This is honestly and truly what my dream was about last night. If I have changed anything, I have left out some of the weirder parts to make it shorter and less freaky. I haven't added anything or changed names. I remember once when I was five, I saw Bugs Bunny wink at me from the Television. "Hello, Marianne," he said. When I told my mom about it she just thought I was being silly. "You have quite an imagination," she told me. It wasn't until I was in college that I realized how powerful the imagination can be.
I set up my easel and got out my paints. Today my subject was the Cathedral. I looked at all the statues of the Saints - Peter, James, John - and smiled to myself. The statue of Peter was looking examining a book that had all the signs of the zodiac and a helicopter. Strange, that, I thought to myself.
I did a wash of blue for the sky and a wash of silver-grey for the Cathedral. The watercolors flowed down the paper, making it shimmer. And then, suddenly, a man appeared in my painting! He smiled at me as he leaped off the paper. He bowed low and said, "Greetings, my lady. My name is Jacob." I stared in amazement as he explained to me that I had a special gift - through my painting I could tap into the collective super-conscious [sic] of the universe. He took my hand and he brought me into the painting.
I had never seen a more beautiful forest. The sun was shining through the trees and the birds were singing. Fallen leaves made a thick, soft carpet on the forest floor. "I could stay here forever!" I shouted. "You don't understand, Marianne,"Jacob told me. "If I can get out, and if you can come in, then that means other things can come out of your paintings, too."
We returned to my easel outside the Cathedral. Everything looked normal at first until I saw the statue of Peter. He was no longer bending over the book about the zodiac, he was tied up! Another statue of a man was behind him. I turned to look at Jacob but he shouted at me. "Don't look away! Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead!" [A gold star to whoever can guess the reference]
When I looked back, the statues of James and John were gone, and the strange statue was dragging Peter away.
Suddenly I heard Jacob shout, "No!" I turned to look behind me but he was gone. I looked to the horizon and saw a great battle. A woman dressed in blue and her daughter were dragging away a struggling Jacob. I sprang into action. If I have a gift for tapping into imagination, then I am the one in control, not these demons!
With a flourish I donned a blue cloak embroidered with silver flowers. I was no longer the weak, timid Marianne. I was the Lady Bluemantle! I practically flew towards the battle. Using all my martial arts training I sorted the rabble [I won't go into detail here...but my dream did. Think lots of broken bones - other people's, not mine].
At last it was all over. I was elated, drunk with power. "I really can do anything, Can't I?" I asked Jacob who now bore a cut above his left eyebrow.
"I told you," he said. "You have a gift. All the imagination in the universe is at your command."
"HA!" I exclaimed as I dove once more into my painting.
"Wait!" He shouted. "You shouldn't go there without
me! You don't know what you're doing!"
And that, gentle reader, is when I woke up.
