"A Break in Time" - 06/26/2006

"A Break in Time"
06/26/2006

(Damn, what a horrible experience.)

I can't quite remember how this dream started off. If I remember correctly, I was a cop, and my partner and I were casing what I think was a nightclub, in a really rough side of town. We were looking for someone that had been on the run for a while and was considered extremely dangerous. Sooner or later, he was found and arrested. He looked a lot like that guy Brian Nichols that shot that judge in the courtroom, not long ago.

Anyway, later that night, we were on the road, driving with this guy in the back seat, headed to turn him in at the station. With no warning, whatsoever, this guy manages to somehow slip out of his cuffs and reach into the front seat. He grabs my partner's gun, puts it to the back of his head and blasts the inside all over the dashboard. My partner was the one driving so, if I remember correctly, the car ended up crashing on the side of the road. I don't quite recall, because I was focused on the maniac who was surely about to turn his attention to me.

I turned around in my seat and started trying to fend him off, from the awkward position, with my night stick. I think I lost my night stick in the struggle, and I remember that, sooner or later, this guy had the upper-hand and was trying to either hit me with the stick, or with the pistol. He got in one good swing on me and struck me in the upper, left arm. I could feel the bone crack and excruciating pain. I don't remember exactly what happened at this point, but all I recall is a feeling of having been defeated. I tried reasoning with the man to persuade him not to kill me, too, but nothing I said had any effect.

He said a few last words to me, and then lunged in my direction. I can't remember if it was the gun or the night stick that struck me in the temple, but everything suddenly went black.

I woke up in my old neighborhood. Groggily, I rolled out of bed and immediately grabbed my arm. It was aching like crazy, obviously broken. I think my head was wrapped with a bandage that crossed my temple or something. All I specifically recall is that my head was pounding. I also had a limp, and I began to remember all of the events of the crash/attack that I'd been through.

Wondering how long I'd been out, I checked the date on my cellphone. It said "May 05, 2007."

"2007?!??!"

I found my folks somewhere in the house (my dad was there and alive, though he died in 2005) and they were both happy to see me up and about. I said to them something about "you mean to tell me I've been in some kind of coma for an entire year?!?" They both said that that was correct, and they reminded me of my partner's fate, when I asked.

Sooner or later I limped outside to get some air. I was holding my shattered (still, somehow, after a year?) left arm in close to me, cradling it with my other hand. I let go just long enough to pull my cellphone out again. I tried calling Tony, who's had the same phone number since we were both about 15. I got no answer. Instead there was a strange tone, as if this were no longer his number.

Just as I hung up, William, who still lives in my old neighborhood to this day, comes driving up in an old beat up truck with his son in the back. He was happy to see that I was up, also. We started talking about what happened, and how long I was out. The conversation lasted for a long time, it felt.

Right in the middle of talking, I actually woke up.

(I was in total disbelief that what had happened was all a dream. Everything felt so real, and it was one of the most convincing dreams I'd had in a long time. It felt like living in a parallel universe and then suddenly being sucked back into the original one. I spent a little while just laying in bed and staring up at the ceiling, moving my arm back and forth (which was aching. Maybe I slept on it, and the pain worked its way into the dream narrative?) and just laughing at myself and how I had so completely accepted that dream as my reality.

Oh well, anyway....glad to be back in the here and now!)