I had many vivid dreams last night, possibly more, but only two that I can remember in detail.
I was transported to the world of the movie In Time, where people never age, but they are allotted a certain amount of time to live before immediately collapsing dead. This time is tracked via “Clocks” on their forearms, and they are able to purchase products and services by sacrificing minutes and days from their remaining time, such as a cup of coffee for 4 minutes of life. They can also get paid in “Time,” by say working an 8 hour shift and receiving 24 hours of life.
Anyway, I arrived in this world and I had no “Clock,” effectively making me immortal. They told me “We have to get you a clock, otherwise you can’t buy anything.” I walked up to the machine and debated whether or not I should get one, because the machine was only going to give me 60 days. Eventually I decided to do it.
Somehow, I guess because I came from another world, everyone started to worship me and made me the “Almighty Potentate of Time,” allowing me complete free reign to judge and value all other mortals. My first order of business was to appoint an immediate subordinate, one who would be responsible for overseeing my office’s day-to-day affairs… and I chose Roma, even though I knew she would be an awful, irresponsible choice.
She immediately set about making the office a party atmosphere with lots of drinking and after-hours card playing. I remember she invited the Sex Pistols and the Ramones to join our office and I had to explain to them that they weren’t really regarded as icons for the quality of their music, but for their attitude toward society. That pissed them off.
Finally a great Rebellion occurred among the Underclasses of that Society, the ones with very little time left, in which they caused all of the “Clocks” in the world to malfunction by breaking through some form of unnatural cloud cover and allowing the sunlight to shine down. We would all now age normally. I think I returned to the normal world at this point, and shortly after that I woke up.
In the last dream, I went shopping with Kathryn, Al DeLarge’s Wife. I was tasked with buying as many products as cheaply as possible in order to spare the family budget. So I loaded up with Great Value items, but I distinctly remember that one of the things she wanted was an Echocardiogram which cost $180 and blew the budget all to hell.
After that she wanted to walk across the street to get some things to tune up her car. For some reason we parked on the side of Nicholasville Road and started to cross amidst all the busy traffic. I was walking far behind her, and I remember thinking we must be entering the Best Buy shopping center, so I would be able to get myself a used videogame. Turned out that wasn’t the case.
She met a middle aged homeless lady outside of the shopping center who accosted her and offered to get her whatever she needed for a “lower price.” She did not look anywhere near the type of person who dealt in reputable goods. The woman had her young son with her, and to my surprise, Kathryn agreed to ride with her to see her stock. I climbed in the car as well and we started riding down the road. I was very suspicious the whole time. Eventually I asked, “Wait a minute, where’s your son?” And the woman just smiled. “Don’t you want to go back to get him?” When she didn’t respond, I realized we were being kidnapped.
I also somehow knew that this woman was a member of the Way of the Shadow, a Street Racing Gang of some kind. And sure enough, the entire car transformed into a low-riding chromed-up Sports Car, and it was filled with strange men who had a greyish ghostly aura. Shimmering energy seemed to stream from their bodies. They also sorta looked like Pac-Man.
I thought to myself “The Way of the Shadow is the same as the Way of the Sun,” opened a car door, and dived out while the car was moving. I rolled down the street a ways but stood up unharmed. I knew that would be the case since the car itself was made of Shadow and I had absorbed some of its Shadowy Energies.
I immediately went and found Al and told him what had happened. The Way of the Shadow issued a list of demands and told us to meet them at a certain location to get his wife back. Turns out the “demand” was that one of us would have to complete ten boards of a specially crafted Pac-Man game in order to release her from some form of Shadow Realm. I tried the first board multiple times and couldn’t even get close.
“If only I had been there, my wife wouldn’t be dead,” Al said, and a tear rolled down his face.
“She’s not dead, man, she’s only captured,” I explained. “You’ll have to beat this damn Pac-Man game to release her, but good luck with that, because it’s damn hard.” Then I woke up.