Oneironautic Escapades

1/9/20

I am at my great grandmother's home in Atlanta. B currently lives there and has kind of fixed it up though the outside of the house is grown over with vines and greenery. The house is a single story in the front but two stories in the back, like the basement is built into a hill. She has her living space in the basement and I see her purple bed in a corner. G is with me as we kind of tour around the house. We wander around the house with B. I talk with B about the history of the home and how long it has been in my family. I show her the room upstairs where my great grandma and her sister slept in beds side by side for many years. There's a large floor grate at the doorway that I remember hurt my feet to walk on as a kid, only now it has expanded down both walls of the room like a big L. There are small flames that come out of the grate, I gather it is the malfunctioning heater that hasn't been serviced in years. She almost catches the bottom of her flowy dress on fire because she trips on the grate but gets up quickly enough, no harm done.

I am with G now downstairs in Bs room sitting on her bed. We are watching a program on television, it is like a home renovation show that is featuring the same house we are actually currently in, B is on the tv. They take axes to large twisted bundles of vines that have grown into the house through a window in her room. One of the guys is hitting a wooden doorway with a hand axe and I gather his intent is malicious. B comes downstairs and tells us the rest of the story while we watch the show. We decide to go out to get something to eat before leaving town.


We are standing in line inside a large food court type area that is actually a single restaurant. It feels like a gourmet rallys of sorts. The building is diamond shaped, bright white decor with scattered black tiles, tall ceilings, with counters to order at on each side corner and tables all around in the middle. There seems to be a large column/pillar in the exact center of the room. I stand looking at the menu for a while trying to decide what to eat. We debate where we want to eat while standing in line. I mention I would really like to eat at the Dwarf House (the first Chick-fil-A). Perhaps we will get a snack here first then go somewhere else. The girls have ordered and gone to find a table. I stand for a couple minutes at the front of the line trying to decide, there are people lining up behind me while I scan the menu. It is hard to read and I am barely able to make out the pictures, though I know generally what they have. I apologise to the guy working the register that it took me so long, saying "Now don't be mad at me it took me all that time to decide, but I just want a large fry well done and two soda waters with lime."

He is understanding and asks for my name. I speak it to him but then he motions to a keypad in front of the register I am meant to type my name into. I try typing Noah, but it ends up like Gerold6 on the screen, I shrug whatever and submit it. As I am walking away I gather the workers are allowed to heckle the guests, it's like this restaurants brand, they were joking a lot before and now that I've made a gaff they turn the focus on me. They make an announcement on the loudspeaker that Gerald doesn't have the number six in the name and he proceeds to write it on a whiteboard, while laughing saying people can't have the number six in their name. I shout back jokingly "You don't know that!" The workers all laugh at my response and walk away from their registers holding their faces. I walk over to the girls and B has become S, I am completely enamoured to see her again.

We catch up and I am really glad to see she is doing so well. She seems lively and much more energetic than the last time I saw her. She's even showing interest in me so I'm somewhat besides myself. The girls have gotten their food a while ago and are just picking at their trays and I start to wonder where mine is, it has to have been 20-30 min by now. I see fries fully cooked sitting behind the counter on the metal tray and no one standing around. Then a guy walks out from the back, stands there for a minute or so and then surprisingly notices a ticket printed on a printer under the counter. He reads it, tears it off, proceeds to make my fry and prepare the drinks and walk it out to me. I am grateful if not slightly annoyed by there being so many employees standing around and none of them seem to be too focused.

At a certain point I begin speaking to an employee who I believe is on break. We talk about the type of restaurant this is and how it's set up/how it is to work there and make fun of people all day. He has social conundrums with some fellow female employees so I give him some social advice on how to work it out. The girls go to the bathroom together when we finish our meals. So I decide to walk outside to take in the views.

For some reason I am now in a corporate office lobby with open windows on one side leading to the water. My father and uncle are there, we all seem to be fixated on screens or the windows, I can't be sure. My uncle is leaning on dad's shoulder while they stand together. A worker for the office has spilled his soda on the floor of his desk, he gets up and walks away. He returns to his desk with a fresh cup of pop and takes a picture of it with his cellphone before sitting back down without cleaning up the last spill. This guy kinda looks like Ben Schwartz.


We are all standing along the water now outside. I am still waiting for the girls to come back but I notice there are boats going by to tour the local park. I am on a boat now, thinking it will be a quick excursion before returning. It is a boat car type vehicle and we travel through a park with many coloured birds on the ground and in the trees, they are all smaller like sparrows though coloured like the rainbow. The driver keeps driving and I gather we are going much further than the park. I text G "I think I've made a huge mistake" The boat makes water and we continue down into a river. Everytime I shift my weight the boat sloshes to the side and some water splashes in. The main guy driving asks me how old I am. I tell him and he says I am too big and I need to sit still while we are in motion. I now realize I am too close to other people I don't know and fumble to put on my mask. I pull it out of my pocket and there are many masks all stacked on themselves and it is difficult to separate the one I want to wear. The driver describes the river we are going down. It is like the florida keys for georgia, he points to a map and there is a huge crack waterway through the entire state of georgia. I am far away from where I started with strangers now. The dream ends.