Dream - Taking a book without paying, then getting attacked by people
On July 17 or 18, 2008, or possibly slightly earlier, I had a dream in which I took a book and some other things from a bookstore without paying, intending to bring them back, and then being threatened by people and sometimes getting into fights.
In the dream, I was at a mall. It had outdoor walkways between between rows of shops. It seems like it was partly paved with asphalt, old now, and was partly dirt, kind of a pale dirt with some large sand or very small rock. The parking lot was similar. The walkways and stores were not entirely level and some areas were on slightly different levels.
I was looking at some books in a bookstore in the mall. I don't think I had much money with me. I think my mother was somewhere in the area, but I'm not sure where and she didn't show up later in the dream.
I went out of the bookstore holding a small book and some papers partly curled in one hand. I hadn't paid for them and was coming back, I wanted to check the other bookstore. I went out and walked to the right down the line of shops. The light was dim and there were a few other people around, including some threatening figures. The area by the shops was broad, but after walking for a while I turned to the right to a narrower area that led to where the other bookstore was. The other bookstore was slightly lower and the walkway dipped down some and the surface became irregular, changing in large part to unpaved with an irregular hill-like area as it went down before reaching the door of the bookstore, which was across the path to the left.
I went in and looked for a while without finding anything I wanted. The bookstore seemed similar to some bookstores in other dreams, being relatively small and having a larger back area than the front, with a room or rooms at the back that led off to the right. I held tightly to the small book and papers in my hand the whole time. I was hoping that they would look like they belonged with me and not the store. It began to bother me, though, and I started to worry that someone at the store might question me about them. They weren't actually mine and still belonged to the other bookstore, and the store might not be able to distinguish them from its own books and might think that they belonged to them.
I went to leave and an employee had gone to the door and was crouched down low, working at something around or on the door frame. He was in the way and I would have to go right by him, maybe even stepping over him. I went toward him and as I reached him he moved slightly to the side, still working on whatever he was working on. I squeezed by him, pushing at him some as I went. I think I gently pushed at his hip with my hand as I went by, encouraging him to move a little more, which he did, and then I patted him a little as I went on by.
I was back out in the dim outdoor light, then, making my way up the irregular slope, intending to go back to the other bookstore. Sinister figures were ahead and to some extent gathered around me from the sides and behind as I walked. The ones who gathered around me kind of converted to my side. One of them came up and talked to me briefly as we walked, saying something like he understood what I was doing and would support me, or something like that.
We came then toward the group ahead, a larger group with its own leader, a group my group had been part of. The other group apparently expected my group to still be part of it and support it and waited cockily for me, talking some among themselves while they watched me approach. They were just beyond where the narrower walkway joined the broad one.
When I reached them I went through them, though, and kept walking, turning to the left. The people with me went into the others, distracting them and drawing them aside. The leader of the larger group and some others started walking a little behind me and to the sides. The leader seemed puzzled and curious as to what was happening. He still seemed cocky or at least acted like it. I went down the length of the mall toward the parking lot. I turned, though, and went back for some reason, going back along the line of stores.
I saw a woman coming from a smaller side branch. She had dark hair and was tall and somewhat muscular for a woman. She was a worker at a store and was now leaving the mall after working late figuring up the books. She was still carrying some books and papers and some other stuff. She was somewhat nervous about going out into the broader area, fearing what might happen. She had had a bad experience before, she had been attacked at some earlier time, perhaps weeks or months before. She had physically recovered but was now somewhat fearful. She didn't know me and seemed to think I might be part of the group of bad people who were still following me around. I walked toward her, intending to reassure her.
She stopped and waited, looking uncertain and afraid. She had brought some stuff with her to protect herself and started to throw things at me I think. I threw things back I think and as we got close to each other she was hitting me with something and knocked me away. I guess I rolled or something and got ten or twenty feet away.
Nearby I saw some kind of small ornamental wooden table. It had tall, old fashioned legs that had been turned on a lathe. The tabletop was perhaps eight by twelve inches, perhaps even six by ten. The legs were very tall though, making it around three to four feet tall.
I grabbed the legs of the table, holding them squeezed mostly together in one hand, and went to her and hit her in the face with the table, more than once I think, knocking her back and down. I then threw her a long distance.
She lay on her back, then, some of the stuff she had been carrying still by her. Her face had blood splattered on it and there was blood splattered on her clothes. She lay there with a grimace on her face, and her eyes closed, her face turning slowly a little to one side and then the other. The place I had thrown her was a more open area, past where the mall ended on one side, though there was another building or buildings a ways to the side and back past a broad undeveloped looking area. There was something a little to her right that may have been a gully or creek.
I didn't intend to hurt her badly during the fight and I hoped that I hadn't. I had needed to subdue her, though, to stop her from fighting me and so I could talk to her and explain the situation. It didn't look like she was able to fight any more, but that was not actually certain. It looked like I would have to wait a while to be able to explain the situation to her, but I thought that she would be on my side when I did, and follow along with me like the others.
