nightmare

Fragments are all I have left of the whole, but still enough to tell a short story.

First fragment was my teeth. I don't remember if I've ever had a dream with teeth falling out, though it seems common in dream dictionaries. My teeth were coming out in bonded multiples, with blood and yet no pain. I could taste it though, reminded me of the unpleasant smell when filing fingernails.

Next fragment had far more detail. I don't remember who I was, may have been just along for the ride as that happens often. Sometimes a part of the person's consciousness, in varying degrees of course. This was a woman in a lawless time...could very well be Vietnam, though along the coast. Very warm water but muddy and stagnant. It was an estuary of sorts, ravaged by war and choked thick with jungle. Everybody traveled by shallow boats, no bigger than five people per dingy. It was a terrible time, so much that gender no longer played a role in daily life. It was past the typical genocide you see in Africa, as in past that event in the timeline.

Groups of soldiers with tattered and incomplete uniforms would patrol the rivers and coast with poorly maintained weapons in small, laughable boats that were no different than any other. The woman I was attached to in consciousness was a broker, making a living on dumping bodies up river. She was tired and numb to her beauty, though I was not. Dark hair, a bit curly, not entirely from this area. I don't remember seeing her eyes, though I would imagine them dull and empty reflections of her mind. It was survival and fear, tinged with a bit of hope.

She was the person to seek for discrete operations. Her boat was different. It was a huge buoy, something that may have been once used in the deep sea, modified heavily into a slow boat with the capacity to carry at least ten bodies.

I joined her just as she was starting the day. She lived in an industrial area, widely vacant and broken from constant war. It was part of a harbor of sorts, as the lower portion of this warehouse had some enclosed docks. To the side of the docks was an open area, fenced in with no view. This was the junkyard, a combination of fresh bodies and miscellaneous vehicles they arrived in. I'm not sure but I get the feeling they arrived without her assistance, anonymous almost.

She was the broker alright, but still retained some sort of anonymity. I don't remember the smell, perhaps because she no longer noticed it. As she came down from her living area, to which I know little more than it existing on the second floor of the warehouse, she walked to the junkyard to find her daily chore waiting. Indifference was her mood, not casual mind you, but a mind numb with casualties.
---break in the dream---
She loaded the buoy and set out into the sea, keeping close to the shoreline. As she slowly made her way towards the inlet of a river, her buoy caught on something. It was a common net trap of sorts, weighed down by makeshift anchors to hide just beneath the surface and entangle the propeller of a boat. The trap wasn't much of a concern to her, it was the soldier patrols that kept her on edge. She liked to keep her exposure to those dogs at a minimum distance. Her boat pulled free of the net trap begrudgingly and stopped short of the river mouth.
---break in the dream---
She had another boat, small, though I don't know where it came from. She also had some friends with her one woman and two dolphins. The dolphins were playful and didn't seem to even be bothered by the bodies. The two women made their way up a small muddy river and finally came to the supposed place where they had planned to dump the bodies.

Her friend (woman) was also not from this area, with blond hair that was unkempt from the horrid work they did. She had a lighter mood though, and much concern for her/me. As we were laboriously moving the bodies into the reeds a dolphin came up to me, a friend with no name. He/she chirped at me as the dull sound of a motor came from*upriver. I get the feeling it was a friendly warning, as ridiculous as it sounds. It was a patrol. Quickly I told the dolphin to submerge her/himself through a few facial expressions and a gentle tap between the fluke and the dome. The dolphin almost seemed to smile...(it made sense in the dream) and submerged, just as the patrol boat passed by. Soldiers did not like dolphins, and shot them on sight without hesitation. I don't know exactly what it was that we did but it drew no attention from the patrol and they soon disappeared down the river. [end]

There are more fragments, unrelated, but too personal to share.