows overhead to light the room, it's a thing of beauty! (OK, maybe in a Dickens sweatshop kinda way, but I like it.)

"You wanna stop goofing off and find that tool already?" The PA box on the wall squawks at me.

"Sure thing boss," I reply. I pick the die off the shelf and place it on the conveyor that leads downstairs.

The whistle blows, it's break time. I shuffle out the door with the rest of the crew. The sun is shining, it's a beautiful day. My wife meets me outside, she brought my lunch that I forgot.

"Come on in, You've never seen the place, I'll give you a quick tour," I say.

I walk her through the shop, explaining the machines... "Here's the press that took three of Bob's fingers," I tell her, pointing to one machine.

After the tour, we say our goodbyes and she leaves. I sit down to eat my lunch. I start to think: "Old Bob, the press operator with the missing fingers... I knew him 30 years ago, the first shop I worked in, when I got out of school. He had to be in his upper sixties back then, no way he'd still be working with me now. Major continuity error here, I must be dreaming!"

"I'm lucid dreaming. Now that I realize I'm dreaming, I should be able to change things, get out of this old factory and do something more fun!"

I shut my eyes, try to envision myself flying, over the hills, away from this place.

I open my eyes, I'm still in the factory."

"This sucks, it didn't work!" I think to myself.

The dream dissolves around me, and I wake up.

I walk downstairs, get a cup of coffee, and look at the morning paper. My wife walks into the kitchen, carrying a plastic bag full of peaches and plums, damp with the morning dew. "I just picked these, let's go sit outside on the picnic table and have some for breakfast, it's a beautiful morning out there."

"OK, sounds good... I gotta tell you about this weird lucid dream I had," I say.

Outside, one of our neighbors stops by. My wife pulls a peach out of the plastic bag and offers it to him. "Want some fruit from our tree?" she asks.

"No thanks, I got a whole tree full of peaches in my own yard," he replies, chuckling.

I look at the peach my wife is holding, it has a produce sticker on it. Continuity error here, fruit that grows on trees doesn't have stickers. And wait a minute, I know where I live, I don't have a yard with fruit trees, either. this can't be real, I'm still dreaming!

Before I can even think of trying to change anything, I wake up (for real this time).
It's 4:23 AM. If I get back to sleep right away, I can get another hour or so before the alarm.

I roll over and shut my eyes, letting the hum of the air conditioner lull me back to sleep.