It started to get a little lighter now, not so dim, like it was early morning before dawn. I went back toward the parking lot for some reason, I'm not sure now why. I think I was concerned that someone may have been waiting for me, perhaps my mother. I think I left the woman there at least temporarily. There seemed to be some urgency about things.
There was a broad dirt road by some mostly dead vegetation, bushes and small trees, kind of undeveloped looking. Beyond the mall area and in front of it, cars were parked there.
As I went to and in it the situation seemed to became more ominous and threatening, like I was going to finally be attacked by the people following me. We had picked up some others as we had walked around, including some teenagers. Some of the people were getting closer to me as I moved back and forth on the dirt road. I looked things over as I walked, nervously watching the unpleasant developments.
Someone came up by me, I'm not sure who. I think it might have been the person who had joined with me earlier and controlled the others, but I'm not sure. If it was, he now seemed to have turned against me. He was bent toward me, his head down and saying something to me. He talked low and seemed somewhat mad. I think one of his hands was on me, the other hand was holding a very small pocketknife that was partly open. It looked like I was going to be killed.
I tried to draw back and was thinking, "NO!" and found that I was also holding a very small pocketknife, perhaps even smaller than his. The blade was less than half open and was only a couple of inches long. I put it up to the inside edge of his lower jaw about halfway from his chin and after a pause, pushed it slowly in while he stood there, bent and tensed, his head slightly tilted away from it. I was just shoving it in along the inner side of the jawbone, near his tongue, but I was afraid I was somehow killing him, or that there might be a chance I was doing so. It felt bad that I was having to attack him, maybe even killing him, especially since he may have been the one who helped me earlier. It was terrible how these things sometimes worked out.
About ten or twenty feet away toward the edge or a little beyond the edge of the road, a tall teenage boy stood. He had black hair and was medium build with a bit of a soft look. When I stabbed the man under the jaw, the boy's eyes got big and he cried out, "No!" Evidently he was the man's son. I felt really bad about all this. I still wasn't absolutely sure the man had been attacking me, though it sure looked like it. I wished I hadn't had to do it but there didn't seem to be anything else I could have done, though it seemed that there should have been, that there should have been another way.
The mall reminds me a little of the old Town and Country mall in Phoenix, with some features of Coronado High School and perhaps some things from malls in Reno and Carson City.
In September 2008, about two months after this dream, I had another dream about taking books from a bookstore without paying. In the later dream they were pie slice shaped books. The later dream was much more pleasant.
In the dream, I was at a mall. It had outdoor walkways between between rows of shops. It seems like it was partly paved with asphalt, old now, and was partly dirt, kind of a pale dirt with some large sand or very small rock. The parking lot was similar. The walkways and stores were not entirely level and some areas were on slightly different levels.
I was looking at some books in a bookstore in the mall. I don't think I had much money with me. I think my mother was somewhere in the area, but I'm not sure where and she didn't show up later in the dream.
I went out of the bookstore holding a small book and some papers partly curled in one hand. I hadn't paid for them and was coming back, I wanted to check the other bookstore. I went out and walked to the right down the line of shops. The light was dim and there were a few other people around, including some threatening figures. The area by the shops was broad, but after walking for a while I turned to the right to a narrower area that led to where the other bookstore was. The other bookstore was slightly lower and the walkway dipped down some and the surface became irregular, changing in large part to unpaved with an irregular hill-like area as it went down before reaching the door of the bookstore, which was across the path to the left.
I went in and looked for a while without finding anything I wanted. The bookstore seemed similar to some bookstores in other dreams, being relatively small and having a larger back area than the front, with a room or rooms at the back that led off to the right. I held tightly to the small book and papers in my hand the whole time. I was hoping that they would look like they belonged with me and not the store. It began to bother me, though, and I started to worry that someone at the store might question me about them. They weren't actually mine and still belonged to the other bookstore, and the store might not be able to distinguish them from its own books and might think that they belonged to them.
I went to leave and an employee had gone to the door and was crouched down low, working at something around or on the door frame. He was in the way and I would have to go right by him, maybe even stepping over him. I went toward him and as I reached him he moved slightly to the side, still working on whatever he was working on. I squeezed by him, pushing at him some as I went. I think I gently pushed at his hip with my hand as I went by, encouraging him to move a little more, which he did, and then I patted him a little as I went on by.
I was back out in the dim outdoor light, then, making my way up the irregular slope, intending to go back to the other bookstore. Sinister figures were ahead and to some extent gathered around me from the sides and behind as I walked. The ones who gathered around me kind of converted to my side. One of them came up and talked to me briefly as we walked, saying something like he understood what I was doing and would support me, or something like that.
We came then toward the group ahead, a larger group with its own leader, a group my group had been part of. The other group apparently expected my group to still be part of it and support it and waited cockily for me, talking some among themselves while they watched me approach. They were just beyond where the narrower walkway joined the broad one.
