Chapter Thirty Seven

In many offices and schools around this great country there are computers linked together to make a network. Right there on your desktop you can do whatever business you need to do and then, when necessary or bored, you can access the internet. That is unless you are in an office or school that has a squad of righteous geeks who have built their own, controlling, mutated, computer universe. If this is the case, you are no longer on the internet. You are on the intranet. When you dream, it is a world that is both controlled by you and yet uncontrollable. You confront ideas that exist somewhere in the realm of your memories and experiences. Sometimes what you experience during REM seems to be a learning experience in itself, but this is never the case. You are on your own closed circuit cable TV. You cannot read a book you've never read while sleeping. You may believe that you've met someone while in repose that you've never met before, but as Sigmund Freud was telling me yesterday, that person, once analyzed, will in fact be You, or your mother. At the time, he was arm wrestling with Carl Jung. Carl was saying that there are a number of things inside you that you may never see, in a dream or anywhere else because they are too painful for your conscious to deal with. Sigmund pinned him so hard I thought I heard a bone snap.

The point is that having your own dream can be quite an experience. Having someone else's dream can take that feeling of being out of control, and as Lynette said, multiply it by a jillion. My dream in that fantastic trailer was like riding the rail of a rollercoaster on a mini bike. Being asleep in Redneck Heaven was like leaving the intranet and hopping on to the internet in my head. It seemed innocent and silly at first, like walking into the blacklight poster room at a head shop. Just when I thought I was a stronger mind than Lynette is about time I found myself looking at the world through my navel. It was a hot poker up the ass of reality. I met people and creatures that never knew my Mother.

When I awoke to a warm bright sun casting beautiful shafts of light across my bed sheet I felt as if I could let time pass me by for now. I could sing a tribute to those souls that I would never meet but somehow knew them intimately for the rest of time. The silence in the room was deafening, nothing to be heard but the beating of my heart. As I lay there, wistful, reflective, satisfied, the door flew open with a loud bang. Lynette came traipsing in, naked to the waist, her ample chest waving in all directions. Dogs of all kinds ran around her, some jumping on the bed and licking my face, others running wildly about the room, barking and nipping at their playmates.

"Time to get in gear Chicken Bone!" She was waving a cigarette like a magic wand. "you have chores!"

"Could I just sleep a little more." I pleaded.

"Gets contagious! You need to get up and discover what death is really like!"She laughed at the humor of her own little pun.

"Why are you topless?"

"Oh good lord how sick is that? You are getting excited by your best, dead friend naked! They have names for people like you."

What would Carl Jung think about this? I'll ask him the next time we talk. She did jump into bed with me, along with a host of canines. She actually did jump, and between all the bouncing and barking it was apparent that my sleep portion of this journey had ended. I got out bed, showered and shaved and slipped on some very Hawaiian looking clothes. It felt pretty good.

"I got you a car of your own, a Mach 1, vintage. Let's play!" She fled the room. As I was trying to select some nice flip flops I heard a ringing. There was a cell phone in my pants. I plucked it out and answered. 'Marty here."

"Marty, it's Louis, are you alright?"

"Louis, it's so good to hear your voice...yes, I'm just terrific."

"Where are you? When are you coming home?"

"I'm not sure, but it will be alright, don't worry about me, I'm in great hands."

"Ok, should we call off the search?"

"By all means...and Louis, don't worry about your feelings for Lisa, it's alright."

"Thanks Marty, I know if the tables were turned...."

The thoughts of Louis' late wife Elizabeth gave me a shiver.

"Marty, how did you know?"

"Louis, did you see me float away on the backs of angels?"

"Yes. Yes I think I did."

"Then don't be a dumbass."

"You must be with Lynnette."

"How can you tell?"

"Wild guess."