Benjamin James Lancaster

August 8, 1999. Vague.

The outlining plot of the Shining. I'm staying in a hotel alone with two other people I don't recognize. There is a Swedish janitor there with us, very blonde, that has gone crazy and trapped us in a narrow, dark storage room. On all the shelves are boxes and in them are guns. The door is open but we stay in there, too scared to move. The Swedish woman didn't bother locking the door because she assumed we'd be too weak to do anything. After a while I stop cowering and muster the courage to take a gun and give it to the other woman and man with me, and then take one myself and go after the janitor. Next thing I remember, we are crouching behind chairs and being fired at from above, on a catwalk that runs across the room. Ducking, I run to the far side of the room, where the ladder that leads up to the catwalk is. As I'm climbing, the Swedish janitor runs out of bullets. When I emerge on the platform, I point the gun at her, not sure if I can kill her or not. She runs to the far end of the catwalk and jumps off. She lands on a series of suspended platforms that act like giant steps down to the green field that lies on the other side. She lands face down on the first platform and splatters in a bloody mess. The other two climb up and we jump down to where her body is. I raise my gun and shoot her in the butt out of anger. The I realize what I've done and say 'Oh no, now, when the police take her, they'll find that bullet and put me in jail.' So I root around in the mess that is her body and come up with the bullet. Then I walk back to the hotel to call the police. When I get there the rest of the hotel staff has returned and I start to tell them about the janitor but the already know. Indeed, an ambulance is outside taking her away and no one suspected we had anything to do with it. I feel very relieved and think, well that's over. –  An epilogue of sorts: I watch this next part like a movie. I am not involved and have no fear. I see the woman and the man that were with me in the hotel, now in an airport saying goodbye to the woman's parents. She leaves them, and starts to walk down a flight of stairs toward the airport entrance. Then I see five people, all baring a striking resemblance to the Swedish janitor, come running towards her from outside, towards the door. The are obviously the dead janitor's family back for revenge. The all drop to the floor and slide towards the entrance. While sliding they pull out guns and shoot the woman down through the glass doors of the airport. I see the woman's parents gathering around their murdered daughter, but it's still like a movie and I just think, hmm, that's a sad ending.

August 12, 1999.

1) Vague. The family on vacation on some beach. It is always overcast and I feel bad somehow, I feel unsafe. I don’t like it on the beach. I think about taking a rowboat all the way across the ocean. I actually foresee some of the trip, how I would stop on the floating islands of ice I'd be sure to find and sleep there for the night. Visions of me rowing along on the blue sea, alone and content.

2) Semi-vivid. Strange feelings in this one. My role in this dream was split. Part of me was watching it, thinking it was a movie. Another part of me was acting in it. But, I came in halfway through the movie so the part of me that was acting in it had to figure out the storyline. I learn that there could be a war in this city. So, for a demonstration, an evil man was going to force a little boy to throw a live grenade in the air and catch it in front of a lot of people. I forget what point he was trying to make. Even the boy's father was in on it. I was very unsettled by the idea. As the boy was practising by a beach the day before he had to perform, I asked the evil man if this was legal. He said because the boy had agreed to do it, yes. Then came the big moment. It was on top of an elegant staircase, and there were people everywhere. The boy looked very nervous and suddenly both halves of me in this dream knew he was going to kill himself. His hands were too shaky. The boy's father was somewhere else, regretting his decision to allow this. For some reason, the evil man trapped the boy in a fishing net and began to lower him to the ground, so he could throw his grenade. I had to stop this, so I jumped on the net of fishing line and tried to free the boy, but I couldn't. Then the father came out and knocked the evil man down and took the net and pulled us both back up to safety. The whole time he was apologizing to his son for everything he had put him through. He was crying and the boy was crying and it was such a happy ending to the movie. Pretty soon I was bawling my eyes out too, both sides of me.

August 15, 1999. Semi-vivid.

Ted and I are camping out in a site full of other campers, much like Hillside. In the morning him and Jay go out on a scavenger hunt that I prepared, like the one I made for John. It starts to pour rain and soon I can't follow their progress from a distance. So I go back to our tent and Ted and Jay are back there, drinking. I'm about to ask for a beer myself when someone comes running to the campsites, shouting 'They're coming!' At first I'm scared, then I remember we are allowed to be there and I say so. Then I add that I didn't think Jay was allowed to be there, though. Jay immediately exits our tent and runs away.

August 16, 1999. Semi-vivid.