When I reached them I went through them, though, and kept walking, turning to the left. The people with me went into the others, distracting them and drawing them aside. The leader of the larger group and some others started walking a little behind me and to the sides. The leader seemed puzzled and curious as to what was happening. He still seemed cocky or at least acted like it. I went down the length of the mall toward the parking lot. I turned, though, and went back for some reason, going back along the line of stores.
I saw a woman coming from a smaller side branch. She had dark hair and was tall and somewhat muscular for a woman. She was a worker at a store and was now leaving the mall after working late figuring up the books. She was still carrying some books and papers and some other stuff. She was somewhat nervous about going out into the broader area, fearing what might happen. She had had a bad experience before, she had been attacked at some earlier time, perhaps weeks or months before. She had physically recovered but was now somewhat fearful. She didn't know me and seemed to think I might be part of the group of bad people who were still following me around. I walked toward her, intending to reassure her.
She stopped and waited, looking uncertain and afraid. She had brought some stuff with her to protect herself and started to throw things at me I think. I threw things back I think and as we got close to each other she was hitting me with something and knocked me away. I guess I rolled or something and got ten or twenty feet away.
Nearby I saw some kind of small ornamental wooden table. It had tall, old fashioned legs that had been turned on a lathe. The tabletop was perhaps eight by twelve inches, perhaps even six by ten. The legs were very tall though, making it around three to four feet tall.
I grabbed the legs of the table, holding them squeezed mostly together in one hand, and went to her and hit her in the face with the table, more than once I think, knocking her back and down. I then threw her a long distance.
She lay on her back, then, some of the stuff she had been carrying still by her. Her face had blood splattered on it and there was blood splattered on her clothes. She lay there with a grimace on her face, and her eyes closed, her face turning slowly a little to one side and then the other. The place I had thrown her was a more open area, past where the mall ended on one side, though there was another building or buildings a ways to the side and back past a broad undeveloped looking area. There was something a little to her right that may have been a gully or creek.
I didn't intend to hurt her badly during the fight and I hoped that I hadn't. I had needed to subdue her, though, to stop her from fighting me and so I could talk to her and explain the situation. It didn't look like she was able to fight any more, but that was not actually certain. It looked like I would have to wait a while to be able to explain the situation to her, but I thought that she would be on my side when I did, and follow along with me like the others.
It started to get a little lighter now, not so dim, like it was early morning before dawn. I went back toward the parking lot for some reason, I'm not sure now why. I think I was concerned that someone may have been waiting for me, perhaps my mother. I think I left the woman there at least temporarily. There seemed to be some urgency about things.
There was a broad dirt road by some mostly dead vegetation, bushes and small trees, kind of undeveloped looking. Beyond the mall area and in front of it, cars were parked there.
As I went to and in it the situation seemed to became more ominous and threatening, like I was going to finally be attacked by the people following me. We had picked up some others as we had walked around, including some teenagers. Some of the people were getting closer to me as I moved back and forth on the dirt road. I looked things over as I walked, nervously watching the unpleasant developments.
Someone came up by me, I'm not sure who. I think it might have been the person who had joined with me earlier and controlled the others, but I'm not sure. If it was, he now seemed to have turned against me. He was bent toward me, his head down and saying something to me. He talked low and seemed somewhat mad. I think one of his hands was on me, the other hand was holding a very small pocketknife that was partly open. It looked like I was going to be killed.
I tried to draw back and was thinking, "NO!" and found that I was also holding a very small pocketknife, perhaps even smaller than his. The blade was less than half open and was only a couple of inches long. I put it up to the inside edge of his lower jaw about halfway from his chin and after a pause, pushed it slowly in while he stood there, bent and tensed, his head slightly tilted away from it. I was just shoving it in along the inner side of the jawbone, near his tongue, but I was afraid I was somehow killing him, or that there might be a chance I was doing so. It felt bad that I was having to attack him, maybe even killing him, especially since he may have been the one who helped me earlier. It was terrible how these things sometimes worked out.
About ten or twenty feet away toward the edge or a little beyond the edge of the road, a tall teenage boy stood. He had black hair and was medium build with a bit of a soft look. When I stabbed the man under the jaw, the boy's eyes got big and he cried out, "No!" Evidently he was the man's son. I felt really bad about all this. I still wasn't absolutely sure the man had been attacking me, though it sure looked like it. I wished I hadn't had to do it but there didn't seem to be anything else I could have done, though it seemed that there should have been, that there should have been another way.
The mall reminds me a little of the old Town and Country mall in Phoenix, with some features of Coronado High School and perhaps some things from malls in Reno and Carson City.
In September 2008, about two months after this dream, I had another dream about taking books from a bookstore without paying. In the later dream they were pie slice shaped books. The later dream was much more pleasant.
posted by Stephen at 12/28/2009 11:58:00 PM
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