But it felt so real!

This one time,  I was a college-age gal, and I was in my room at home, rifling through my dirty clothes looking for specific items.  I had an intramural basketball game and I needed my lucky t-shirt that had a recycling logo on the back, and of course my trusty gray sweat shorts who I think I adopted/thieved from my brother in Jr. High and had worn since (may they now rest in peace). 

In my room I was violently flinging clothes around until I found them, with food encrusted on them and put them on, because I was going to be the star! My team needed me! And this shirt worked best with the vest jerseys they handed out at each game.

My two sisters and my mother were all going with me, to watch, and we left my dad and brother Jon home.  We pulled out of the garage and paused in the middle of the driveway and got out, for some reason.

I felt compelled to look up into the sky and I saw that it had turned this deep menacing swirling purple, like an angry heavy purple cloud.  It was a color that the sky should never be.  And there it was.  I had no idea what my sisters or mother were doing. They hadn't noticed the sky but i stood transfixed.  Suddenly, in the skies above the house I saw movement, a flickering of a shape, and I blinked hard.  A camouflage form emerged, like it was made of purple smoke, and I realized it was an enormous, raging, and possibly confused dragon.  And it was hungry.  I knew that because I'd seen it with my eyes, i was the only one in danger and several times it dived at me, jaws open wide. I threw myself under the car and escaped, but only just.  This happened 2 or 3 times.  Finally my family was aware of my battle with the dragon and their connaisance immediately put them in danger of the dragon as well.  I kept a clear head and yelled at my sisters to jump in the car, which they did, in the front seat.  My mother and i were on either side of the car.  I on the left, and she on the right.  As the dragon's head curved around the car in search of me, I slithered around to the back and, again, threw myself underneath the car.  I rolled to the side where my mother was hiding and jumped in.  My mom stood, frozen, and I yelled at her to jump in too, which she did, narrowly escaping.

The dragon was distracted by something in the garage and walked in, at which point i lunged forward and pressed the button to close the garage door.  It closed, and though ravenous, the dragon was fortunately a bit feeble-minded, for it didn't manage to work out how to escape while the garage door slowly made its way to the ground.

We backed out of the driveway and made our way down the road, still aimed on going to my all-important intramural basketball game.  I used a cell phone to call my dad who was obliviously inside the house.

"Dad, whatever you do! DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, go out in the garage.  Some insane purple dragon from freakin' Lord of the Rings is trapped in there! And he's probably going to try to get out,"  I exclaimed, afraid, yet controlled.

"He sure sounds like it,"  was my dad's reply.

I said, "You and Jon need to get out of there. Go somewhere. Bring your phone, but get out of the house! I'm going to call the police."

And then my eyes flew open, my heart beating, my chest heaving, and I laughed in the dark at how completely I had believed this dream to be real life (yet impressed by my ability to take charge under pressure).

GO DREAMS.