My family took a trip to the bank and I found some loop-hole where I bought these bonds or something and they had to double my account automatically. So I bought a bunch of these and ended up with eleven hundred dollars. In the car on the way back I was bragging to the family that I had beat the system.

August 17, 1999. Vivid.

I've done something to upset the family, badly, and they are now very mad at me. They chase me around and I know that if mom and dad or uncle Ralph simply touch me, I will die. So they chase me around the house, and, terrified, the adrenaline makes me quicker and I duck under their arms, barely. There is a series of narrow escapes. I contemplate running to Bull Frog Mall to hide in the park but decide against it. Eventually I run outside and it is a winter's night. I run up the far sidewalk on Metcalfe, thinking I had tricked them and they didn't know where I was. I just kept thinking that if I could get to John's I'd be alright. I was terrified but I couldn't run fast. I trudged slower and slower and I was scared dad would find me out. I cursed against the thick snow on the sidewalk that was slowing me down (or maybe it was just that feeling of being unable to run that happens in dreams). Then up ahead I see neighbour Jordan go sledding down the snowy sidewalk on his stomache. There is a green spike on the front of the sled, cutting a path through the snow. He stops right in front of me and gets up, laughing. I have a feeling of dread. I'm sure Jordan will go home and mention to my dad that he saw me walking, and then the game would be over and I'd die. Nervous, I asked Jordan if he was having fun sledding out here. He said he was, but he was done now and he was heading home. Then he began walking away and I turned to him, ready to tell him not to tell anyone he saw me here. Then I thought that might just peak his curiosity and he'd be more likely to tell someone. I hesitated, not sure what to do, then turned around without saying anything. Next thing I knew, the orange light of the streetlights were gone, replaced by the blue shadows of the moon. I'm at Gabe's house (but it looked more like uncle Ralph's house). I'm inside his garage and I see the automatic door close on dad and uncle Ralph just before they can get it and kill me. Shoot! I think. They saw me, they know I'm here. I thought I could maybe still sneak inside Gabe's house. I leave the garage from the back and enter the back yard. There are a bunch of wooden fences, gates, and porches. Beyond these I can see a light on in the house. Focusing on that light I start hopping the fences. Suddenly, I'm aware of dad close behind me and my movements had taken on the slow, underwater quality again. I skillfully but slowly scale a high wooden gate. As soon as I drop to the other side and start running, dad walks through the same gate, close behind. My heart takes a leap. Don't let him touch me, I think. I'm sure he has me now but I reach the next gate untouched and scale it slowly and expertly. This time, dad walked through the gate as I was climbing it. I come down awkwardly in the snow. My breath stops in my throat and dad touches my arm. No! I was so close to the light in the window. Uncle Ralph shouts in the distance: 'you know, it would have been faster if you had of walked through the gates instead of climbing them.' I'm very scared, but when I don't immediately die, dad tells me that I can go back to my time of birth and switch with another baby. 'It won't be so bad,' he says. 'You'll start a whole new life with different parents and we'll get a different kid. It's better than being dead.' I consider the offer...

August 18, 1999.

1) Vague. One dream in three parts, I think. Either that or three closely related dreams. I guess it doesn't matter much. I arrive at a high-tech institution of some sort and see Greg and Scott arriving there too. Excited, I say 'hey Greg, I thought you were still in Germany.' He says something about coming home early because there was something wrong with his mom.

2) Inside the institution, a bunch of people are with me. We are playing a large, full-scale game of chess where we are each a different piece and we can only walk according to the rules. I am a castle and can only walk straight ahead, behind or across. It was especially hard because the floor was like a factory. It was not checkered. The setting was like the video game Quake II and there were those kind of power ups everywhere. One time Matt and I were propelled upward to the ceiling towards some power up, and we were amazed at how high the facility was.

3) The factory is now completely empty save for dad and I. I'm leading him through it to the stairs. On the second floor, his friends are waiting for a surprise retirement party. There are some of his favourite cookies on a table, but he passes them by as we walk. As he reaches the stairs, though, he realizes what is going on.

August 19, 1999.

1) Vivid. I am a fugitive on the run, and the feeling is one of extreme excitement. The entire city of Guelph is looking for me. But, again and again, I narrowly escape capture. I'm always on foot, slinking around the city or running from someone. I do have friends who help but not many and I don't recognize those that helped. I remember dodging people downtown in an old office building. At one point I plunge into the river beside the Boathouse, then walk up onto the bank of the river and into the forest. I almost get caught then but I warded people off with a saw. The my rag-tag group of allies and I make it to some secured, institution-like building with a security guard. We steal his card and use it to gain access to a flight of stairs leading down to the facility. 

