Three months until I would start college and I still hadn’t picked out my major. I’d thought about not even going to college at all! How could I anyway without a major?
I’m Abbey Brown. I live in a cozy little house at the end of Carter boulevard. My mom, Traci Brown is a doctor who is constantly saving lives and my dad, Dan Brown is a police officer that protects people and locks up dangerous criminals. How could I even begin to compete with that? Ever since I started high school, I’d been racking my brain for jobs that could live up to my mom and dad’s.
Of course, you would probably say, become a doctor or officer like your parents. Trust me, I’ve thought of that. But doctoring is just not for me. I can’t handle blood too well and cutting open people and performing surgery is not one of the things on my bucket list. On the other hand, being a police officer and leading a dangerous life like that doesn’t excite me. Every day I would worry about getting hurt or killed.
So what am I supposed to do? I’ve talked to my parents who just tell me that they’ll be proud of me in whatever job I choose. Like that’ll help me!
When my mom called Dad and me down for dinner, I grumbled. I was researching majors and I didn’t want to stop. I needed to find my major and fast. So, reluctantly, I got up from my old, antique desk and trudged down the stairs.
Dad was already at the table when I got down. “What’s wrong sweetie?” He asked me, seeing the glum look on my face.
“I still haven’t figured out what I want to do!” I told him.
I sat down at the dining table in the chair next to my dad. Mom came over and set down a steaming bowl of green beans. I looked at my plate which had a BLT with extra “B” that looked crisp and crunchy. I started to pick it up.
“No,” Dad said, grabbing my wrist. “Wait for your mother.”
Mom came back to the table with a big, family sized bag of potato chips. Then she sat down and we started eating. I lifted the BLT up to my mouth and took a bite. The bacon was as crunchy as I thought it would be.
After dinner, I went back up to my room. I went over to my desk and closed all of my tabs on my old, desktop computer. Then, I laid down on my bed’s green bedspread, shut off my pink lamp, and closed my eyes. In my head, I said a silent prayer that I would find the job right for me. Then, I fell asleep.
I was in my velvety pink pajamas and standing on cool pavement beside a street. It was dark out and the only source of light was the diamond-like stars that twinkled in the sky. The wind chilled my bare feet and messed up my short brown hair.
I tentatively took a step towards the road. Just then, without any warning except a ding, a bus, faster than the speed of light, arrived in front of me. It was blue and black with a smokestack on top. On the side, there were big bold letters read: The Dream Bus.
The driver’s door opened and out stepped a guy with short blond hair, buck teeth, and a black and blue uniform that matched the train. He stood around three feet tall and looked remarkably like my uncle Gerold.
“All aboard!” He called out.
I stood there as still as a statue, staring at the odd, leprechaun like man.
“Hey you! Girl! I said, ALL ABOARD!” He yelled at me.
I shook myself out of my trance and asked him, “What are you?”
That must have sounded rude because he glared at me and answered, “I’m just as human as you! Now please, if you’re are not getting on, I will be leaving.” He turned to get back on the bus.
“Wait!” I said. He spun around. “Who are you?”
“If you must know, I am Neighamia Hensworth the fourth,” He replied. “And, who are you?”
“Oh,” I said. “I’m Abbey Brown… the first.”
He nodded then turned to leave again.
“Wait!” I called again.
He turned around with an annoyed expression. “What do you need?”
“I was just wondering, where am I?”
“Where are you? Where ARE you?” He scoffed. “You’re in your dream world of course!”
“My what?” I asked confused.
“Your dream world. Ya’ know, where your dreams start?”
To admit, I didn’t know. I hadn’t had a dream since I was young, or, a dream that I remembered.
Neighamia turned to leave for the third time. “Wait, let me on!”
He turned, rolled his eyes, and said, “Fine.”
Neighamia helped me onto the bus. Then, he left. I sat down in a black, leather seat next to a woman who looked to be a fairy with bright pink, glittering wings.
“Why, hello!” The fairy said to me.
I gave a half-wave, too tired to talk.
“What’s your name dear?” She asked me.
“I’m Abbey Brown!” I said.
She gasped and covered her mouth. “The Abbey Brown?”
That confused me. It’s not like I was famous or anything. I was just a normal 18 year old girl, not a teen pop star.
“Uh, I guess,” I replied.
The fairy got up promptly and walked down a few seats to a guy that looked almost transparent. He had on a top hat and a vertical striped suit.
