Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Not quite apocalyptic

I've been reading Don DeLillo's White Noise lately... probably not the best thing in light of my many apocalyptic dreams, but I'm really liking it. I have a feeling that traces of it seeped into my dream last night though...

I was back in college (again), and the school year was just starting. I had kind of a peculiar living situation, you might say. I lived in a dorm room with seven other people. Our beds were precariously lofted and all conjoined to create one strangely shaped sleeping area... and virtually no personal space. We had been getting situated (my seven roommates and I), and then we heard of some sort of dangerous toxic mass in the hallway on the way to the dining hall. Yeah, it was kind of creepy, but we had trains that ran on tracks through the hallways, so we didn't think it would be too big of a deal. We got on the train, and looked out the windows, curiously, from the safety of our airtight train cars. It looked almost like the scene below the now abandoned stop under the World Trade Centers. Eerie, suddenly abandoned but dusty and dirty. Then, to our horror, the train started slowing down in the middle of this disaster zone. Everyone shielded their faces in desperation to stop the harmful vapors from getting in, but the doors opened. We were all exposed. I struggled, trying not to breathe. Maybe if I didn't breathe, I wouldn't take in the fumes, and everything would be ok. The doors closed and the train rattled down the track. Later, when I went back to my room, no one else was there. But the school was trying to keep the whole thing a secret. Their reputation was already in question. They didn't want to rock the boat (especially after that embarrassing Swine Flu outbreak). I looked outside my window. Students seemed to be going about their business as usual, cavorting across the quad, unknowingly walking right toward the disaster zone...