We wandered through the tented side streets in the city. Light emerald green canvases blocked out the sun from incubating the man-made tunnels. Stalls were pouring with novelty items all tinged with a hint of jade from the light reflecting off the tops. Despite the crowdedness, I could feel a light tingling cool breeze sneak its way into the tunnel, blowing a wisp of hair away from the nape of my neck.
Suddenly the ground started shaking. Wooden statues, framed paintings and glittering fabrics fell to the ground. Windows shattered. I looked around frantically and reached out for you but they grabbed us. I didn't know who or what they were but the next thing I knew, I was in a dark room.
It smelled musty – kind of like a damp bar. No one was watching me, so I wandered through the dark hallways wondering where I was. I entered a room that reminded me of a closed down lounge. There were neglected velvet sofas and dusty streams of light cut through heavy curtains. They were the kind of windows that I liked, from ceiling to the ground. I saw a crowd with their backs to me. A soft glow emitted from the gaps between their individual necks and elbow spaces. I walked over to satisfy my curiosity and saw this floating round object – it looked like...a coconut flare? Something wasn't right. My gut told me we weren't supposed to be looking at it. I turned away as quickly as I could and closed my eyes. Milliseconds later an explosion followed by a great white flash blinded me still. I heard people wailing, crying out in pain. My eyes took a few moments to readjust to the darkness. There were no limbs nor blood or guts splattered all over the place. The flash had just burned the corneas right out of their eyes. A man came over to me, screaming and grabbed onto my arms, “Are you okay? ARE YOU OK?” It was my father. Blood was dripping slowly down the side of his face from his bloodshot eyes. His naturally dark brown irises were now a faded gray; his pupils were mere dots. Tears welled up, “I'm fine...I'm...I'm fine...” I managed to stammer. What was he doing here and who would do such a thing?
I found an open balcony and strategically jumped over the railing – it was only one floor from the ground. That was the most Indiana Jones move I could muster. The landscape had changed dramatically from the street stalls. I was looking at mountains and mountains of dirt. Almost like the entire terrain had been bulldozed, kind of like red mountains on Mars from the movie Total Recall where Arnold and that woman almost suffocated to death. There were random alien sculptures and buildings erected on some of the mountain tops with symbols carefully dug into the soil. I maneuvered the uneven ground like character from Smash Brothers, jumping from block to block, but always looking around to make sure they weren't following me. Each jump was like a two storey fall, but I landed soundly on my feet. I saw a group of Koreans in a white, open roof sports car, just like the Speedracer car, riding up one of the dirt roads. I needed to get away, but I was an open target on a white car that clashed on the reddish brown dirt. Too dangerous. They looked like they were trying to escape too but did not they realize how out in the open they were? I pushed myself closer to ground, half crawling like a lizard as they drove past.
By now it had gotten dark, there was makeshift camp set up near this wooden building where the prisoners had been shuffled to. Where were you? Torches cast flickering shadows against the wall making it difficult to see if people were coming. I slunk behind one of the tents. It was amazing actually. In a matter of hours, I felt like I had traveled through time and was now snaking around a village in the 1700's. There were horse stables, mini dug wells and racks of drying animal hides. I heard a commotion coming from behind me. A balding heavyset viking-looking man was trying to escape from the prisoner conga line. I watched as he made a dash to the open balcony with his lady. The guard saw him and promptly yanked him back by the collar of his clothes as he tried to make a leap and threw him against the wall. I held my breath. The guard then proceeded to break the prisoner's arm. I thought he was going to rip it off and eat it. She was screaming in horror but that was immediately silenced when the guard brought his club to her head. Below there was another hustle going on. A man had just escaped from the shadows and scurried into one of the dark tents. There was a growl coming from the direction he had come from. A giant wolf the size of a full-grown tiger emerged from the black hole of an alleyway and lifted its nose to catch a whiff of his scent. I cursed the guy silently. I didn't want to be caught due to his ignorance! I listened as sound of galloping hooves traveled through the dark alleyway and nervously waited for guards to follow. There were two of them, hooded like Gregorian monks. My heart started racing, where was I going to hide? I scrambled away from the wall I was hiding at but gravity was against me and I stumbled to the ground. I snapped my head around to see one of the hooded monks running after me. I struggled to get back up but my legs were as heavy as lead. He came over and grabbed onto my leg and brought his finger to his lips in a shushing motion. I froze. Behind him the other guard had been knocked out. Who was he? He pulled back the hood to reveal a head of dirty blond hair and beautiful blue eyes. It was the prince. Roy. He too had been roughed up a bit, his face was dirty, his lip was busted. But...how did I know who he was?
“Come,” he instructed me and took my hand as we crept over to one of those “Old Master Cars”. He started the ignition and we drove slowly away from the prison.
What happens next? The chicken scrawl I jotted down from my dream:
I crawl through the tents, dirt hills with alien logos "welcoming statues"? See people driving with the speedracer car alone on mountains, through the crowded city, like Santana Row, 80s, ride through the street market, pass by rubble store, slowly rebuilding, hurrying through the crowded stalls in a car with Roy. Eating grilled edamame, ha gao (shrimp dumplings) and rice noodles, preparing for our escape. We are renegades. Two shiny black Porsches pull up. Is that our transport? I take a photo. We are now escaping/backpacking, will there be enough? It's just the 2 of us. Broken soil, dirt mountain landscapes become lush green, we have no more money. The family is weary, we are there to con them but grandpa's there to see us off...we're about to head out now....
No comments:
Post a Comment