“Bob! Bob!” She said excitedly. “She’s finally here! Abbey Brown is here!”
The ghost guy quickly got up and turned to a pumpkin headed man behind him. “Abbey Brown is here!”
And on it went like that until the whole bus was crowded around my seat and staring at me like I was the biggest piece of gold ever found.
“I’m Sally!” The fairy with bright pink wings said to me, holding out her hand.
I shook it and then asked, “How do you know me?”
“Didn’t Neighamia tell you? You’re in your dream world,” Sally explained.
“Yeah, I know that but…” I trailed off. Suddenly, I knew what was going on. “Wait!” I exclaimed. “All of you guys are from my dreams!”
They all nodded excitedly. “You,” I said, pointing at Sally. “You were from the dream I had when I was eight! You and that fairy prince!”
She smiled a big smile at me and said, “That’s right dear! Edward and I!”
“And you!” I said, pointing to a man with ears bigger than his head. “You’re Elijah! You were in the dream I had about the rollercoaster!”
“And you…”
I was so excited about it all, I couldn’t stop naming all of the people and what dream they came from until I had named the whole bus.
“So, wait!” I said finally after everyone had gone back to their seats and Sally and I were once again alone. “Why am I here?”
“Well, as I’ve heard, people usually come to their dreams when they’re in danger or have to make a decision.”
“Well, I still have to pick a major for college…” I elaborated.
Sally clapped her hands and said, “That’s it!”
“So, what am I supposed to do? Will my dreams tell me what I should pick?”
“Well, you tend to dream about the things that you like most!” Sally offered.
“Ok…”
“How about I help you!” Sally said after a few moments.
I looked at her, my eyes wide. “Really? You would do that?”
“ Sure! I bet any of us would!”
“Great!” I said.
“I’ll go tell Mr. Hensworth where to stop.”
“Where is our first stop?” I asked.
“Why, at the Monster’s Fang pub and restaurant of course!” She replied.
Then, she went up to tell the driver. So, I was all alone with my thoughts- literally.
The bus screeched to a halt and Sally and I got off once we arrived outside of a dark building that looked like it was a really shady place where only people who were trying to escape the police would go.
“Are you sure we’re at the right place I asked?” I asked nervously.
“I’m sure.”
We anxiously walked into the building. As soon as we entered the restaurant, the smell of rotten food overcame me and I gagged.
“Stay close to the wall,” Sally advised.
I could only see the back of the visitor’s heads, but I could tell that they were bad news. Pretty much all of them wore battle armor and helmets. They had tall mugs that I couldn’t quite tell what sort of liquid was in them.
“Sally, who are these people?” I asked.
“They are a gang called The Hogs,” She said in a hushed voice.
“Why’s that?” I asked, almost laughing at the ridiculous name.
She didn’t get a chance to answer because at that moment, one of the gigantic guys stood up and growled, “I smell human!”
He turned and I saw his hideous face. It was a pig’s head with warts covering almost every inch of his nose.
“Quick! Run!” Sally yelled as he looked our way.
But we were too late. The hog man yelled, “Seize them!” and the pig men at the table closest to Sally and I grabbed us. Suddenly, I remembered this dream. I had had it when I was 12 years old, the night after I saw a horror movie called Night of the Pig Man.
“Help!” I screamed, though I knew it was useless. The whole room was filled with these pigs and I doubted that any one of them would come to our aid.
“Let me go!” Sally yelled at the pig who was holding her. She pounded her fists on his hairy, pink arm, but that didn’t do anything.
“Ah,” The pig who gave us away said, coming up to Sally. “Salerina, nice to see you again.”
She spit at him. He moved on to me.
“Oh, it’s been a long time since we’ve had a human! You’ll make a wonderful drink!” His breath smelled horrible, like mold and garabage, but 100 times worse.
“Huh?” I asked, slightly confused.
He sighed and said, “Your blood. Your blood will taste delicious!” He explained. “Darn, I hate it when I have to explain! It takes all the evil out of it!” He grumbled quietly.
That’s when I realized what was in the mugs. It was blood, probably of animals since he said they hadn’t had human in a while.
“Please let us go!” I pleaded.
His laugh sounded like a pig squealing. “Not a chance human!”
I struggled in the grasps of a pig man with pimples outlining his face like a red aura. I decided that he was a teenager and was easily tricked.
When the tattle tale pig left, I whispered to the pig who was holding me. “I will get you blood of any animal you like if you let me go and convince the other pig over there to let Sally go.”
