pinball and a lucid world

December 5th 2008
[In color][Lucidity likely inspired by a conversation with Freddy directly before i fell asleep]
I was in a shopping mall with Freddy and we were watching this child play this pinball-like game, but instead of the pinball hitting flashing doodads and bumpers, the ball was bouncing off of basketballs. We watched as this child completed his game. At the end of the game, basketballs came rolling out of the machine - his prize. One by one, they rolled down giant metal rails - the kind of rails you often see in pinball machines. I helped the child and his family unload all of the basketballs they had earned. 10 in total. I thought to myself, and out loud to freddy, "god damn... $1.00 for 10 basketballs!??!" I told Freddy that we should play - it was too good of a deal to pass up. Apparently the child's dad was also astounded at how many basketballs his child had now won, and figured that he too should play so he could earn even more basketballs. Freddy and I decided to watch the man play. But now we realized that the game was in fact two games. The first game would decide how many balls you had in the pinball-like game in the next stage. The first stage was a giant, slanted board. High up, in the center, there was a main control panel where the player stood. Below the player, down the slant, and off to his sides, there were rows of spikes. Above the player, continuing up the slant, there were numerous holes, which, if hit, would decide how many balls you had for the next round of the basketball game. This game was played in three rounds, with three whiffle balls. The player used a series of controls in his center console to hit the whiffle ball up the slanted game board. We watched. The player was no longer the father of the winning child; the player was now Steve Bylsma. The family of the child who were gathered around were now friends of Freddy's or mine. Steve played his first ball - it went directly into one of the winning holes. We hooted and cheered. His second ball went straight into a row of spikes. He played his third ball, but it kept bouncing out of the machine. I kept tracking it down and throwing it back up to him, but still it would bounce out of the machine. Now, I kept throwing the ball to him, but it wouldn't reach him! The wind kept catching this incredibly light whiffle ball and pushing it back towards me. A timer sounded, warning Steve he was running out of time. Our friends yelled at me to just throw it up the board and hope it reaches a hole. So I threw it up, down the center, figuring that the ball would just roll back to Steve if it didn't reach a hole. It slowly rolled towards the hole! But everyone got really grave, very quickly. "Oh no" they proclaimed. What were they talking about?!? Wasn't this a good thing?? Suddenly I was standing at the top of the slant, staring directly down this hole, watching the whiffle ball bounce off the walls and roll towards the end. It reached the end of the hole and this big neon light started flashing on the outside of the game - "Zombie Attack!!!" I peered up over the sides of the machine were mechanical scythes were moving backwards and forwards - telling us it was game over. But these scythes were made of cherry pie. As the zombie army marched out of gates on the side, they were made of gummy bear stuff. GAME OVER. Suddenly me and all of my friends were outside in a fantastical looking world with giant trees, a sunset, and intense saturation. I looked at a girl that I could only identify as "one of freddy's friends" - she had now taken the place of Steve - I asked her "Shouldn't you be dead? You lost all of your lives." She told me she knew that - but we must be dreaming because she still had 64 points and 2 more lives. I looked down at her heads up display - it was true, she still had points and lives. Crazy! We were dreaming. I told everyone that we should go exploring - but everyone protested that they had to get out of here because they had other things to do. I jumped into the air and began to fly. I flew over to Freddy and begged him to stay with me in this world so we could explore - but he explained that he had this and that and this and that to do. So I flew around my group of people as they walked closer and closer to a giant house shaped like a skyscraper. When we reached the house I realized that it was Jessie's house. No one was home and everyone was trying to get in. So I told everyone to hold on and I flew up to the top floor of the house - where Jessie's bedroom was. Her window was cracked, so I pulled off her screen and flew into her window. I was on my way to run down the stairs to let everyone in, but then my eyes started to feel really dry and I kept blinking. I started worrying that I was going to lose lucidity in this dream because I was blinking so much - But it's okay! I know Jessie is addicted to eye drops, I will just go into her bathroom and use her eye drops. So I go into her bathroom and start searching through her drawers for eye drops. In one of the drawers I find two possessions of mine that I can't seem to find in the real world - my lucky coin and my passport. I stare at the possessions for a moment.

My phone beeps and buzzes. I am awake in Freddy's bed. I grab my phone. A text from Jessie. It's 2 PM. Wake up Sleepyhead.