Waylaid 06/12/16
by
, 06-15-2016 at 06:17 AM (387 Views)
I am on an old, achingly familiar road. There are tall, vividly green trees on either side. The pavement is cracked and dusty, giving way to pockets of dirt and loose stone. Initially I am in my car, but it is difficult to gain momentum. When I finally do, two teenage boys on bicycles ride recklessly out into the road. I swerve to avoid them, and in doing so I realize I am not so much in my car, as riding on top of something, which topples over. The boys do not apologize for getting in the way, and I right my vehicle...finding it is no longer a car, but an awkward bicycle made entirely of wood. It is painted ivory and dull red, with a wide, long seat. It is too tall for me to easily mount, so that I run alongside it trying to gain momentum so I can lever myself onto the odd seat. As soon as I have gathered enough speed, I am interrupted again, this time it is a stream of young boar followed by a grubby farmer.
In my haste to get out of the way, I strike and stun a piglet. I go to make sure it is okay, and when I turn back, my awkward bicycle has become...a massive riding pig. It is over four feet tall at the shoulder, which connects with a steep-sloped spine. Its skin is mottled pink and brown, dirty and hairy, it has oily leather reins. I climb onto its back but it is hard to control, and before I go too far down the road, I spot two foxes in the trees. One is white, one is red. We make eye contact and they go out of their way to attack me. I kick away the white, and the red briefly latches onto my wrist before I hurl it into the trees. Before I can go more than a few more feet, I am waylaid again, this time by two dogs circling my ridiculous pig mount. One is black, one is white. They are large, and have long, square muzzles and golden eyes. They leap to attack, each latching onto one of my ankles, once again stopping me. Somehow the bow of the pig's rib cage prevents them from getting a good grip on the first lunge, and though they worry at my legs and is almost hard enough to hurt, I feel like it is a warning. I dislodge the white by vigorously shaking my leg, but I have to pry apart the jaws of the black, and in the process I am pulled from the pig's back.
Before I can be attacked again, I decide to run up the street to my sister's house. It turns out to be a spare apartment with pale blue walls and blue commercial carpet. I breathlessly try to tell her what happened on the road, but she is distracted and doesn't really hear me. I climb up onto a bunk bed and lay down. It isn't long before a human attacker that only I can see closes in on me, striking me with a leather strap. They only hit me hard enough to make me flinch. After the sixth or seventh strike I catch the leather strap and yank it from their hands.
After a couple of minutes a pure white cat with golden eyes walks in through the front door and hisses at me before leaping onto my back. I flail around, wrenching it from me and casting the hissing thing away.
I then witness a very odd conversation about my dad selling his house and moving into an apartment with a male roommate, something he is very unlikely to do. He talks about the roommate's payment going through and I try to find a way to ask him why he's moving into an apartment.