He grunted and said, “Even cow’s blood?”
“Yes! Any blood!”
“Deal.”
The pimply faced hog then dropped me. I hid behind him so that the others wouldn’t notice. Then, he leaned over to the pig holding Sally and whispered something in his brown, pointed ear. The hog then shook his head. The teen pig then whispered again in his ear. This time, he dropped Sally. She ran towards me.
“Let’s get out of here!” We said together.
We quickly hurried out of the pub before any of the pigs, beside the ones who dropped us, noticed we were gone.
“Whew!” I said once we were far away from the joint.
I looked around at where we were. It was still dark out and it was hard to make out objects, but I could tell that we were standing in front of a tall building, maybe an apartment.
“Where are we?” I asked Sally.
“This is the building I live in with my husband Edward. I thought we could stop here before continuing our journey.”
She lead me through the doors. The lights were on in the lobby and I could see perfectly. There was a silky red carpet that felt smooth on my feet. A chandelier with crystals hanging from it was hung in the middle of the room. A statue of a girl stood by the right wall. In fact, as I looked closer, the statue was me.
“It’s like I’m the president or something!” I exclaimed.
“Well, you kind of are!” Sally said, hovering a few feet above the ground, her wings flapping madly.
She showed me to the silver elevator that was next to the staircase that had a red carpet that looked soft. Sally pressed the Up arrow and we waited for the elevator to arrive. There was a ding very much like the ding I heard when The Dream Bus had arrived, and the doors opened. We stepped inside. On the floor was, naturally following the same theme, a red, shaggy carpet that felt soft on my feet.
Sally pressed the 3 button and the doors closed. A catchy song started to play.
“So,” I said. “What’s our next stop after this?”
“Well, I think we should go to Dream City, the heart of your dream world. Then, we can go to the city hall.”
“Why would we need to go to city hall?” I questioned.
“In city hall, there is a record of all of your dreams and where they happened in Dream Land. You can pick one and we’ll go there.”
I nodded. Then, the doors opened to reveal a hallway of doors. Sally led me to one at the end of the hallway with the room number 359. She dug a key out of her jeans pocket and unlocked the door. We crept inside. All the lights were off and the blinds were shut on the window in the living room.
“Shhh,” Sally shushed me. “My husband's asleep. I wasn’t supposed to be home until morning because of another stop I was supposed to make, so he isn’t expecting me.”
Sally opened a door and just through the darkness I could make out a bed with someone sleeping in it.
“I thought we weren’t trying to wake him!” I whispered.
Sally didn’t say anything and opened what looked like a closet door. We then walked into the small closet. Instead of turning on a light though, Sally snapped her fingers and the ceiling disappeared. In it’s place was the night sky with it’s same glowing stars. Then, Sally started weeding through her clothes.
“Oh! How about these!” She said holding up a green shirt and a green and white striped skirt, and a blue “V” neck sweater and a pair of jeans.
“Thanks!” I said, taking them. “But, why do I need them?”
“Well, one of them is for you to change into,” She said, pointing to my PJ’s. “And the other is for disguise.”
Sally then handed me a blonde, long haired wig.
“Try it on,” She whispered.
I place it on my head. I felt it lengthen out. Sally then reached over and tugged on it.
“Ow!” I said, feeling the pain on my head like it was my real hair.
“Shhh!” Sally hushed frantically.
Too late. The door flew open and there stood a man, hovering a few feet above us, giant wings the were pointed at the top at his sides, and a huge baseball bat above his head.
“Ahh! Edward!” Sally shrieked.
“Sally? What are you doing here?” Edward asked, lowering the bat.
He flicked on the lights and stared at me.
“Who are you?” He asked, alarmed.
I threw off the blond wig and said,”I’m-”
Sally cut me off and said, “This is Katelyn Trix!”
I nodded, playing along.
“Well, hello Katelyn,” Edward said, shaking my hand. “So, what are you doing in my house?”
Sally opened her mouth before I could even speak, “Well, I found her on the streets on my way home and I decided to bring her home and give her some clothes!”
He nodded though he seemed not to believe her. Then he walked back to bed but not before saying, “Have a good night Katelyn!”
Once we shut the door again I said, “Wow. He’s rude!”
“He’s just not used to visitors in his house in the middle of the night.”
And you are? I wanted to say, but kept it to myself.
She then instructed me to put on the blond wig. “Some people will recognize you and we don’t want that.”
