time warp

i was deciding to ride the bike portion of a triathlon. 12 miles. it might've been the danskin. i know a few people who are training for it right now. (maybe even as you read! at this very moment! running, biking, swimming!) anyway. i was wary of the running, but decided i could make the 12 mile ride. except for the fact that i had no padded bike shorts. i was worried that i'd end up in pain for days if i rode 12 miles in my jeans. then i remembered that i was also wearing spandex shorts. no padding, but no pain-inducing-seam either. i went to take off my jeans and just wear the shorts--but quickly realized i was wrong. no shorts. just blue underwear.

i walked over and was standing with a few men. a fourth man was there and, behind the back of one of the other men, he was lifting his hand menacingly. holding a blunt object. i tried to yell to warn the unsuspecting soon-to-be victim, but not in time. man #4 struck! but he didn't strike hard--he just knew the exact spot to hit to make the other guy crumble. i now remember watching this big, mean bully in 7th grade walk up to greg fischer, clunk him on the forehead with his forehead, and then i watched greg crumble. it was awful. the two remaining men suddenly appeared completely dumb. standing there slack-jawed. and they, too, fell at the hand of #4.

i hurried away, and found myself scurrying by a group of petrified trees--but they were alive and evil! like something from the wizard of oz. i kept moving past them quickly.

i came to the edge of what we were all standing on, and it was kind of like a giant boardwalk/platform. like at the jersey shore (home sweet home)--but ENORMOUS. way high off the ground. i decided to try to climb down under the boardwalky-thing to get away from the scary guy #4 and the menacing trees. it was hard for me to reach a beam to stand on. while i was hanging over the edge trying to get my footing, a giant monster easily scaled the left side of the boardwalk/platform. he was probably 4x as tall as me. i definitely needed to get away!

i managed to get my footing and scramble down the structure to the sand below. i waited for nightfall. right when the sun set a whole group of the trees ran out from under the structure into the night. i felt safer. i climbed back above to discover that 100 years had passed. while for me, underneath, it was only one day--up above it had been 100 years. all the people i had seen just hours before had lived whole lives and died. but i was still the same age.

i went back down below.

when i got down below again i found myself in a small living space. there was a woman there, about my age. she had a bird in a cage. i knew time was passing by soooo quickly up above, but for us it was just moving along as usual. i wondered which timeline the bird was on. i thought it was on the same timeline as 'up above'. i expected the bird to drop dead at any second, but it did not.

i went to walk out of the little apartment/house where the girl lived. everything felt intense and serious and epic. we kissed.