Dreamland

Easy Rider

I'm living back in my old home town, on my way to visit Joe, a friend of mine I haven't seen in a while. He gave me directions to his new apartment. I haven't been there before but I know the neighborhood, it's pretty marginal.

I get around on a beat up '74 Honda CB250, metallic gold and rusted chrome. The handle bars keep loosening up from the vibrations when I ride it, I carry a wrench in my pocket to tighten them up when I stop. Other than that it runs OK.

My buddy is hanging out in the parking lot behind the apartment building when I pull up. He's talking to a strung out looking woman, she's dressed in a dirty t-shirt and jeans that probably fit her nicely before she lost the last twenty pounds, she's obviously into meth.

She's walking up to me before I can even get off my bike. "Got a cigarette?" she asks.

I pull out a pack of Camel filters,stick one in my mouth and give her one, light hers, then mine. "Got any crystal?" she asks.

I shake my head no.

"How 'bout weed? Got any weed?" she asks.

"No, I don't do that shit no more," I tell her, but she looks at me like she doesn't believe me.

Joe says "Hey Carla, I think I just seen Billy drive up out front." She takes off, almost running, towards the front of the building.

Joe pulls out a joint, lights it up, take a deep drag, hands it to me, exhales. "Sorry about that. Steve. Carla can be a real pain in the ass. She'd smoke up half my stash if I let her..."

I take a toke off the joint, exhale, and I'm instantly stoned. Gotta be some powerful stuff...

Joe takes another toke, hands it back to me but I wave it away. "No, one puff's enough, don't want to fall off my bike...Hey Joe, this brick apartment building you live in looks just like the buildings I saw in a dream I had the other night, where everything was made of brick. You think it means something?"

"I think it means you need to take another toke," he says, but I wave it away.

Carla comes running from around the other side of the apartment building, yelling. "Joe, you asshole, Billy wasn't out front! You're just trying to get rid of me so you don't have to share your dope!"

Joe chuckles.

I toss my half smoked cigarette on the ground and kick the starter on my bike. "I can't handle her, I'm outta here. Thanks for the buzz, Joe."

"Anytime," he says.

I putt on down the road, smiling, as the afternoon sun shines down on me.

Observations on this dream: I still smoke cigarettes in some of my dreams, even though I quit over 20 years ago in real life. Don't know why, but usually I get stuck smoking Marlboro Light 100's, a brand never liked. But in this dream I got to smoke Camel Filters, my brand of choice before I quit.

"Carla" was in one of my earlier dreams, she was the same woman who shot me in the laundromat. She's not anyone I know in real life, just a character in my dreams.

It's interesting that I told my friend in this dream that his brick apartment building looked like the buildings I had seen in another dream I had recently. But this was not lucid dreaming, since I didn't realize I was dreaming when I told him this.

This is only the second time I can remember having a dream where I smoked weed. It's surprising to me that I could feel the sensation of being stoned in a dream, when I haven't smoked any weed in real life for quite a while.

So what does all of this mean?

Probably not much, its' only a dream...