David Rhoden

I dreamed I fell a hundred feet into the sea.

. Day .

I was working with my family doing a job for my dad. We were working on a big offshore platform, like an oil rig. I think I was painting. I had to climb a hundred foot ladder, then stand on the top rung with my other foot on the rig to reach the part I was working on. I told myself "don't fall, you can't fall", but I fell. I felt like I sank at least a hundred feet, but my sister managed to dive down there and get me reoriented and swimming upwards.

We swam into a room where I thought we were trapped but then I realized we could breathe normally in there. The room led to a busy mall that must have been halfway to the surface. We couldn't figure out how to get to the surface (to get back to work) so I said I'll ask somebody.

I asked a coarse and angry woman how to get to the top and she said "Forget it! You ain't got the papers! It takes months! You may as well get in line with the Afghans." I turned to my left and there were lines of Afghan people in typical Afghani dress, all removing their blue sandals, as if they were going through a TSA checkpoint, but they were throwing their sandals away permanently, tossing them in big cardboard boxes.

I swore I would never do that, and began looking for a way to sneak back outside and climb to the top. I got outside but I couldn't find a way.

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