i remember hitching rides down to tucson from flagstaff. i don’t remember why i’m hitching rides but ‘i know’ there’s a reason. i don’t remember entering tucson but i remember entering my neighborhood. i got dropped off around hardy and northern and i start to walk to the house. when i reach fairhaven my perspective spins away from me and flies to the front of some decrepit convenience store. there’s trash blowing and sticking to the store front. the parking lot is just dirt and not well lit at all. my perspective cuts back to my body. i’m standing in front of my house. my house looks a lot like the convenience store. it’s the same structurally as it has always been but the landscaping is all dust, the trees are all dead, the windows are all broken… i look around the neighborhood and it’s the same deal with every house around me. the door is ajar and i just walk into the house. the air seems heavier in the house. i remember there being a weird musk that i can’t recall now. i walk into my old room and find it covered in dust. i put down a back pack and go to my sister’s room… hers is covered in dust too. for some reason i don’t react to it. i think that i expected her to be gone. i go through the kitchen. there’s nothing in the cupboards or the refrigerator. i go into the family room. it looks like the only room that hasn’t changed in the house. my parents are in there glued to the television. they’re watching some reality show where old custom cars are being rebuilt. i try to start conversation but they wont turn away from the television. i get frustrated. i walk out to the front yard and look for a cigarette to smoke. i find a pack in my front pocket but it’s crushed and all the cigarettes are broken. i put the pack back in my pocket. as i turn around my parents come storming out of the house. they slide open the side doors of the van and get in. i assume that they want me to drive since they’re sitting in the back seat of the van. i get into the drivers seat but everything’s dead. the steering wheel is locked and all the dials are dim. the car starts and i get nervous. the headlights turn on and i feel completely helpless. i look back and see my dad sitting there with a steering wheel in his hand. it has no connection and he pretends, like a little kid, to put the car into reverse and look over his shoulder as he backs up. the car moves, not much to my amazement (i’m starting to get faint consciousness). he drives to the convenience store that i saw at the beginning of the dream. we all go inside and look around. my dad brings an 18 pack of ‘ice house’ beer to the counter. i look at him with disapproval (jokingly). i say with a facetious tone, “that’s not the man that raised me! here, take this.” and i throw a gallon milk jug that says fat tire on the counter. he looks at me and with the most serious face and in the most serious tone i’ve ever seen or heard from him he tells me that we can’t afford it. this was really intense and it makes my mind perk up a bit. i start to realize that it’s a dream but i don’t make a full realization. my brain is still on auto-pilot but i know it’s on auto-pilot (if that makes any sense). dad pays for the ‘ice house’ and leaves the store, i look at the person working then say, “i’ll just put this back then.” i grab the jug and just walk out the door with it. i look back and the attendant is calling the cops. i jump into the van and my mom tells me not to worry because the cops never come to this side of town anyway. my dad is driving using the unattached steering wheel and the invisible gas pedals again. i remember going down oracle and he keeps swerving and i urge him to give me control but he’s offended by my suggestion. we drive through south tucson (i can’t recall any street names, i just know it’s south tucson). all the homes are being rebuilt. at every corner there’s a new subdivision under construction. all the homes in the subdivisions are huge. all have very detailed design, but all of them have the same detail. they all have different layouts, but the detail is the same for each sub-division. i remember seeing one sub-division with brown cobble-stone driveways and each house had a single ocotillo outside that was in colored gravel. all the houses had stone columns supporting the porches and the top of every wall would taper back 3 feet to make it seem like the walls of the houses were 3 feet thick. we stop in a parking lot and my parents lead me into a restaurant. we wait in line for a while and i remember seeing a lot of familiar people, they all seemed to look at me with dismay. they never said hello, they just gave me grim looks. we finally get to the front of the line and a waiter takes us through the restaurant. i tell my parents that i’m going to go smoke. i’m leaving the restaurant when a guy stops me. he looks a lot like ted kinney. he asks me if i’m going for a walk. i tell him that i am. he seems content with the answer and keeps walking. i turn and i feel something between my legs. it’s my pillow. i snap into lucidity. i can feel my body lying in my bed and i can feel a pillow wedged between my legs. i reenter the dream outside the restaurant. i pull out my once crushed box of cigarettes. i examine the cigarettes one at a time, breaking them when i finish examining them. i turn around and see my uncle mark sitting in the window staring at me. he shakes his head in disapproval. then i look down at the cigarettes and realize why he disapproved. i throw the cigarette box to the ground and walk through the parking lot. i find the van. i don’t choose to take any of the other cars in the parking lot, rather i want to take the van and drive it the way it was meant to be driven. i get in and reach down to start it… there’s a key already there. i start it and the whole instrument panel lights up. i turn on the head lights and pull out onto the road. i step hard on the gas and i remember chanting to myself, “this is the most powerful car in the world…this is the most powerful car in the world.” the car slowly picks up speed and things begin to blur. i saw buildings blur, then the horizon go gradually from flat to round, then i look to the side and see the ground moving away from me, then i see the blur start to slow down and finally i see that i’m in space. i just become afraid of opening the door and stepping out. i know it’s a dream though but i’m afraid that something bad will happen if i leave the car. i force myself awake.
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