Odd dream from the land of magic...

I was in a strange world that resembled my own...
In fact I think that it was my world, but it had a double that followed it closely, and when I wasn't careful, I got sucked into the other universe that had witches and dancing animals and strange courtships and young men that sleep for years at a time, under a spell from a sorceress.

I have been here before, and it's not just the similarities of the physical world that make me think this.

I am living in the sorceress's house. It is old, very old. Made of stone, thatched roof. It seems it has grown larger since I have been away. She is old and a bit fat, but wouldn't like me telling you that. She often in absent, though her presence is felt, and she seems to turn up at all the moments I wish she wouldn't.

This particular adventure was in late summer most probably, as much of the grass was a dry brittle beige-brown, and I was out hiking, trying to reconnect with high school friends home on vacation, and friends from other countries that I now have not seen in many many months.

My brother and some of his friends, and my sister and some of hers have gone out paint-balling. I believe they are staying at the cabin, at my grandparents in the woods, in the mountains. I see them come in and out of here.

I leave one building and I no longer am in the same universe. I seem to walk out of one building in my life, and hop into a world where I can pick the building and universe I wish to go to. All the buildings are on sand dunes. There are a lot of sea grasses growing, and we can't see the sand very well, but it covers the ground.

I see some of my friends in this place, in the place between universes, in the place between homes and work and schools and lives. They are all sitting around here in this place having fun...but I see them in the distance, not near to me, and they have their own in-betweens. They have forests or rivers or oceans or deserts.

My friend Catie, a bubbly sprite from upstate New York that became a good friend after I met her in France last year, is near me in the sand. She knows where we are, but I am lost. She tries to connect this place to reality for me, but I can't make it the same way she has. We try climbing a hill, and I can't make it up because I keep slipping in the sand. We try over and over and over. Then I go back down to the buildings and tell her I'll find her later.

I find the witches building. I need to go back there because it is my beginning, it is my base, but I want nothing more than to avoid her. I go in, go past the traps she has set in the past to keep people out. I remember in the dream how much trouble I used to have getting in. I get to yet another foyer and see the bed. It is not my bed, but it is THE bed.

There is a young man on it, he appears to be either dead, or in a very deep sleep. I look down and realize my backpacks are gone. I was going to be going somewhere with a friend...I can't remember what...we were supposed to do something together...maybe a group of people. But I can't find my backpacks.

I decide to go back out and look. I start walking around outside, and I walk into other people's inbetween-universes looking for my backpacks. I can't remember where I've been or who I've seen or where I might have left them. I see someone from high school. A "Band Nerd" who was always very nice, but I never got to know him very well...(I have nothing against band nerds, my adorable goofy little sister is one of them, and she is probably one of my best friends EVER)
I called out to him, but he didn't hear me, and I saw that he was wearing headphones, so I called louder, "MARK!"

He turned around, "What are you doing here?"
I look around. We're in the forest, near the entrance to a natural state park. I say..."I'm looking for my backpacks, but I don't remember exactly where I left them. I don't want to walk around alone in the forest looking."
He looks hesitant, so I add,"please come with me, it won't take very long..."
He agrees.

We start walking down the road. I get ahead very easily. When I'm far enough ahead that he can not see me hover around corners instead of walk, I do it. I stop and wait occasionnally for him to catch up, but I am getting really nervous about not finding my backpacks. It's getting dark, and its starting to rain. I convince Mark we need to jog a bit. We stay on the road, because I don't recognize anything. We get nearer and nearer the entrance, and I start to see things I recognize, but from another point in time. I know my backpacks aren't here, but I want to go in and see what is pulling at me.

He follows me from afar, and eventually I ditch him. There are people walking around, hitching horses to buggies and working in wooden buildings and wearing oldfashioned clothing. I start poking around, using the excuse that I'm looking for my bags when anybody asks.

I keep walking in the same direction through this little town or village, however we ought to say it. Near the end, there is a front stoop that is undeniably the witches. I go in. It's raining, it's getting darker and darker.

I go through the same obstacles again. I get to the room before the bed. My bags are on the floor. I sigh a sigh of relief. There are other peoples things as well. The sorceress has other guests I suppose. I am a bit jealous, as I thought I was the only one she took under her wing. I take my two backpacks, one yellow, one black, into the next room. The room with the bed, with the boy. I look at him, rearrange the sheets. I turn to my backpacks, and start to rummage around, when I hear the boy turning in his sheets..."Have you heard the rumour that she wants to have you kidnapped so you will stay here? The advertising and the money on you would be spectacular."

I turn back. "OH..." I can't remember his name. This bothers me. I should know it. I recognize him, I've had these sorts of conversations with him before. He is asleep when I enter, but from time to time, he speaks to me. "...Fry" he says, reminding me of his name. I look at his toe, it has a tag tied to it. "Fry, aged 14, died 1904"

He reminds me of what he just said, "She MIGHT want to kidnap you to keep you here forever." I give Fry a hug..."it's been a long time Fry..." I turn and start rearranging my bags. I take things out of my suitcase and start looking through my backpacks. I know I can only take one backpack, though I have two plus a suitcase. I take out all my socks. Some of them have holes, about half of them are dirty, and there are many I haven't bothered to take out of their packaging. I got them on clearance somewhere, because there are still red tags on the paper and plastic...3.89...2.99...1.85....

I stack the socks while thinking about how I am possibly going to get all my new clothes and things into my backpack and take them with me.

I turn to take more things out...
and there she is.

"Oh Fry," she sighs, "you know you shouldn't do things like that. If I wanted her to stay here, I would already have done something to restrain her. She has been here so many times before. And Fry...don't forget...even if she flees, you cannot go with her, no matter how in love with her you are. If you court her, if you leave this bed, you will explode into a thousand million grains of sand. I'll plant my cactuses in you."

Fry's expression doesn't change. He knows all this.

I've stopped trying to pack.

I follow her out a different door, into her garden, calling her mistress and Lady-mother, and asking her what Fry could have meant, and did she want me to stay...

She snapped at me and told me to stop following her.

The snake wrapped around her arms slips off and slithers into the garden.

I feel very small.

I leave.