As usual, if I dream, it’s a nightmare that sticks with me into the morning, leaving my body cramped from running and flinching.
Last night I dreamt that I was in my last 48 hours of death row, constantly flashing back to the incident that had gotten me there. The prison was a strange one, a friend of mine was the warden (friend in real Life, in the dream we’d become friends during my time in prison) and the prison itself was sort of like a small town. Slightly idyllic, slightly boring, a field to wander, cardboard buildings, armed guards at the edges. I’d stumbled across a small satchel of tools that I thought was possibly left by a friend or another inmate and I’d hidden them under my thighs as I was talking to the warden on my second to last day. She was glad I was in good spirits and that I wasn’t causing any trouble, and I kept worrying as a dental pick or a file would slip from under my leg and I would skootch it back under.
Kristen was visiting and was constantly giving me suggestions of plans or theoretical routes, she was really desperate to give me hope – we wandered from place to place in the prison trying to appear innocent but she’d take any moment free from observation to whisper plans to me… Heather was also there but wasn’t as subtle, yelling from across the room “THIS would be a good spot to try using your FILE!!!!” or “MAYBE you could KNOCK OUT THIS GUARD HERE!!!!” leaving Kristen and I flinching and trying to laugh it off like we were all just kidding around.
I also kept having these weird flashbacks to the actual “murder”, where I’d been advancing on a house with two other friends who were trying to teach me the art of being invisible. A flood was coming from down the street and we were stealthily approaching this house – well, THEY were stealthily approaching – I was busily panicking, running into people who were running from the flood, I eventually tried to climb a big old stone wall to get above it all… but I ALSO kept flashing towards the version of events that had gotten me arrested, sneaking with the other two individuals into this person’s home and tearing them away from their refuge on the top floor, dragging them down into their yard and holding them under the waters as the river rose…
Weird dream. I woke up unable to move my left arm because it had cramped so badly from climbing or digging or filing or just being stressed out. S’no good. Gotta play today.
Despite horrible advertisement and the perhaps BECAUSE the rest of Montgomery County had had to cancel their fireworks displays (all the needed emergency personel that would’ve been on call for the shows were still deployed dealing with derecho aftermath) – we had a great turn out for the Takoma Park Independence Day celebration!
