The Dream

The Dream
These textbooks, so many words with no meaning to me at all. I’m in English class reading this story about some witch hunt. The Crucifix I think it’s called? Maybe The Crucible. Beats me, and this teacher is just talking. Her words are just bouncing around in my skull like someone just screamed in a cave. The words seem to be in another language.
“I’m so tired.” I think to myself.
I yawn and close my eyes … What am I doing on a coach. I look around this room that I’m in. the tattered wall paper with mold and mildew creeping out from the corners of the ceiling. The walls have this brownish yellow look to them, you can tell this room has been through hell. I look in front of me and there is a television on. But only that white static that you get when it’s not hooked up to the cable yet. So I go to turn it off because the sound is irritating me, I get up to go press the button, but as soon as my finger was on the button, an image comes up. A man, with gray hair on the sides of his head but bald on the top with a lab coat on was staring into the screen as if he knew what I was doing. He coughs a little to clear his throat and he says “Hello my young sir, I am Professor Seymour.” I look at the television in astonishment, I stare for about 10 seconds
“Are … Are you talking to … me?”
He looks at me with a confused face and replies “Why who else would I be talking to?”
I sit back down wondering where I am.
“You are in a dream” He says with a smile on his face as big as if he had won the lottery.
I stare at him and say “How do you know what I was in my head?” He takes off his glasses and says “That’s simple. I am part of your head.”
Confused even more than I have before, I start to ponder these questions in my head and he says “This is a dream. I am part of your subconscious. We needed to talk to you and we had no other way to get to you other than putting you to sleep in class because, well, we are your SUBconcious.”
“What are you talking about? What do you need to talk to me about and why didn’t you just do this at a different time. Like when it’s time for me to go to sleep!”
He chuckles and says
“We needed to get in touch with you one way or another. And the only way we could is to have you sleep. Don’t worry though you are in a deep sleep. The brain obtains more information while in a deep sleep. So you will not be confused at all when the teacher asks you a question. And you will be up by the time class is over, don’t worry.”
He smiles as if it is a dandy moment going on right now just as I was about to yell he says
“We brought you here today in this, well, living room because you need help, you have been trying to tell yourself this for a while but you are ignoring yourself, all of this is just a manifestation of what you feel inside, your subconscious if projecting your, self-perpetuated emotions and condensed them in to this room you are sitting in now. This dingy, dead room.”
I look at him and say
“How did I just understand everything you just said?”
“Ahhh … you underestimate your own intelligence my young sir, you have a very vast vocabulary, but you neglect to utilize it correctly and learn to have it help you in the future, for the solemn fact that you are afraid of being called the one thing that you make fun of the most .. A nerd”
I stare at him not knowing what to say at that point, because everything he was saying was true.
“You will be put through a series of tests, these tests will help you find yourself and help you better understand who you are and what you want to be in your life. They will test your strength, smarts, courage and your heart. None of these tests will be easy for you but you will pass them all if you are serious about actually waking up, see the key to this is, if you do not pass the test you will be stuck until you do, You will have to look for little innuendos throughout these tests each one will be different so you need to pay attention. If you do not, you will be asleep. Forever.”
I stare at him in terror and scream “WHAT DO YOU MEAN STAY ASLEEP FOREVER!”
He looks at me; in the most serious face he has given me thus far and says “your first test is courage. Goodbye.”
As soon as he says goodbye, the ceiling opens up and I go zooming in the air at about 300 mph. I look to my left and realize the worst thing possible is about to happen. A huge airplane was headed towards me and at the angle I was going the collision was inevitable. I start to cry in realization that my life was going to be finished. And right when I was a couple feet away from the plane. I manage to pass it by inches I sighed with relief and felt my pants to see if I had peed on myself at all, I didn’t, good. Not to long after that I look up and the sky is slowly starting to go from blue to black. Right then I realize what is about to happen. I am going to space.

