A dream:

I was in an RV with my grandparents and someone else � a friend? My grandfather was driving, my grandmother next to him and I was next to him. We were leaving Chicago and driving down Lake Shore Drive going south. We were almost to Hyde Park, where we were going to stop for something when we saw it on the southern end of the lake � A mushroom cloud. We stopped and gaped � it was both beautiful and horrible at once. I couldn�t even think, only stare. And then the radiation hit like a wave � you could see the air bending as it approached. It knocked us backward. I rolled so I could put my arm around my grandma. Thank you for letting me be with people I love, I thought. And then I thought I was dying and I passed out.

Later I awoke and we seemed mostly fine. I was achy, but okay. So was my grandma. My grandpa wasn�t there. I was afraid to look outside. We prowled around the RV picking things up that had fallen in the blast. A knock and then Mrs. Cook, a woman who lived across the street from me in Connecticut when I was a child entered. She had recognized the RV and couldn�t believe her luck. She and her husband had been on the other side of the road. They were driving back from Florida. �Where�s your husband?� She looked away. �He wasn�t well. It�s probably for the best.� Her skin was leathery (was this the radiation? OR because she was so tan as she always was) and the tip of her nose was burnt off. I fumbled in the medicine cabinet for a band aid. We�re still in the middle of Lake Shore Drive and we�re not going anywhere.

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And then AJ walked into my room and woke me up. Those early morning dreams are the weirdest.

Stay tuned: a real entry is probably forthcoming. If I get around to it.

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