The book of mars

Beach Movie

I am playing a marble game with a big structure full of holes and tunnels for the marbles to roll around in. A few of my friends are with me in an obscure setting playing this game. Jamie stands up from the structure and tells everyone he wants to see the new Jack Skellington movie. Some of us want to and some of us don't, but we all end up on a beach.



It's night time, so things are difficult to see. Everyone went their separate ways on the beach, which is where you can watch the movie. The shore has scattered people facing the ocean. However, the ocean is not visible, because a crowd of thousands of kids are all standing in the water facing the shore, chanting for the movie. I can't make out any individual people; there is just a giant blob of kids, some holding signs. My friends all eventually end up in the crowd.

On the shore, my plot line diverts from my friends. A woman is holding two staffs with glowing rocks on the ends of them. One is blue and one is green. She's looking for something with them, using them as a natural flashlight of sorts. We exchange dialogue (but I never remember words in my dreams) and I end up helping her. She gives me the blue staff, and I jab it around the beach.

On one end of the beach, there is a kind of couch cushion that's upside down and connected to a "wall" that ends the beach. Her daughter is inside the cushions I think. I let her try to pry her out and go look for other things that were missing. I turn my back to the water and the sand, and there is a hallway that leads to Heather's house. I don't go down it, but there is a box in the hallway. There is a tiny zebra in the box, which I take, feeling slightly guilty but not really.

Back on the beach, I go up an adult in the water who is hiding behind a big sign that is declaring his love for the movie. He is handing out taffy to everyone. I take some and notice the calories: 400/inch. Yikes. My dream-mind doesn't like that either, so I throw it away.

Dumpstering

I'm in a mall with Tyler and someone else. It's night time and almost time to leave. There's barely anyone here. We steal some ice cream and eat it as we walk around. Alex, a guy from school, comes up to us with melted ice cream in two glass cups and starts singing some song about having sex. His girlfriend is with him and I wonder how she feels about this weird situation. He passes us.

I tell Tyler that because it's night time, we can try to dumpster dive out back for books they throw away. She's really hesitant because it's still a bit light out and she's afraid of getting caught. I persuade her, however. We go to walk outside, and the exit that we chose is in an area of the mall called the "Drunk Exit". We talk about how dumb it is because "you can't even drink in the mall!"

I have a very distinct memory of opening the door to exit. The door was massive, and my hands couldn't fit around the giant handle. It was clear glass and a white frame and even when I looked up, I couldn't see the top.

Outside, the first thing I see is a white rooster. It's just kind of standing there and I think of how odd this is. I go near it and it doesn't move. I do a dream check, and decide it's normal. (FUCK)

Tyler and I run through the woods near the exit and I spy my friend Dylan in the woods a few feet from us with some kids. They're all playing with this weird material I've never seen. It's orange and very surreal. It's kind of like foam but not even really "there". Strange indeed. I dismiss this. (FUCK)

Tyler and I duck behind a big dumpster and a car drives by with the U.S. Military emblem on the door, so we book it back through the woods because we're scared. We end up on a trail lost in the woods. I jump really high and step on a lot of boulders, just kind of messing around, trying to get to Tyler who's ahead of me. I accidentally crash into her and we wobble on the boulder we're standing on. She's really terrified of falling. I do this again on accident, and she's mad.

Somehow we get back to the mall and I cross the street. Tyler doesn't follow me, but someone does. I don't know who they are for the rest of the dream. It's morning now and the sun is coming up. We're at a skate park area and I'm on my longboard, turning in circles in the parking lot.

"You should have gotten your board!" I say to the other person. We talk about how they lost it or something. Then we notice a group of snobby teens playing in the park. We go up to them and kind of listen in on their conversation. They are talking about not doing certain things because it's really dumb, and I say something really snappy about not dying my hair blonde because it's really dumb (I wish I remembered the whole conversation here, my dream-self really thought I was clever with the comeback.)
One of the guys who are with them laughed, and he looked so out of place in the group.

I notice that Jimmy from Degrassi/Drake the artist is with them, too. He's in a wheelchair like he is on the T.V. show. Slowly he's lifted from the chair and has no clothes on and is trying to stand. I ask how he can do that if his legs don't work, and Heather suddenly pops into my dream and explains the episode he's re-enacting.

One of the funny guys who doesn't belong gets naked too and I am about to leave. I go up to him and tell him he is very funny, and his friend is too (the original guy who laughed at my joke). I make X's on their lips and the sun rises and rays align with the X's. I leave somewhere.


Fragment

I'm in a town where Heather supposedly lives. We walk to the store in all red because there are gangs and red means you're safe. At the store, we play with marbles in a structure (very similar to my other dream). We leave our shoes here and walk home. Then we notice we want our shoes back, so we go get them.

Tribal Imposter

I am watching a movie about an anthropologist who is living with a native tribe. Jake comments on the scene where, after eating the native spicy food, the anthropologist has to take a huge shit. He washes his hands in a regular bathroom and there is a girl who also comes out of a stall and washes her hands. They join the tribe in the circle around a fire.

Suddenly, I am part of the tribe. Whether I am "part" of it or not, I'm not sure because while they are all black, I am still white and also have no relationship with them. We get a message from a lady somehow informing us that there is a huge storm coming and we must all walk to the safe weather house. We're all kind of disappointed as if we've been there before and really don't want to go. It doesn't take us long to walk there and its only just beginning to rain. Its dark out but I can make out the details of the area. There are a ton of trees, we are in a forest, but the path to the house has been cleared. It's muddy but none of us mind.

