Dream, 09/02/02

I met some people somewhere, three women and a man I thought very attractive. His hair was silk-soft. I sat next to him and played with it. It was a shopping center? A business complex? On waking, the closest thing I can compare it to is some of the indoor areas in Minneapolis, all glass, brass railings, and escalators. Good restaurants a few steps from an investment banker, human-sized angels dangling from the ceiling, jumping fountains with lazer lights, tourists, suits, and wild kids walking around with rollerblades dangling from their shoulders all mixed together, wandering the Skyway and collecting in places like these. If you know Minneapolis, the place I’m thinking of is the center with the Au Bon Pain in it, or used to be in it.

One of the women with us (she had strawberry blond hair, freckles, was about 6′ 4″ and built like a basketball player…in fact, I remember now who she reminded me of, a girl a couple of years younger than me in high school, in fact a big basketball nut, with the kind of character that makes you doubt she ever had a bad day off-court. Big smile, always genuine). She started crying and ran off. I got up and followed her.

“What’s the problem?” someone asked, and I knew this girl was going to try to kill herself. Part of me asked myself why I should care, as she wasn’t a friend of mine, and I wanted to snuggle up with this guy, but that part of me wasn’t in charge of the legs.

The building, as I chased the girl (and after a few seconds, everyone else at the table got up and followed), was coming apart. Not in bad condition, but literally coming apart. Drifting. Stairways, escalators, chunks of things would snap, float away, or bounce around, crushing metal and shattering glass.

I chased and chased after this girl, calling her name (I can’t remember the name I called her now). When I finally did catch up with her, she’d put her head under one of the loose escalators. She was waiting for it to come back down and crush her head.

I yanked her out of the way and screamed at her, “You could have been hurt!” Not the brightest thing to say to a potential suicide, but I was pissed.

She just sobbed. I led her away from the worst of the mess. The guy said something, but I ignored him.