“Who knew that space was ganna be this boring.” I think to myself as I am zooming past the stars entering galaxies and exiting them as fast I am entering.
“Where am I going?”
I try and figure out where I am going for a while and after about 5 minutes of me doing so I see me getting closer to an oddly colored round thing. And as I get closer this thing gets bigger and bigger as I begin to get closer and closer. I see it vaguely and I realize, this is a planet. It’s bigger than any planet I’ve ever seen. And after a while I feel like something is pulling on my chest it gets stronger and stronger and stronger and it feels like my ribs are going break at any second, I’m being pulled in by the gravitational pull of this planet and it’s like nothing I have ever felt in my life I start to see fire gathering around me. But for some reason it doesn’t burn and it’s a purplish-green color.
“What is this?!”
I look down and I see nothing but green and as I get closer I see it is the ocean. But this was no ordinary ocean, it was of a glowing green, like a neon green, almost in the same resemblance as nuclear waste you see on the T.V that’s oozing out of those factories into a lake. But this ocean has been completely contaminated with it. About 10 minutes more of me freefalling I splash into the water and on the way down it’s like the water slows me down, like a cushion absorbs the impact of something from hitting the floor hard. After a while of me floating down I eventually hit the bottom with no more than a thud on the sand. I stand up and it looks like something that you would only see in a movie. Sand dunes as higher than those in the Sahara Desert and sea weed that looks just like palm trees and are as tall as the red wood trees in California.
“Wait I’m in the ocean!”
I start to panic and jump up to try and swim to the top before I drown. Until I realize something, I can breathe in this water and I sit there and think.
“How is it that everything I thought was impossible, is coming true right before my eyes, I’m breathing under water right now. If I was doing this at home, I’d be dead.”
These thoughts cause me to sit down and just inhale … water. After about 10 minutes of me taking deep breaths still in disbelief it’s water I’m breathing, I get up and walk around. I don’t have a clue as to where I’m going, but it feels like I’m going the right way. As I walk up these steep sand dunes it feels like I’m weightless, well because in water, you are pretty much weightless. I look around to see where I’m going and I see these fish, the most exotic fish I have ever seen in my life. Some neon orange, some have green and purple stripes with one eye, some are completely see-through and the only way you can see them is one they are in your face where you can see their huge teeth in your face. “This is insane.” I say to myself as I am nearing the top of the 5th dune I have climbed over. But once I get to the top I look down ready to see more of the seemingly endless dunes but to my surprise there is a city. The most colorful city I have ever seen in my life the buildings with bright neon advertisement signs. It reminds me of back on earth at Time Square in New York City. So I walk down fascinated with these sights my eyes are capturing that they can’t seem to stop staring at. I get closer to the city and, smack, I hit something but I cant see anything in front of me except for the buildings but I can see those and I doubt I’d run into one, what is this thing? I rub the pain off of my face and then I search this invisible wall. It was like I was a mime trying to get through the imaginary wall I set up for the people on the other side. I look through and I see there are these insanely deformed creatures on the other side that oddly looked pretty much the same as the fish I saw walking over here, looking at me as if I was some type of outsider. Like I was the alien to them, I felt weird because people started to gather and take pictures and record me trying to get into the city. Until finally I’m guessing they were the police came and made the people disperse. They get some type of card out and swipe it on the wall and I stand there not knowing what they just did until one of them yelled.
“Hey, Dumbass are you ganna come in, or do you want me to close the wall again and leave you here for good.”