Then, I got on the blue sweater, jeans, and a pair of blue tennis shoes. Then, we left.
Once we were out of the apartment, we walked in the opposite direction of the monster pub. Finally though, after walking around an hour I started to get tired.
“How much further until we reach the city?” I complained.
Sally didn’t answer. I tried a different question. “Can’t we take the Dream bus or whatever?”
“Too risky for people to recognize you” Sally answered simply.
But you already exposed me to like 20 other dreams! I thought and sighed. I didn’t talk to her the rest of the time.
After thirty more minutes of walking, we reached the city. I’ve got to admit, I have a pretty cool dream world! There were skyscrapers that seemed to go on forever, museums that had signs outside advertising things that you wouldn’t see anywhere else, and a big building in the center of town that looked like the Colosseum.
“That,” Sally said, pointing to the Colosseum. “Is the city hall.”
We walked over to it and walked up the steps into the building.
It was huge inside. On the left side, was a wall full of doors. On the right, were a ton of file cabinets. I walked up to one. It was a black cabinet that was just dedicated to me!
Sally’s voice suddenly echoed through the building, “Over here!”
I walked over to her. She was holding open a door. I walked into the mysterious room. There was only one thing in the room. It was a big, red tablet and it’s screen was dark.
I clicked the top button and light from the tablet filled the room. On the screen were different colored boxes with green arrows pointing at them. Under them there were different labels like: The city, The farm, The forest, etc. Suddenly, there was a booming voice.
“Pick a location!” It boomed.
I figured it must mean the boxes on the screen. I clicked the one labeled The Farm.
“Now pick a dream!” The voice boomed again.
There was only one choice. It was a picture of a realistic looking zombie. It was labeled: Zombie Farmer.
I turned to Sally and said, “I’m not to sure I like zombies.”
I tapped that back arrow. The voice boomed again saying, “Pick a location!”
This time, I tapped the city. Instead of dream choices though, it gave me more location choices to specify it.
“Let’s see… hmmm… the doctor’s office, no. School, nah. Oh! The mall!”
I clicked on the folder that said, The Mall. Inside were two more folders saying: The Mall and The Parking Lot. I pressed the Parking Lot. Finally, there were dream choices.
“Pick a dream!” The same, male, booming voice said.
“Hmmm…” I said. “So,” I turned to Sally. “Once I tap the dream, that’s where we’re going?”
“Yup,” She replied.
I tapped on one called Pumpkin Pins.
“Wait!” Sally said suddenly. “I need to tell you something! If you die in a dream, you die in real life-”
Wow! She probably should have told me that before I clicked on one with pins in the name! Then, the floor split open and we fell into the giant crack.
“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” I screamed as I slid down a black plastic tube. “Sally, where are you?!”
A muffled sound came from somewhere around me.
The tube suddenly ended as soon as it had started, and I fell down, onto concrete. My cheek stung and when I touched it, I felt blood. I stood up and I was in a mall parking lot. I was in my dream.
“Sally? Sally!” I yelled.
She was nowhere in sight. Just cars, a lot of cars. Suddenly, I felt a blast hit my back and an orange ball type thing started to form around me. Once it completely formed, all I could see was orange and some green patches.
“Sally? SALLY!” I screamed. Where the heck am I? I thought.
I looked around. It seemed like I was in some sort of… orange pin cushion! There were miniscule holes around and spare pieces of fabric. I noticed a loose piece of fabric that wasn’t fully attached. I peeped through it to see an old lady with a gray bun in her hair and a blue dress, staring at me.
She smiled wickedly and said, “Hello there Abbey Brown!”
“Wh-who are you?” I sputtered.
She laughed an evil laugh and pounded on the cushion I was in. Then, she taped something I couldn’t see onto it and walked away.
I sighed, relieved that she was leaving. But just as I thought she was going to get into a car and drive away, she turned back. I noticed a brown, leather quiver that was slung around her shoulder. Inside though, instead of arrows, there were giant sized, pins. And I was in a pin cushion. Darn, why did I pick this dream?
The lady picked out a pin from her quiver and studied it. Then, she put it in her right hand and pulled it back behind her ear, taking position. Then, she threw the needle and it spiraled towards me. It came quickly and pierced the cushion, just missing my ear.
The lady took out another needle and threw it at me. This time, if I hadn’t jumped out of the way, the needle would have impaled me.
“Sally, where are you?” I yelled.
