Friday night I got to bed at a reasonable time. Well, OK, Midnight. But as weekends go Midnight is a reasonable time for my noggin to enter shutdown mode.
I woke sometime in the morning coming out of a most incredible dream. Now, I am not one to cotton to much into the reading of tea leaves, palms, or dreams, but I figured this one was worthy of sharing.
Imagine a pre-apocalyptic world. Things are going well, but stuff is just not quite right. Society seems to be in decay, folks are on edge, and everything has this gray oppressive sheen to it. This was the starting point of my dream. I am in a music store in a mall messing around with an electric bass.
In the real world I taught myself enough electric bass to truly suck. I can do a scale for the most part, and given enough time can learn a song well enough to get bye. I do not consider myself even competent on the instrument. But in this dream I can play! And when I say “play” I mean think of all the greats: Yo-Yo Ma, Charlie Daniels, Santana, Chopin… I was as good on the bass as they were on their respective instruments.
I am giving the bass a workout. Running through a number of jazz patterns, playing classic Bon Jovi, when I hear some commotion from outside the store front. The sounds of crying and screaming. I look up and I see people running bye the glass front of the shop, all in the same direction. A young lady falls in front of the music shop door. As she is propping herself up on her hands and knees to get back to her feet a shadow falls on top of her and consumes her.
When I was a teenager I stumbled on the Spellsinger series of books written by Alan Dean Foster. In this dream I think about that series and realized that I have a strong power in my hands. *Que up the Jack Black voice over.* Music is power. I am no longer holding a mundane electric bass. I am wielding an instrument of POWER!!
The shadows flow outside the storefront like a wave of ink. Darkness starts to seep under and around the metal framed glass doors. I face the blackness that is flowing towards me and start banging out a slow riff. The edge of the shadows pulse with every note, a wave radiating outward along its edge as I hammer each string. The bass emits a low glow which slowly builds in brightness until I am standing in a sphere of mood light surrounded by shadow.
I did not go shopping alone. Kay, Eli, and I went shopping together. If Kay is in a music shop there is one place she will go. Drums are the star at the center of Kay’s musical solar system. She and Eli headed back to the drum section as soon as we entered the store.
I was engulfed by the shadows. They writhed around and over the sphere created by the guttural thumping of the bass in my hands. I realized that Kay and Eli would be in trouble and immediately turned to go to them. As I started to turn I almost tripped over the instrument cable. It took only a moment of reflection before I did what seemed natural and plucked the cable from the jack on the bass. The sphere of low light around me wobbled for a moment until I was able to get the riff going again, at which point the sphere seemed to harden once more, the darkness kept at bay. It seemed that my will through the instrument, and not its sound were what was needed.
Concerned for the well being of my wife and child I made my way toward the drum section. Having taken only a couple steps I hear the staccato of drums followed by a feeling of relief. Kay had found her power. Shortly after I am standing in front of Kay sitting behind a set of Pearls. She is providing a solid beat which the darkness has no ability to overcome. We both glance at each other with an initial look of hope that the other has Eli with them. Neither of us do.
Kay steps from behind the drums clutching the drum sticks in one hand. Her lips are moving but I cannot hear a word she says. By the shrug of my shoulder and the quizzical look on my face she figures out that talking is out of the question in this dream world. The only things that matter are the shadows, the music, and finding our son. We make our way over to the marching band section and Kay straps on a snare. Once again she gives a rhythm that I can follow, and our sphere of light increases in brightness and volume.
Over the last couple of days Eli has started watching the Nickelodeon animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” with me. He enjoys pretending being different kinds of “benders”, doing a pretty impressive job of imitating what he sees. I think martial arts classes are in his near future.
Kay and I methodically make our way through the store looking for Eli. At one point while looking around I stumble and stop playing. Kay reaches out to try and steady me which also stops her playing. The bubble of light around us goes out with an audible “snap” and we are plunged into darkness. I am thrown from my feet as I feel the shadows crawling over my skin. I attempt to take a breath but cannot seem to get any air. I start to panic. Then I hear the drum start back up and the darkness lightens just a bit. I am able to suck in the thinnest of air. I also hear something besides Kays halting attempts to get a beat going. A whining noise that turns into the sound of an electric lambent comes from our left. The noise intensifies swiftly. Suddenly the darkness splits.
Eli, like a sun falling from the heavens, lands beside us with an electric guitar clutched in his hands. A wailing noise emanates from the instrument which Eli quickly turns into a guitar solo. The darkness washes back over us, but once again encounters a sphere of light and power. Kay and I make it back to our feet and resume playing. The music we are making is powerful and true. The shadows cannot resist.
No hallucinogenics were used in the making of this dream.
