Dream - The mall under the ground
Around the end of April 2005, I had a dream in which I was in New York City, on the edge of it, but it wasn't like the real New York at all.
In the dream, the city was very small and constructed mainly of metal, though the metal was mostly painted or otherwise coated, and various other materials, perhaps cardboard or plasterboard, were also used.
In the dream, my mother had wanted to go shopping there, complaining that she seldom got out. I left her in a large store that looked like part of a mall (actually, the whole city seemed to be one big mall), and wandered around the outside of the city. Someone was with me initially, but I don't know who.
Outside, it was uneven ground, with various businesses here and there. They seemed to be laid out in lines, though there really wasn't a road. It was as though they followed along the wall of a cliff, or even the wall of a cavern or a tunnel.
I went into a large store and was looking around. The front of the store was entirely open. At the back, there was a notice, something printed on the wall, about something on the other side of the wall. Someone who was there, someone who was just looking around like me, wanted to try to get to it.
Getting to it meant going through the wall, and I was a little suspicious of this. He went ahead, though, and I watched him fade through the wall.
I decided, then, to try it myself.
On the other side of the wall was a corridor, like a wide hallway, but of varying widths. The floor was not level, but was straight in sections, like sections of flooring laid over uneven and somewhat tilted ground. The edges of the floor, while also straight in short sections, moved in and out like it was following an irregular and somewhat curving tunnel. The floor had an industrial look, being constructed out of what looked like long strips of tire rubber, set into panels. Along the sides of the hall were various small businesses, constructed mostly of metal.
There were a few people walking around, but it wasn't crowded. I walked along the hall, which had a mild downward trend. Eventually, I got to a big open area. It had a large sunken arena off to one side. There were a few people in it, but it seemed to be a time when it wasn't being used for an event.
There were some nearby tables, where people ate food that they bought from the nearby businesses. At one of the tables I found my father and at least part of his family (he divorced and remarried a couple of decades ago), though some of the people with him I didn't know. He looked much thinner than when I saw him last, and he had not shaved for what looked to be a couple of weeks. I talked with him a while and then moved on.
As I walked, the hall became much wider and took on a more conventional look. It also became very crowded. Eventually, I came to the end of it. Two broad escalators were there, one taking people to the surface, where presumably the shopping continued, and the other bringing people down. The hall ended a little ways past the escalators, in kind of a rough, rounded look, but offshoots went to either side.
I went to the right, into a much smaller hallway. and eventually into a short offshoot of that. I went into a business or two and they seemed to be fairly conventional, like convenience stores or drug stores, with heavy concentrations of touristy stuff.
I went back, then, and went into one of the offshoots on the other side of the escalators. There was a small eating place there, along the hallway, with a small counter and stools. A few people were there, and at the far end a small man wearing a brown striped suit and hat sat, slouched over.
One of the people standing by me remarked about the man wearing the suit, that it was out of place because the man was a maintenance worker for the complex. I looked again, but he wasn't wearing the suit anymore, and had gained some weight. He now had on a t-shirt and probably gray workpants. He was sitting down but he was turned sideways to the counter and was leaning over backwards, with his upper body embedded in the wall.
He seemed to be doing some type of maintenance, but I also felt that he was showing me how to get behind the wall. I felt that there was something behind the wall, some other rooms. Small rooms that led off in a series, gradually but swiftly climbing. I could see them dimly in my mind.
The metal wall into which he was embedded had some kind of structure visible, like the panels were stressed and slightly out of place, although I felt that he was somehow faded into the wall as well as going through some secret opening in it.
He somehow emerged from the wall, then, and was sitting up. A small device started to slowly fade in attached to the wall on the left side of him, a short section of wall before the counter started.
I watched the device slowly fade into view, and then I woke up.
In the dream, the city was very small and constructed mainly of metal, though the metal was mostly painted or otherwise coated, and various other materials, perhaps cardboard or plasterboard, were also used.
In the dream, my mother had wanted to go shopping there, complaining that she seldom got out. I left her in a large store that looked like part of a mall (actually, the whole city seemed to be one big mall), and wandered around the outside of the city. Someone was with me initially, but I don't know who.
Outside, it was uneven ground, with various businesses here and there. They seemed to be laid out in lines, though there really wasn't a road. It was as though they followed along the wall of a cliff, or even the wall of a cavern or a tunnel.
I went into a large store and was looking around. The front of the store was entirely open. At the back, there was a notice, something printed on the wall, about something on the other side of the wall. Someone who was there, someone who was just looking around like me, wanted to try to get to it.
Getting to it meant going through the wall, and I was a little suspicious of this. He went ahead, though, and I watched him fade through the wall.
I decided, then, to try it myself.
On the other side of the wall was a corridor, like a wide hallway, but of varying widths. The floor was not level, but was straight in sections, like sections of flooring laid over uneven and somewhat tilted ground. The edges of the floor, while also straight in short sections, moved in and out like it was following an irregular and somewhat curving tunnel. The floor had an industrial look, being constructed out of what looked like long strips of tire rubber, set into panels. Along the sides of the hall were various small businesses, constructed mostly of metal.
There were a few people walking around, but it wasn't crowded. I walked along the hall, which had a mild downward trend. Eventually, I got to a big open area. It had a large sunken arena off to one side. There were a few people in it, but it seemed to be a time when it wasn't being used for an event.
There were some nearby tables, where people ate food that they bought from the nearby businesses. At one of the tables I found my father and at least part of his family (he divorced and remarried a couple of decades ago), though some of the people with him I didn't know. He looked much thinner than when I saw him last, and he had not shaved for what looked to be a couple of weeks. I talked with him a while and then moved on.
As I walked, the hall became much wider and took on a more conventional look. It also became very crowded. Eventually, I came to the end of it. Two broad escalators were there, one taking people to the surface, where presumably the shopping continued, and the other bringing people down. The hall ended a little ways past the escalators, in kind of a rough, rounded look, but offshoots went to either side.
I went to the right, into a much smaller hallway. and eventually into a short offshoot of that. I went into a business or two and they seemed to be fairly conventional, like convenience stores or drug stores, with heavy concentrations of touristy stuff.
I went back, then, and went into one of the offshoots on the other side of the escalators. There was a small eating place there, along the hallway, with a small counter and stools. A few people were there, and at the far end a small man wearing a brown striped suit and hat sat, slouched over.
One of the people standing by me remarked about the man wearing the suit, that it was out of place because the man was a maintenance worker for the complex. I looked again, but he wasn't wearing the suit anymore, and had gained some weight. He now had on a t-shirt and probably gray workpants. He was sitting down but he was turned sideways to the counter and was leaning over backwards, with his upper body embedded in the wall.
He seemed to be doing some type of maintenance, but I also felt that he was showing me how to get behind the wall. I felt that there was something behind the wall, some other rooms. Small rooms that led off in a series, gradually but swiftly climbing. I could see them dimly in my mind.
The metal wall into which he was embedded had some kind of structure visible, like the panels were stressed and slightly out of place, although I felt that he was somehow faded into the wall as well as going through some secret opening in it.
He somehow emerged from the wall, then, and was sitting up. A small device started to slowly fade in attached to the wall on the left side of him, a short section of wall before the counter started.
I watched the device slowly fade into view, and then I woke up.
posted by Stephen at 2/28/2008 08:02:00 AM
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