The world suddenly seemed to flatten out, like I was in a 2D world. I was like a drawing on a piece of paper. Then, it twisted and I was being dragged through a hole. The lady got farther and farther away and soon I couldn’t see her at all.
“Where were you?!” I screamed at Sally when I landed on the hard ground outside of a tall building.
“I’m sorry!” She said. “I was just letting you experience the dream for just a few minutes!”
I got up and looked at the building that we were in front of. It looked like a college.
“Where are we now?” I asked.
“We, are in front of your future college.”
I laughed at that. This couldn’t be my future college. There were young pixies flitting around campus and goblins that looked a lot like Neighamai were sitting under trees.
“This,” Sally said again. “Is your dream college. It’s where you’ve dreamed to go since you were a little girl! It has some of your best ideas in it!”
I smiled seeing a girl with long, pink hair and a silver dress, arm and arm with a boy who had a peg leg and an eye patch. I had had that idea a while ago for a story. It was supposed to be a romance novel where a spunky princess for England, meets a pirate from India and they fall madly in love. Now that I think about, I could totally write that!
Next, I saw a mermaid with wings that was traveling in a water sphere. I remember that was the story idea I had about a mermaid fairy princess that saved her ocean world and the human world from flying aardvarks with angel wings. That was a pretty bad idea.
“Sally,” I said. “Everything makes sense now! I know what I need to do! Please help me wake up!” I said confidentially.
“Well,” Sally said. “Let’s not be too hasty! You don’t want to pick without a lot of thought. Maybe we should go to another dream!”
“No Sally. I’m sure this is what I want to do. I want to major in creative writing.”
Sally bit her lip and said, “No, no. That is not the job for you. Maybe a little more thought!”
“Sally? What’s going on? Why are you being like this?” I asked confused. I thought she was trying to help me.
“Being like what?” She yelled.
People from the college were starting to stare. I remembered when I dreamt about her. She has a nasty temper and turns into something awful if not put in check.
“Sally, just calm down. I am just going to wake up now…”
“No! You can’t leave yet! You just got here!” Sally growled, her face turning bright red.
“Sally,” I said looking to the east at the rising sun. “I need to go now and wake up!”
“No. You. Don’t!” As she said that last word she rose six feet above me and her hold body turned blue. She grew four times the size of her regular body so that her clothes ripped and were instantly replaced by a dark black dress. Her hair turned the color of midnight and her wings went from pink to black. She grinned, revealing a snake like tongue and sharp fangs.
“Sally, please calm down!” I yelled.
“Ssssstay and I will be calm!” She hissed.
“Sally, please. Just help me wake up. I’ll visit soon!”
“That’ssss what they alwaysssss sssssay!”
“No! I really mean it! Just, please let me go! I need to get back to my family!” I begged.
“We are your family!” She bellowed. “We’ve alwaysssss been there for you when no one else wasssssss!”
“How can I possibly defeat her?” I thought.
Suddenly, Sally dive bombed me, but pulled up at the last second. She cackled like a witch.
“How can I get home?” I thought, desperately. “If only I had something to catch her with! Then I could get away!”
Then, at my feet, appeared a rope and a net.
“Woah! Cool!” I muttered.
I quickly picked up the rope and tied it at the end in a loop.
“Hey Sally! Come here!” I yelled at her.
She, thankfully, swooped down, but not close enough for me to grab her.
“No, come closer!” I tried.
“Never. I know what you’re doing! You humansssss alwaysssss do that!” She hissed.
“I wish I had wings!” I thought. Then, as fast as you can say “dream world”, two red wings appeared in my back and I flew up to Sally. I caught her foot in my loop.
“Aaaaah!” She shrieked.
She flew up. Higher and higher she went. I couldn’t hold on much longer. Then, she mistakenly flew close to a tree. I hurriedly took the free end of the rope and tied it to the tree. She stopped flying.
“What’ssssss going on?” She screeched.
I let go of her ankle and flew down to the ground. Then, aloud I said, “I wish to wake up!”
I opened my eyes. There was my lamp, my desk, and my green blanket. I was safe and sound in my bed. I sat up and stretched. Then, I checked my clock. 9:00- it was morning.
I pulled back my covers and let my legs dangle over the side of the bed as I sat and thought. Did I really go to my dream world, or was that really just one of my dreams? Whichever it was, it helped me decide my future. So then I went downstairs, told my mom and dad what I chose, went back upstairs, and started my new story of a girl who goes to her dream world and has a night’s adventure battling pig men, and old lady with giant pins, and a demon fairy.
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