2) Semi-vivid. Ted and Chris are over at my house and for a sleepover. They're here because I managed to take a set of shelves that used to be at my cottage and I set them up in my room. I put a TV, a Nintendo and a VCR on all of the shelves. My room was bigger and finished with wood and I thought it would make a great hangout place for a night. But all they wanted to do was eat Kraft Dinner and go downstairs to the living room. I got really upset and angry about that.

August 20, 1999. Semi-vivid.

John and I come back to my house trying to find out how to beat a video game. We look at the manual and see that it clearly tells us exactly what to do to beat it. We are disappointed that the booklet would tell us so plainly. John, Matt and I discover that many booklets to many games tell us this clearly. My house is suddenly full of people, so instead of beating the video game there, we leave. John tells me to follow him along a straight path, using strange, hunched over creatures as markers. He says to just keep walking from creature to creature in a straight line and I'll be fine, so I do.

August 23, 1999.

1) Vague. Watching TV on an overhead screen in my grade 6 classroom. The lights are off. John sits beside me and there are two people after him, and then a friend of Jacqueline's and Jackie herself on the far side. Jackie and I were joking about how the people in this one news program were all part of a cult. We're watching TV and John and I are laughing loudly. The scary-looking male teacher walks over, picks John and another person up out of their chairs by their shirts, and throws them in the back. Without thinking I yell at the teacher: 'Hey you could just ask them to move! You don't need to throw them.'

2) Vague. Some criminal mastermind thought he had set up this large, impenetrable fortress, with metal detectors and things. However, I walked right through all the traps because I only had a chunk of wood and couldn't be detected.

August 24, 1999. Vague.

Mrs. Reeve is teaching drama at Ross for Matt's last year. I'm also in that drama class, although it's only my second year. There are all of Matt's university friends there too and he's excited to see them. For some reason, I have a bad feeling Mrs. Reeve wants to exploit Matt's acting talents, as I know she remembers us from Edward Johnson. After the first class, she asks the everyone to meet at her house for the next class. We all show up, but Mrs. Reeve locked her door so we had to wait until she came. Once inside, she only wanted to see Matt act, so I just played with her dog.

August 27, 1999.

1) Very vague. Outside, on the scaffold of a building, trying to get higher, level by level, with a group of my peers. I can't remember who was there, but there was a lot of mistrust and plotting.

2) Semi-vivid. For some reason I'm sent back to kindergarten in Edward Johnson. I walk around the school and then enter through the kindergarten doors by the parking lot. I arrive with a sheet of paper explaining I'm supposed to be here. I sit down on the couch beside the children. They are happy and laughing. The teaching assistant takes the kids away so I could talk to the teacher myself. I get the feeling that she is going to suggest skipping me a few grades... to OAC, actually.

3) Vague. Myself and a group of university guys are in a class with an old black professor who goes from historical site to historical site, and digs them up so they're as good as new, and teaches us about them. It is a fantastic, interesting class, but the other guys don't appreciate it. So when we are exploring an old army base underground, I grab a metal, square flame-thrower and try to burn up my other class-mates.

August 28, 1999. Vivid.

I see a car, from behind and slightly above, driving down the highway to Rockwood. It is a clear, hot summer's afternoon and I am driving the car with another guy who is a friend of mine. We are driving to Eden Mills, and to Jackie's house. I see the car below and I follow it all the way from Guelph to her house. We drive to her place and go around the back, which is a large, multi-coloured porch. She comes out, and we surprise her. She is glad to see us and glad for our company, seeing as she was alone. I realize that she thinks I'm blind, because I've always pretended I couldn't see around her so I could feel the features of her face and get a feel for what she looked like. I asked her if I could do that now, just to refresh my memory. She said that would be fine. But as I slowly feel her face, I see that she has bruises and scars all over her forehead and cheeks. As my fingers lightly brush over them, I ask her about the marks. 'Nobody's hitting you are they?' I ask. She swears no one is.

August 31, 1999. Vague.

I'm inside a video game racing against someone else. I'm in a small room, everything is metal and grayish blue. I'm supposed to look for something in the room that looks like it has no bottom but really it's a hole into the next level. The guy I'm playing against is in a separate room that is exactly the same. I jump inside of a big pail hoping I'll fall through into the next level but it had a bottom. At last I worm my way underneath a metal box and fall through the floor into the next level. My opponent found the opening at the exact same time I did, however, and we fall through together.