I stare at him in awe just because he spoke to me in English. A language I was definitely not expecting to come out of his mouth.
“Hello, do you no speako englishoh? well I guess imma just close it th--“
“NO NONO” I quickly interrupted him before he finished his sentence and ran in.
I look around at the buildings, taller than I have ever seen in my life. Even the telephone poles were taller than most of the buildings you would see in a city on earth “What is this place?” I ask one of the officers he looks at me like I was stupid and says “Where are you from where you don’t know about New York City?” I look at him like he just told I won the lottery “Close your mouth, you’ll catch flies.” I close my mouth and say “So we are on earth right now?”
he looks at me with the most annoyed look I’ve ever seen someone give me and says “Sir, are you on some type of drug are you not aware of the nuclear war that we had 10 years back that changed the whole geographical set up of the planet? You’re the only person I’ve seen with regular skin in about 10 years. I’m sure you have heard of the war though. You must be on some type of illegal narcotics.”
He goes to his walkie talkie and says “We have a possible ten-forty please send back up.”
I look at him and ask “What does that mean?”
“Some of my partners are coming to bring you in for suspected possession of illegal narcotics and possible substance abuse.” He tells me without even glancing at me.
It takes me a while until I notice he got his handcuffs out and comes behind me to put them on. As soon as he grabs my arm with his nasty tentacle filled hands I swing away and punch him in the throat and run as fast I can down the street.
After he recuperated from the throat punch he yells “SOMEONE STOP HIM!”
Everyone in the street then stares at me and starts to walk towards me, walking then turns to speed walking, speed walking turns to jogs, jogging turns to running and running turns into full on sprinting. I stare petrified at the sight of 200 or more people chasing me. I then start running and quickly cut into an alley way in attempts to beat them out the other side but as I get about half way through, people start to fill the other side of the alley and start running down. I look to my left and right and see there are people coming after me from each way. I look up and see a fire escape ladder above me. I have no time to think I jump up and grab the ladder and climb up to the stairs I look down and see the people fighting to get up the ladder like they were fighting for a space in line to kill me.
I run up to the top of the building and I see a table. There’s this amulet looking object on it. I pick it up and it opens up letting a blinding light into my eyes. I cringe at the sight of the light but when I open my eyes up and look at myself. I am wearing this armor. A gold-ish armor and I have this overwhelming sense of courage and as soon as I feel this, people get to the top of the building. They all surround me and stand there staring at me as if they are waiting for me to surrender.
But instead I think to myself “What would Batman say?”
So I say the thing that comes instantly to my mind …
“You people wanna mess with me? OH-no you’re messing with the wrong person today … Come at me.”
I laugh and think “Batman would not say that.”
When I think this they all come at me at the same time and I get ready. It’s a frenzy of punches and kicks. People throwing punches at me, I dodge them and deliver with a blow that knocks them clear off the roof. And all of a sudden I get a serious hit to the head and I fall down. It only takes them a couple of seconds to jump on me in attempts to crush me but just like in the movies I explode up and scatter them all off of me. By then there was only a few left and I say “Is that all you got?” knowing I was exhausted. But you know, I got to be bad ass. They all come at me and I fight them like Jackie Chan … or Bruce Lee … Or Jet Lee. You get the point. Someone good at fighting, it doesn’t take me long to beat them. And as I throw the last punch, I see out of the corner of my eyes. The amulet that I had picked up earlier was floating in the air with this iridescent glow coming from it. Now with the last guy down I go and grab the amulet and once I do that, the building I’m on starts to crumble from under my feet and I notice. I don’t have the armor on anymore. I scream and everything goes black.

