Dreaming a Little Dream

"To dream a little dream and not remember what you were dreaming about when you finally woke up."

"You feel like you have gone off to another place, another time, living in another era of history, all while you are wishing you could remember what you were dreaming about."

You are sitting in Auto Mechanics class, hearing the same stuff that the teacher has spoken about all semester long. You are getting tired of hearing about changing tires and spark plugs, wanting to get down and greasy.

When the teacher looks right at you, meeting eye to eye, calls out your name, "Peter, give me the steps on how to change spark plugs in a V-8 Dodge, and list them in the order they are supposed to be changed."

You freeze, first at the thought of how you were going to answer the question when the time came that you were called upon. Now this moment has happened, and you are sweating.

The teacher then decides to come closer to you, as he arrives at your desk and leans in, he says louder, repeating the same question over again in case you didn't hear him the first time.

You shrink backwards, not wanting to smell his breath in your face as you feel more pressured to answer his question. You are becoming lightheaded and are ready to pass out when you are jolted awake, once more to face the class.

As if things weren't embarrassing enough, the teacher then asked you to go to the front of the class and give a presentation on the blackboard. You are ready to slither out of this class, and vanish, but you are no wizard and to make this happen you need a working wand.

Again loudly, the teacher speaks over the laughter and the whispers, "Peter, give me the steps on how to change spark plugs in a V-8 Dodge, and list them in the order they are supposed to be changed." "Be sure you show your work as you describe each step and readable enough for all to see."

"Oh, and by the way, this is one of the parts on your final." "Fail this and you fail this class." The oohs and aahs are heard behind you as you turn to start writing upon the blackboard. You tense up and become more worried about what may happen if you do not write something, anything, so that it pleases the teacher.

As you started to write, shaking, you heard a loud thud from over the direction the teacher was last standing. You turn quickly, seeing the teacher has fallen onto the ground in a heap.

You race back to your seat grabbing your books and head towards the door, when the principal appears in the doorway blocking your exit. You are trapped in a room full of laughing jokers and no way to get out.

The principal enters placing something large on the teacher's desk, then turning to go, notices the teacher laying on the floor. Mr. Jorge rushes over to the in-class phone, phoning rapidly, dialing 911.

What took forever was only maybe 15 minutes, then the paramedics hurriedly approached the fallen teacher. Lifting him onto the stretcher, trying to feel for a pulse, and making sure he is still alive.

You are not sure how to process this and are the next one to fall on the floor. You are next sat up at your desk and made sure you are ok. Your friend, Eddie, is laughing at your dilemma, which is short lived, after Deidra slapped him in the face for laughing at you.

Deidra and Eddie then argued about what happened. The class is silent. The silence is very loud and seems out of place. Not like it had been earlier when you were asked to stand at the blackboard and show your work, step by step concerning the steps on how to change spark plugs in a V-8 Dodge, and list them in the order they are supposed to be changed.

You are not sure what to do next. You then realize that one way to draw everyone's attention away from the scene was to return to the blackboard and finish what you had never begun.

You slowly drag yourself to the blackboard, notice the size for this blackboard has grown by several hundred feet along with the chalk being used in sweaty palms, making it very slippery to hold.

Looking for a new piece of chalk, you turn around and exclaim loudly, how you will show the steps and the answer to the question itself the teacher had spoken to you about earlier.

It is going well or so you want to believe and with a huge knot in your stomach and sweat pouring from your forehead, you decide to answer this question the only way you know how.

It is obvious you did not know the answer, which means you had fallen asleep in class and missed the answers offered to these questions along with several other bonus questions.

First Eddie then Deidra both turned to you, notice you are writing anything, because they realize you do not know the answer. You become nervous and anxious because you cannot remember the answer, and that goes for the answer to this question specifically.

You are getting ready to write with the chalk which breaks in two in your hand and falls onto the ground in front of you. You are fidgeting and fumbling to get a new piece of chalk.

With horror in your eyes, you turn to answer the question without writing on the blackboard or so you believe you are going to write the honest answer, "I do not know the answer."

Before you write that answer on the blackboard, you wake up and fall out of your bed onto the floor, realizing this was the dream that you were having fearing you would forget everything you know and were taught.

On the nightstand you reach for your glass of water and see you are chained to the bed preventing you from moving to drink your glass of water.