Batch

08-07-12 -- I'm outside some sort of diner somewhere, no idea where, and I'm just about to climb into my car, but I'm having to deal with a bunch of young punks in the area, trying to stir up trouble. Just as I am about to drive away, the worst of the local punks pulls up in a fancy extended bed pick-up truck. The kid is either the obnoxious Kobra Kai from Karate Kid or the punk from Heavenly Kid, slim blond haired punk. Anyway, he drives into the parking garage outside the diner and starts shooting things up. I pull out my digital camera, and start snapping a few pictures of him and the damage he is doing.

Still trying to leave, but now some of the other punks are trying to blame the damage he did on me, and I'm afraid if I just drive off, I'll make myself look guilty. Soon I am in a friend's car, instead, but he is a horrible driver, and quickly runs into something. We pull the car free, and he backs up, but is then driving on the wrong side of the road, and wherever we move to, he is in the wrong place to pick us up.

Soon we're kind of being chased by a cop, and we're trying to stay out of his way and out of sight. Instead, we're soon eating lunch with him, and he is the parent of one of my friends. (And actually he's Captain Stacy from the new Spider-Man movie.) He doesn't like me, because he kind of believes what the punks have told him, blaming me for the damage at the diner.

After we finish eating, the punk in the truck is back. He is trying to threaten me, but I try to make a deal with him. I show him the photographic proof of him shooting up the diner. He says he'll beat me up and steal the camera, but I tell him he doesn't have the negatives. He tells me he does too have negatives, and pulls some out to show me, but I tell him he doesn't have the negatives of my photos showing his guilt. I tell him I have them hidden away, but if he'll make a deal with me, I won't turn them in to the cops.

He asks what the deal is. I tell him he can't pick on us anymore, he has to tell his friends that we're 'all right.' and he has to help us with a few very minor favors in the future. He counters with the first two parts, but only one future favor, and I agree. He drives off and leaves us alone. Now Captain Stacy is mad at me, saying I perverted the course of justice. I pointed out that even when I explained who did do the damage, he was trying to pin it on me, so I don't really care about his opinion.

About this time, I find myself standing next to a vending machine and starting to hit the coin return to see if it will give me any change. Somehow instead of change, dollars start coming out, and I'm sticking my hand further and further in the slot pulling out more and more bills until soon I'm pulling hundreds and hundreds of bills out of an ATM machine and sticking huge wads of cash in my pockets. Nice!

By this point, it is 20 pound notes I am pulling from the machine, and I am in England. The cop is still chasing me, and there are hints of past dreams I've dreamed, including the NCIS/goblin dream. There is also something about some lady who I somehow changed a bit (like Arthur Stuart in the Alvin Maker books which I've just been listening to), and because of this, they are accusing me of killing her.

I'm still running from the cop, and start looking for a bus, hoping I can jump on it and get away. I am looking for signs for the bus going to Cambridge, but I think to myself that might take too long, and start heading for the train station, instead.