Last night was such a dream. It was pretty simple, actually, but so rich in detail and realism that I don't think it's going to be a dream that I'll ever forget. Much like the first recurring nightmares I had as a kid, this one's going to be burned into my head forever. It started simple enough. My parents are out on vacation, and I just stopped by the house to take all the newspapers in and the mail. I thought I heard something while upstairs, coming from the back of the house, where my parents' room is. I walk down the hallway, and just as I get to the end of it a little brown snake, no more than ten inches in length, scurried across my path from the television room to the right of me into my parents' room to the left. I turn into mom and dad's room as quickly as I could to see where it went, and I was just in time to see the end of its tail slide under the bed. I quickly drop to all fours and see that he's in the middle of the completely empty space beneath the bed, pretty much just looking at me. For whatever reason, I had a piece of cheese. Dream-logic suggested that if cheese is enough to bait mice out of hiding, it might work for little brown snakes. I dropped a small piece of cheese about two feet away from the bed, and stood nearby ready to stomp on whatever would decide to take a chance. The snake came out, slowly, and maintained a steady pace all the way to the cheese. It was brown with three equal rows of evenly spaced white dots running down it's length. It's mid section was a little swollen, as if it's already had a little snack just a short while earlier that it's still trying to digest. As soon as it wrapped itself, and eventually its mouth, around the bait I stepped on it, confident that my weight alone would be sufficient to crush the animal. Instead, it was like stepping on a garden hose full of water. I was able to pin it, stop it, hold it in place, but as for crushing power I came up short. I knelt down so my head was about waist high - I wanted a good look at the snake but I wanted to keep my distance as well, and I rolled my foot back on its heel to see if I had indeed won or lost this miniscule battle. The instant it was free, and most definitely unharmed, the snake (cheese in mouth) made a mad dash for my mother's closet. The door to the closet was closed, but there was enough clearance between the bottom of the door and the floor for my miniature nemesis to pass. In pursuit, and with Dream-quick reflexes, I threw the door open almost as soon as the little snake slithered under it. I opened just in time to see it move behind what I still believe to be its parent. And there I was. Petrified. My innocent pursuit to rid my parents' house of vermin was shocked completely, and I was now standing in complete fear. In my mother's closet there was coil upon coil of snake. One snake. A snake at least over a foot in width, coiled upon itself to appear as if standing in a column so it could fit in the closet. The skin was scaly and somewhat damp, moving as if breathing and constantly trying to adjust itself for comfort. The closet was packed, and all of my mother's belongings were pressed against the surrounding closet walls to make space for this animal. The pile that was this one snake was taller than me, and in full length only G-d knows how massive this beast could be. Frozen in place, my eyes full wide, I was in even more horror when from the top of the closet, and from the top of the coils, came down the massive head. Hovering in front of me, supported by its terrific neck, the head, the face of this massive and hideous snake, a scaled up duplicate of the little snake I tried to kill earlier, leaned in as if to smell me. Its forked tongue flicked about, touching my chest, shoulders, neck and face in quick, sharp, fast, whip-like movements. Its eyes never losing focus of mine, the head moved away and the mouth seemed to form into a smile. Then, as if originated from deep within its body, the snake's booming voice in a tone that matched its horribly evil grin bellowed, "Benjamin!" Upon hearing my name I was set free of my until then frozen and horrified stance, and I slammed the door shut just as the head of this beast was about to lunge at me. The door shut before the head could strike, for I knew at that moment that the snake had every intention of eating me. Just as I was about to exit my parents' room, the wood closet door buckled from the power of a large 'boom' coming from the inside. The front of the door splintered outward, allowing small diamonds of light to seep through cracks where smaller bits of wood used to be. The lights caught my attention just for a short while as they flickered on and off, but as soon as I realized that the flickering was caused by something moving on the other side, I picked up pace again. Another 'boom', but this time the 'boom' was crowned with more crackling, more sound of wood stressing under enormous weight, more sounds of splinters, bigger splinter, landing on all the different surfaces of furniture, floor, and bedding in the room. I was now the one being pursued by a titan of a snake that knew my name. I've never known such horror. And then I woke up. Sometimes when I have a dream that powerful, or a recurring dream, I like to try and read some of those books written by brilliant psychiatrists somewhere that try to define what dreams mean. Thus far I've read two philosophies to snake oriented dreams. One point of view suggested that a dream about snakes meant that I would soon come into money. That's just great, but after waking up at three thirty in the morning and lying frozen in bed for nearly two hours after that the last thing I need is a fortune cookie. The second point of view (well, the other dream book I have) wasn't a point of view at all, but merely the recounting of one man's dream about going to the urinal in a men's room to relieve himself only to have his penis turn into a snake right before his eyes and try to drink the dirty water. I learned as much from this observation as I did from the first, but at least it was funny. So, what the hell does this mean? I have no idea. What do I know? I know that for the first time in an incredibly long time, I was scared out of my mind. Given the long history of bizarre dreams that I've had, and still have, it's actually quite shocking that my mind was finally able to come up with something that could scare me witless. |