“You can do this son, you only have 3 more rounds left and I’m pretty sure you are ahead by a little, you just need to punch it and work your way out, if you don’t give your all for the next 9 minutes, you will not win.”
I feel a cool liquid pour into my mouth, most likely water, because it had no taste. I spit it out into what sounded like a metal or tin bucket. I still don’t know what’s going on my eyes are completely closed and I’m trying to open them, my muscles feel like a fire is going on underneath my skin. I try with all of my strength to open my eyes and when I finally do. I see what’s going on. The lights flashing from the cameras of the photographers in the front row and the blinding lights coming from the ceiling making it feel like I’m cooking, the man across from me with both of his eyes almost closed shut due to the swelling. He’s one of the biggest men I have ever seen in my life, easily a foot taller than me, muscles built more than that of a body builder and arms the size of my head with probably a 5 inch reach on me.
“It looks like I’ve been holding my own before I “got here”.” I thought to myself as I breathe.
It feels like I’m going to fall down and just lie and not get back up at any second. I fight to keep myself up. I’m breathing because I feel this is the only thing that will keep me up.
”DING DING DING.” The bell rings and I know what that means.
I have to fight my way out of here. The man comes over to me and all I can do is move away, I am not ready for this right now. He speeds up and I try to move back faster, but I can’t. He swings I barely see it coming but I duck and jump out to my right. I keep my feet alive because I know that’s the only way I can stay up. If this guy hits me. It’s over. He huffs as if he was a boar who is mad he didn’t catch its prey. He turns around and stares at me. The look in his eye, the look of anger and hatred, I’ve never seen this in my life and to be quite honest it chills me to the bone. He comes at me again with anger and spite in every small step he takes, I don’t move though, I want to move, but I can’t. He swings with a right hook I duck and move to my left and something took over me. I hit him 2 times in the ribs and give him a right hook to the nose and finally my feet decide to move. The crowd cheers as if their favorite team won the super bowl.
“How did I just do that?”
The bell rings and my trainer motions me over while pulling out the stool to sit on.
I sit down and he yells “That was great kid, that combo gave you a big advantage, he’s tired, you need to drive now. You go on the offensive now, Are you tired?”
I look at him and say “NO, not yet, Not until this is done.”
He looks at me and smiles as he puts the Vaseline on my eyebrow to close up the gash I had.
“That’s what I like to hear, if you got the HEART then you win the fight.”
Wait he said HEART. This is what I need to do to get out of here. I need to fight this out. The bell rings and as soon as it does, a fire burns in my heart and I feel it. I’m going to win this. He comes towards me and throws a punch to my ribs. AHH! It connects. All the air I had in my body is now gone. Bam, Bam! He hits me on the jaw twice, the momentum of his left bringing me crashing into his right hand. I stumble and almost fall but I manage to get my feet under me. Rage builds inside me,
“This is it.” I tell myself.
I go up to this man and I deliver punches to the body that make me feel the pain and after about 4 of them I back up and uppercut. With all of my strength I deliver the most brutal hit I could have done, his head flies up and it’s like slow motion. I see the concoction of spit and blood fly out of his mouth and he falls to the floor. The referee comes and pushes me back. He stands over the man starts the count.
“1…2…3…4…5”
the seconds feel like minutes and I feel like if this referee doesn’t hurry up he’s going to get up, that was all I had, I don’t think I could go for any longer
“6…7…8…”
Wait... He’s not getting up.
“9…10!! It’s over”
I’m in awe. My trainer comes on the ring and lifts me. Everyone cheering and some crying.
“YEESSS!!” I scream with the most fulfilling sense of accomplishment.
The photographers come in and start flashing pictures. Then a reporter comes up. She is beautiful. Brown hair flowing down her back, perfect lipstick to match her sun kissed skin, she has beautiful figure, like a model really, 4 inch heels on and her eyes, the greenest most beautiful eyes I have ever seen in my life. I think my jaw dropped when she came in.
She comes up to me and says “Wilfredo Rivera, you just won the welterweight world championships, how do you feel?”
I look at her in her green eyes and say “It’s the most amazing feeling in the world, It wasn’t easy at all, but when it came down to it, I had to just get in that mindset and really just get the rhythm and trust that my heart and God would help me through this.”
She looked at me and smiled. “Well there you have it people, the new welterweight champion of the world. Wilfredo Rivera, he had the heart and it got him through this.” I hear those words and pound on my chest celebrating my victory. I look up at the lights and everything goes white.