The house itself doesn't look like it should for a weather safety house. Its a usual wood building with chipped paint, it looks pretty old and out of the norm in the woods. I wonder to myself why the tribe would let modern man come into the forest so easily, but I don't apply the fact that this building is old and therefore the expansion must have happened quite a long time ago. To enter the house, we don't go through the main door. We all step through a fake painting on the outside of the house. It looks like a black and white framed painting, but its actually silk flaps that we can walk into.

Inside, against one wall there are little cubby holes for each of us. Some are built for two people, and the couples go into them, as if all was pre-set for us (or as if we've been here before, recently). I run to the last one, half knowing its where I belong and half thinking if I don't get a cubby to stay in, I won't have one. We all get settled in. Mine is relatively empty, as is all the others, though some have blankets and pictures on the walls. Everyone starts talking to eachother in their usual dramas and friendships.

The lady who called us in here is really nice. She might be an anthropologist herself, perhaps thats why she is taking care of us tonight and runs this building. She calls attention to us and on a huge chalkboard on the opposite wall she has written the alphabet. Everyone is bored with it but we are handed little chalkboards and try to write it down. She explains the letters and then in a strange yet understanding way she explains the song behind the "alphabet song", the accents on each letter when you sing and how they relate to other sounds you can make, and how "big" or "little" the sound is. A few of the tribe people understand this completely and laugh at her elementary way of explaining things. My conscious dream mind daydreams of the thought of musically inclined people.

I come back to the dream and start drawing the letters but remember that I am an educated person and don't want to be "found out", so I draw them with my left hand. The lady comes over to me and she has a little see through plastic page with black lettering. Its an astrology chart. I ask about the Chinese horoscope and she says this one is the Zodiac. I talk to her about it and she asks if I'm a leo. I say yes, and she says she is too, that she was born on August first. We begin talking about the tribe. I leave behind me the notion of "fitting in" with them, and talk about how its like having your own soap opera always with you because of the intricate dramas always happening. While we talk, the tribe people are all just talking, fighting, laughing, etc.

I wake up and it looks like lightening is illuminating my room. Not just light-wise, but everything in my room is highlighted by lightening streaks and the windows are completely white. I do a reality check, I seem to be awake, and wonder if this is just more of the winter thunder storms that has happened. I go back to sleep.

Everyone has left the building or something, and I am outside in the darkness gliding/running very very fast across muddy hills. I see a modern house and hear a voice that tells me "they are inside" and so I glide to it. On the porch, I'm welcomed in by a black lady who has a motherly aura. We go into the kitchen and she's making dinner. I lean on the counter and we discuss how one of the tribes people, a 20 something woman, is living here and is trying to fit into modern society. She has wrecked her life somehow, getting into drugs and prostitution and lacking any education. Her memory comes to mind. On her chest, she has one of those microdermal implants. It's a circle with a piercing in the middle, and a sun tattooed around it. Her whole face has piercings and dot tattoos. I wonder how she fits in with the people of this area and age. The motherly woman asks if she can move in with me because she needs a place. I tell her she is my sister, even if we are very different and of course I will take her in.

Book Thief

I am with Autumn and her parents and another man and we go to a gift store (which is where Goodwill is in waking life). Inside I begin to look at the books and everyone scurries off into their own directions. On a rack I find a book by the same author as a Series of Unfortunate Events (I can tell not by the name but by the artwork/similar appearance). The title amazes me: How To Be A Lucid Dreamer! I have a dream memory of wanting this book very badly, ritually looking up reviews and prices online.
I don't have any money with me though, so I carry it around and intend to steal it. My mom comes to look at the books and I tell her I brought this book into my life and we both celebrate a little before I walk away. I start looking at little zebra sculptures that are for sale on one wall and daydream of a dream memory: I am asking Autumn to put a zebra sculpture in her bag for me to take it because I am too nervous. I feel bad about it and the guilt hits my "present" dream self, so I stop daydreaming. I walk over to a mini train that is running on a track circling a platform. I sit on the platform and go through the pages of my book. An electronic tag falls out, the kind that make sensors go off if you take it without paying, so I carry it around separately. I don't throw it away immediately because I know the techie who is in charge of that kind of thing in this store is somewhere near by.

I go back to the main part of the store and there is a giant dunk tank and folding chairs placed to watch it. Everyone in the store save a few shoppers are sitting down watching, so I do too. They say they are dunking all the people who steal from the store. I wonder how many people there are, but realize its one man who is representing all of the thieves. He has a disgusting mutilated Halloween face mask on and a belly shirt. His stomach is huge and over stretched. They dunk him, and the water makes his stomach rise and fall in slow motion. Everyone is laughing at how fat he is, but this is part of the act and he doesn't take offense. I really don't want to watch this idiotic scene anymore, so Autumns family leaves, though Autumn isn't with us.

Before we leave, I am simultaneously in the back seat of the car and inside the store. I ask the man driving if I can have four dollars so I can buy the book. The Dalai Lama is in the passenger seat and turns around and tells me "you're really getting into something". My heart jumps at recognition from such a high being. I don't pay for the book, we just leave, and that seems to be part of the driver's joke he quietly has with me. I give him back the money. He gives me back the same amount of bills, but its 3 one dollar bills and 1 one hundred dollar bill. I laugh and give it back to him: I don't need it.


Frag

I am in the back seat of Jacks car. Jack is driving and Andrew is in the passenger seat. We are going around the highway looking at dead animals. We see an orange cat in the middle of the road and a fox on the shoulder. I get a text from Heather and she asks me to come over, I say sure and tell Jack to drop me off. I get worried about her seeing Jacks car. My POV switches to upstairs in Heathers house (usually she lives in a one story house) and looking out the window, seeing the car. I tell Jack to drop me off at the beginning of the driveway, but its really snowy so I know that wont work. I dont know what to do.