Escape

My twin sister is trying to kill me. It doesn’t matter that I have no sister, much less one that is a twin. In my dream we wear identical grass green knit sweaters with wedgewood blue knit, above-the-knee skirts and blue tights. The sweaters are belted with a red belt and we have matching yellow headbands. Our hair is black and shoulder length, which matches our black suede knee-high boots. If you can’t already tell, we look somewhat cartoonish.

On this day I am speaking at a large conference. In the middle of my speech my twin turns into Spiderwoman and leaps onto a wall on the left side of the auditorium. Crouched with a silver knife in her teeth she is ready to leap onto the stage. I run backstage, knowing that to save my life I have to change my appearance. I sit offstage as I take off the boots, tights and headband, and put on dark brown hiking boots. I add a dark brown leather vest and headband, and wrap matching leather shoe laces around my wrists and above my ankle-high boots. There is a strong sense of urgency in this; I must escape.

I am not sure why I remember the clothing in such detail, but I do. Just as I finish changing, the backstage manager touches my shoulder and nods toward the exit. I know I must leave now; my life depends on it. I run out the door and decide to head to my house. I will feel safe there. I run and run and am becoming exhausted when I finally see my house in the distance. To be sure it is safe, I approach by leaping over the fences in my neighbors’ back yards. When I am finally in my backyard I bend over and gasp for air.

When I can stand I notice a small, two-seat propeller airplane parked in my backyard. Even though I have never noticed it before, I realize the plane has been there for years. I instinctively know it is not capable of flying and even it it was, it is trapped by all the neighbors’ fences. Inside the plane Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash are writing a song. I approach to ask if I can hide in the plane, but Johnny Cash nods his head in the direction I have come from and I see my twin running my way, the knife clutched in her right hand.

I leap over other neighbors’ fences and zig zag through the neighborhood and into another neighborhood that I am not familiar with. In this neighborhood the homes are old and run-down. When I am once again exhausted I stop in someone's backyard. The home was once painted a light blueish-gray but the paint is now faded and peeling. The back porch is covered and has a cement floor. It is now dusk and there is a single light bulb lighting the area. The porch is tucked between two walls of the house, so only the side facing the backyard is open. In the middle of the porch is a large, white metal support pole. As I gasp for breath I notice Yo-Yo Ma, the acclaimed cello player, sitting on the left side of the porch. His cello is between his knees, and he is playing the most beautiful song I have ever heard. The song brings tears to my eyes and I am overcome with emotion. I don’t think he notices me. But then he nods at me and I look back to see my twin in hot pursuit. By now it is dark and I again begin to run.

At some point I realize I am not running away from my twin; I am running toward Colby. As soon as I realize that I wake up. Even though the dream could have been a nightmare, I am not frightened. Instead I am puzzled, and ponder it all day.