I started writing this a couple of weeks ago, probably right around the time I got the second surgery on my hip.
I am staying at a low-rent motel just outside of town. The buildings are white, the parking lot is asphalt, there aren't too many cars there but there isn't any trash either. It's like all business. It's situated by the side of a four lane asphalt highway and has its own traffic light. The bulk of the property is about a quarter mile long and is separated from the highway by a field of grass about a hundred yards wide. There is a road with an office that connects the main area with the highway at the traffic light. I need to go into town which means turning left onto the highway, but evidently I don't want to wait for the light or maybe I got a wild hair to do a little exploring, so I drive my pickup truck across the field of grass. The grass is like straw and about a foot or two tall, so it's tall enough to cover any small bumps or holes. I drive slowly and it is a little bumpy, but not too bad. I pull up at the highway and there isn't much traffic, so I pull out and head into town.
A little while later I do it again, or maybe my recorder just replayed the earlier sequence. Then some things happen and I interact with some people and now I need to head into town again but this time I'm driving a little dark colored car. As I am driving across the parking lot I see a woman riding a bicycle. It's an old fashioned girls bike. She's wearing black and white clothes with white tennis shoes. There's some pink in there as well, maybe a scarf or maybe the bike.
I take the same route across the field, only it's not bumpy, but maybe this car has magic suspension - it rides like a dream, man. It's later in the day and traffic is much heavier, so it might take a while before there is an opening in the traffic that will allow me to pull out. Long before that happens a couple of cars have come to a stop with their left turn signals on. They are halfway off of the road. I'm thinking they want to pull in to where I am sitting, which is kind of weird because it's not like I am sitting any place special, they could turn in anywhere. At least I don't think it's anyplace special, maybe it is the only place where you can turn off the highway, so I turn right onto the shoulder so I will be out of their way. This doesn't improve the situation. The other two cars don't turn in and they don't pull off the road, rather they keep pace with me. I'm on the shoulder and they are still halfway on the highway.
I don't recall this situation being resolved. The next thing I know I'm driving down the highway into town and what do you know? I pass the woman on the bicycle.
In town, presumably, I am inside an old shopping mall. The first place I see is like an intersection between three or so wings. Most of the places look closed up, lots of blue walls, but its well kept, no trash to speak of, the floors are reasonably clean and the lights all work. I go into a section where there are a series of booths, like you might see in other countries, nothing like the fortress of commerce that fill our malls here. I go to a donut shop and buy a couple giant chocolate bars. They're big, twice as long, wide and thick as the ones you get at 7-11.
On my way out I go through the same intersection I came through on the way in. This time I stopped at a shelf that held a pile of mail. I picked up a handful of the mail and looked though it and found a letter addressed to Belinda. I put the pile of mail back down. Obviously Belinda is the name of the girl on the bicycle.
3 comments:
hmmm...what does the name Belinda mean to you? I've never known anyone personally with the name...left turn to the highway...you drive over the grass instead but later the other cars have their left turn signals on...strange stuff
Good to hear from you. I did know a girl named Belinda in high school, but she was the only one. One of those left's should have been a right, so I fixed it. Will that make it any less strange?
Naw, it's strange regardless as dreams are wont to be! I just reread it. Baffling of course. What was the high school Belinda like-- any associations with her...distinctive qualities...crush on her? bicycle? I still don't see a right turn mentioned here...hmmm. The black and white clothes, white tennis shoes...like before they became jogging shoes in latter seventies? The pink seems significant and the only visual impression of a color......scarf or bicycle? It was a little dark car but no color given and also none given for the pickup truck. (Not red, was it?)
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