Dream - I go to a bookstore in a small town and meet an author, then go back again when his book is out, but they are having a mystery game and I have trouble finding the book, and then a man rides through the sky on a bicycle with a parasol, and floats down on an inflatable mattress beside a woman

On Monday, June 21, 2010, around 9:30-11:30 PM, I dreamed I went to a little bookstore in a small town outside of Phoenix, maybe Wickenburg, though it felt like it was more to the north rather than northeast. I was at the counter talking to someone, telling the person about a book I had bought by one author, and then another book by another author, I think Robert Heinlein. I was holding the books in my hands, first one then the other, then a person to the side suddenly perked up and said it was him. I was surprised he was there, and glad to meet him [in real life he has been dead for quite a while, but I didn't think of it in the dream]. He had another book that was going to be out soon, "The Green [something or other]" I think, and I was going to come back then and get it.

Then it was a few days later, and I was going to go to the radiator shop. My father had already left. He looked a lot younger, like he was in his early forties. My mother looked younger too, by a similar amount. I decided to stop by the bookstore first, and drove out to the little town. I got there before 8:00 AM, maybe around 7:45. I parked in the street beside it, alongside the sidewalk, parallel parking. I thought it was too early, that it probably wasn't open yet, and I would have to wait awhile. I thought about sleeping a little in the car, and worried some about being told to leave by a policeman if I did that, or even sat too long in my car. Then I looked over at the window of the store, peering at it, and saw its hours, and it was open already after all, or seemed to be.

I got out and went in and looked around. It was different than it had been, with a lot more rooms, and a lot less books. They were doing some kind of game now too, evidently for the special occasion of the book coming out, though it was evidently something they did periodically anyway. It was some kind of mystery story thing, where the participants were supposed to solve a crime. A series of fake murders were going to happen among the guests, or apparent guests. I wandered around through the various rooms, sometimes going outside too. Some of the rooms had books along one side, others didn't have much in the way of books, sometimes some back in cabinets or on little tables, or small open shelves, or displays of other things. Sometimes another body was found, sometimes inside and sometimes outside. There was some worry too over whether it was a real murder or whether the person was just pretending. I know there was talk about waiting for the sheriff to come, but it might have been part of the game, even if it was the real sheriff.

The place had an upstairs now too, with more rooms to look through. In one room, I'm not sure if it was upstairs or downstairs, one of the owners was cooking something in a kitchen area that was set along one wall. I think I talked to her a bit. In one of the rooms I looked through, a small room, I saw some children talking to each other. They paused when I opened the door. I also found some in a closet that had a floor a couple or so feet higher than the floor of the room.

This was taking a long time, and I worried about getting back to the radiator shop, that I would be needed for something and not be there. It got later and later, getting into the afternoon. I was having trouble finding the book, and wondered if they had actually gotten any copies of it yet.

At one point, late in the afternoon I think, I stepped out on the wooden railing of a balcony that overlooked the first floor, actually floating up to it as I reached my legs up to it, and floated just over it and then stepped off, floating over the balcony and down to the first floor, and I think even then to the outside, to some landscaping against the building. I was happy and amused. I wanted to impress the people around me, and it felt enjoyable to float like that, but they were initially concerned about it, afraid I was going to go over the balcony and fall and get hurt.

I might have gone back inside then, but I'm not sure. It seems I wandered around a bit outside then, but it's possible I went back in later. The outside was not as it had been earlier, even earlier that day. There was a lot more room around the building, which was a lot bigger than it had been. I'm not sure I ever found a copy of the book, though it seems I might have.

It got later, getting toward night. A person went up in the sky, sailing with fireworks going off around him, right next to him, and riding a bicycle and carrying a parasol I think. Then he was coming down very slowly, to cheers from the watching crowd. The man, who had originally been dressed, was now laying on his back naked on an inflatable mattress, a smiling naked women beside him, completely revealed, turned slightly to the side, her legs up slightly. The man was also smiling, like the woman. They almost seemed like animated ink drawings at this point. They drifted in the air on the inflatable mattress, like a leaf, the crowd cheering. They finally got to the ground, and I think then wrapped something at least partly around themselves, still smiling, the crowd still cheering.

I had been watching it with someone, a small group of people actually. We had been commenting on it. It was almost dark now. We left, on bicycles I think, and went toward the edge of town, which was not far away. There was a railroad yard there, with some tanker cars. Someone was also there, maybe more then one person, and it felt more sinister now, like they were plotting against us, planning to get us. I think they ran though, not wanting to confront us directly.