“Honey, Wake up, why are you sleeping at a family event, you lazy bum.”
I open my eyes to a familiar face. It’s the girl from the boxing match, the beautiful reporter,
“What happened?”
I open my eyes to the blinding sun and sit up; it looks like I’m in a park having some type of picnic.
“The kids want to play with you, now stop sleeping and being so boring, and go play with them.”
I look into her same green eyes and frown a little
“That was a good sleep, can’t the kids wait?” I say in an almost whiny tone.
She looks at me with disappointment “Not unless you want to sleep on the couch tonight.”
I laugh and get up.
“By the way Sammy, how are we getting home again?” I ask in confusion
She looks at me like I’m stupid. “The train, what did you catch amnesia from the sleep you had too? Bozo.”
I laugh mockingly and say “You’re not funny.”
She smiles and says “Love You”

“Yeah Yeah. Whatever. Love you too” I say without turning around.
I head over to the kids and play with them for about 30 minutes. I head back to the blanket and sit down with my beautiful reporter wife
and say.

“So what do you think they are going to want for Christmas?”

“It’s summer, how do I know.” She says
I laugh and say “You’re right, they change their mind with every toy commercial they see in T.V.”

“I wonder who they get it from, you want every tool appliance you see on T.V too” she says sarcasticly

I look at her with a straight face “Cuz’ I’m a man hun, you should know this by now, I need to fix stuff, like that hole our son put in the wall with his head, how does someone do that?”
We both laugh “They are our children.” She says

“Yeah, we gotta love em’.”

“Just imagine how they’re ganna be in college too.”
She covers her face “Don’t even get me thinking about that.” She says into her palms.

“Kids! Come and eat!” she yells.
Almost instantly all 3 of them come as fast as they could and storm the basket.

“You better leave some for me and Mommy.” I say.

“I want a Big Mac.” Says the second oldest, Tony.
Pretty soon after the other two, Carlos and Samantha agree with their brother

“Well, you got Big Mac money?” I ask him in a tone that would usually prove him wrong

“Yes” he says staring at me blankly

“Oh … well you’re still not getting any McDonalds” I say aggravated that my son just proved me wrong.
“I wanna go to a rock concert. And ROCK OUT!!” screamed Samantha.

“Stop screaming, it’s not that serious.” Her mother says.
I laugh and look to my left to be greeted with the sight of the oldest, Carlos eating yogurt out of the cup with his tongue only.

“Hey!! Get a spoon, stop eating like a damn animal.” I yell.

“OWWWWW, Daddy said a bad word.” They all say in unison

Samantha, my wife looks at me and punches my arm “Stop cussing!”

I look at her and just... do... nothing. I’m quiet now due to the sense of emasculation I feel. And I eat my sandwich.
“Can we go home soon, the Giants are ganna be on. We can all watch it, since it’s OUR favorite team.”

My wife looks at me and says. “No they’re YOUR favorite team, no one else.”

I look at Carlos for help and he nods and yells “I LOVE THE GIANTS!!” at the top of his lungs

I laugh, “See, Carlos likes them too.”

My wife looks at me and says “We aren’t leaving”

“Whatever.” I say with a frown
I lie down and start to dose off and everything goes dark …

“So class, what do you think is the reasoning for Abby to accuse Tituba of being a witch?”
I’m awake.

“Wilfredo? What do you think since you know everything enough to fall asleep?”
I look at her still not lucid and aware of whether this is a dream or not.

“She did this to reserve her uncle’s image in town and to differ the attention from her for doing witchcraft in the town that would execute her as punishment.”

She stares at me in disbelief and says “Well … Okay … Good.”

The bell rings and I leave class. Still thinking about what just happened all the things I just went through that nobody would know about except for me, and if I did tell someone, they probably wouldn’t believe me. My mind actually helped me want to be a better person. I am going to change from here on, for the better. I’m in control of my own life and with the lessons my subconscious taught me, it’ll all work out in the end. It’s just a matter of time.

I’m starting to walk around the corner to get to my third period class.

“Oh I’m sorry.” I say as I kneel down to help a girl whose books and papers went flying all over the floor when I bumped into her.

“Geez man, why can’t you just pay attention to where you’re going?!” She says very angrily

“I didn’t see you, and I said I’m sorry, so chill out.”

She looks at me and says “You’re right, I’m sorry, I just need to get to class, see I’m new and I don’t know where I’m going.”
I look up. Her eyes. I know them from somewhere.

“What’s your name?” I ask in anticipation wondering if it’s her. She takes a while to look up at me as she is sorting her papers.
She looks up at me parting her hair from her eyes and says

“Samantha, my name is Samantha, and you?”

I stare at her and she says

“What are you staring at me for?”

I shake my head to clear my mind

“Wilfredo, I’m Wilfredo, And I’ll help you find your class. I’ve been here for a while.”

She chuckles and says “Thank you.”

And we make our way down the hallway
.
Wilfredo Rivera