DN9: July 17, 1985

TOW

Dreaming; Night of
July 17, 1985

7:22

₃I was with V in New Orleans. Much happened, forgotten. We entered a magical world and explored there. Else. Then the dream shifted. I was reading a book, although I was barely conscious of this, so caught up in it was I. A small boy was the hero. Apparently he had met this odd guy who had asked him, "If you had your choice, would you go down the stairs or up the elevator?" He had answered correctly, and the man had transported him to another world, then leaving him there. He had met this very nice, absentminded man who had taken him into his home, with his wife and daughter. This world was much less strict than the somewhat puritan world from which he came, and he enjoyed it very much. He stayed there for three months. Then one day, after failing to convince his "sister" that she should not chew tobacco, he realized that it was time to go home. His "mother" was of the bossy type and probably would not have wanted to let him go, so he said goodbye, making as if to go to some local place. Once outside, he saw his "father," whom he had developed a great fondness for (and vice versa). He said goodbye to him, through tears, and the man knew at once where he was going. He wished him well. Then his wife started to come out so the boy took off. He got to the street and was walking along it, looking for the man who'd brought him there. It was night now. One car passed him. Then another came up behind him, somewhat fuzzy, as if out of sync with the rest of the world. The boy instinctively knew what to do—he began running along the sidewalk in front of and to the right of the car. Gradually, he began running in what appeared to be slow motion, and, finally, the man in the car was able to pick him up and transport him back to his world, where only about twenty minutes had passed. A little else. Then the dream shifted. It was as if I had begun reading a different story in the same collection. Another boy, who was a younger friend of the first, had heard the story of the first. He went to a stairwell location which he felt would be suitable for a meeting with the strange man. Sure enough, a man who fit the description (tall, lean, darkhaired) came up to him and asked him if he would rather go up the elevator or down the stairs. For some reason, the man frightened him, but he answered that he would go down the stairs, since this was the answer that the man had accented in his speaking of the question. The man chuckled with glee, snatched up the small boy (and a small girl, who somehow got entangled in the plot) and took them to another world, which turned out to be a walled hell, a fiery pit into which he attempted to throw them. Then, at the crucial moment, the first boy showed up and, after a fearsome battle and effort, got his two friends away from the bad guy and returned them safely home. Oh yes, back in the first part, with V and I; I seemed to have been where I was before, and I was leading V there to show him. We passed through numerous lands and strangely occupied rooms, until we finally came to a tree of talking toads. Else and then we returned. (G)