Chimerical Machinations 2

Sorting It Out.


I woke up with a yelp in my own room. I stared at the darkened corners of my room, the window with the streetlight passing dimly through, at my hands and feet to check and make sure I was still me. I tried to calm myself down. Just a dream, I kept repeating to myself, just a dream. After half an hour, I was able to let myself fall back asleep.

I woke up tired that day. I had to go help cut my grandfather’s lawn. He lets it grow nice and thick, so I always have to hack through it in order to cut it back down to normal. I reached down past my bed for my watch, but it wasn’t there. Sitting up, I realized that it was on my penguin doll sitting on the corner of my bed. It was your average looking penguin doll filled with small plastic bean-bag beads- orange beak, orange flippers, round white tummy, black eyes. One eye had been chipped slightly giving it the impression of anger. I picked up my old watch and sniffed it. Yeah, I know, it’s weird, but I sniffed it. It’s a kinda nice smell though. Since having the watch for over a year and wearing it nearly every day, the band that holds the end tie in place and the back of the watch head have absorbed my sweat in minute amounts to give it a certain…sweet smell to it. The watch head smells a little mustier, and the band smells a bit sweeter. I put it on, got dressed, loaded up the car, and tackled grandpa’s lawn. It was really hot that day, and working around 1p.m. didn’t help either. I was able to rest for about an hour before I got cleaned up for work that night. I closed up at around 9:30, came home, changed and went to sleep.

No dreams.

I got up the next morning full of pep, so I decided to go play around with an old hacky-sack. I’m pretty good at it, but I used to better as a freshman in high school. After getting bored with that, I went online, browsing through random games to see if any piqued my interest. Afternoon rolled around, and I left for work a little early that day. Some passing young salespeople were pushing men’s cologne. They were advertising about how it had pheromones to attract women or something. I never used anything like it before, and since I was going to run out of my old spray cologne soon, I bought a bottle from them. Work passed without incident again. I came home at around 10:00, played games online until 11:30, and then I put back my watch, changed my clothes, and fell asleep.

I dreamed again.

For some strange reason, I was back under the tree again. The usual scene of peacefulness was disrupted by a swish-swish feeling. I looked behind me and sure enough, I had that tail again. I was able to cope with it, since it already happened once, and it was only a dream; it couldn’t hurt to look around a bit. So I looked around and spotted a small forest, not 10 feet from where I started. I walked along a path there for a while. It was sunny, and the sun streaked through the trees quite nicely. It disturbed me slightly that I could still feel these things, but I pushed it aside. I began to wonder if there was any faster way to travel.

I picked up my pace.

I started into a light jog, since I’ve never been a good runner and all, but I was surprised how easily I was able to run. I ran faster, and amazingly, I was still able to keep pace without being tired at all. I went into an all-out sprint. My arms pumped and my legs slammed the path, pushing myself faster than I could have ever achieved. It was exhilarating-running at full sprint, nothing stopping me, tearing through the forest like some Olympic athlete on steroids. I thought to myself “wow! This is really fun!” while continuing to push myself harder and harder. I started to bend forward while running, letting my hands take some of the work off of my feet-no, paws now I reminded myself. I pumped myself harder, starting to get out of breath. Just for the heck of it, I decided to jump. Just run and jump, jumping ahead, seeing what would happen. I prepared myself, and pushed off the ground hard with my legs.

I FLEW. Oh, I flew through the air at least 10 feet easily. I landed on my paws and kept going. I laughed with excitement, realizing what I just did. 10 feet! 10 FEET! I FLEW! I FLEW! I began to laugh manically, despite a slight pain starting to arise in my lungs. I felt like stopping when it was too late. I had exited the forest into a small cliff which I ran off of. I panicked for a moment, and then thought to see if I could land safely. After all, I was a cat I figured, and I wasn’t going to let some small cliff bother me. I saw the ground coming up. My brain flashed with quick calculations, determining direction, velocity, distance from the ground, the softness of the rolling hills below me. I twisted myself in what would normally be an unnatural way, contorting myself sideways. I landed on all fours on the ground, safely. I paused for a moment from the impact, and then stood back up. I had made it. I was proud of myself, yet in that moment felt awkward over experiencing all of my senses being rushed; the feeling of the ground beneath me, smell of the day’s heat. Why did I feel all of this? Weren’t dreams less…real? I turned around and saw that I had landed near a small village. I decided to go and ask the townsfolk for some answers to why I was this way when something unexpected happened.

I woke up.

My mind pondered why this dream was a recurring one. After all, I was never really “into” anything “furry”, and I was only dreaming, so I couldn’t be feeling things so realistically. I mean, I was awake, not asleep, and this was my reality. Me, with two hands, two feet, and hair on my head. Not me with four paws and hair all over me. I spend the morning pondering over the facts from last night. It took me awhile to realize this but, I had REMEMBERED THE WHOLE THING. It’s very rare for me to remember dreams, and even rarer still to remember it entirely. Why did this reoccurring dream stay with me so? Why did nothing make sense? Why was I so…attuned to myself that I could make myself feel things that didn’t happen?

With a small groan, I got up and reached for my watch. It was missing. Strange, I thought to myself, I left it right here…I pushed the thought away, but it was harder to get it out of my mind than before.

I decided to leave these mysteries alone for another day and got dressed for work.

For some strange reason, orange hairs stuck to the bottom of my pants.