Monday, December 14, 2009

Nightmare on West Peachtree Street -- II

Before we get started, some background.

I went for a walk one Sunday night in Seattle. I want to say it was November or December 2007, after we'd set the clocks back. It was around 6:30pm, but it was night time. I was walking down the sidewalk of Queen Anne Ave at the top of the hill. There's a Safeway store up there, on the right hand side after you've made it up the hill. I was walking in front of the parking lot exit when I saw a car, a sedan, attempting to exit the lot. I crossed in front of him (or her, I didn't see) only the sedan didn't stop. I kept walking and the sedan bumped, very slowly, into my legs. It wasn't like I walked in front of the car, I was clearly crossing the exit and s/he just basically drove into me at a very low rate of speed.

Well, I was none too amused. I mean, the car wasn't going fast enough to hurt me at all or even cause me to lose my balance, but I still angry, angry at the idea of someone carelessly driving into me. I pointed at the driver and yelled "STOP" and then angrily slammed the palms of my hands into the hood, pretty hard, it made a loud noise as I recall. To my surprise, the driver of the car didn't do anything. No apology, no confrontation, nothing. So I kept walking and made sure to turn around shoot a bird at the driver, just in case there was any misunderstanding about my feelings on the matter.


The Nightmare on West Peachtree Street II started with a similar situation.


It was a city side street that I was crossing, on a busy block. I was walking down a wide street with one way traffic. The traffic was moving the opposite direction that I was. As I was attempting to cross the side street, a small Nissan pickup truck was sitting at the intersection. I was to cross in front of this truck from the driver's right to her left. While I was crossing the side street, the driver of the truck continued to inch forward. She bumped into me when I was in front of her. I looked at the driver and she shook her head, like she was saying "no". She then bumped into me again.

I stopped in front of her truck and pounded both fists into her hood and pointed at her and yelled "Stop f---ing moving!!" The driver simply looked at me, and again shook her head. I crossed the street all the way and turned around to look at her. "What are you doing?!" I demanded angrily.

Then she did something unexpected. She turned left and stopped right beside me. She stopped her truck facing the wrong way on a busy one way street. An oncoming car swerved around her at a very high rate of speed, but she didn't bat an eye. She just sat there, staring at me.

Then something very strange happened, something very very strange.

All of a sudden, I was seeing this scene unfold through her eyes. Not in a figurative sense, I mean, I was literally seeing things through her eyes, seeing myself standing on the sidewalk in my gray hoodie.

"I" looked down at the floor board of the truck, looked at "my" pink slip on shoes on "my" chocolate colored feet. "I" brushed "my" hand underneath the seat, but didn't feel anything. Then, "I" opened the glove compartment... and pulled out a silver revolver.

"I" cocked the revolver and lifted it up above the window.

It should be noted here that while I can see what she is seeing, my emotions have remained with me. So at this point, when she lifts the revolver above the window of the truck, I can see myself, my real self, standing on the sidewalk, but at the same time, what is about to happen is just now started to occur to me, the real me.

"I" hold the revolver up and see a look of dread and panic cross my face.

I'd picked the wrong person, clearly. This woman was just plain vanilla crazy, and she was going to take my life away.

"I" pointed the revolver right at the middle of the hoodie. Without any consideration or remorse, without any emotion or second thought, "I" pulled the trigger one time. That was all "I" needed to do. "I" watched my chest explode. And "I" just sat there, still facing oncoming traffic. "I" had no thoughts, no feelings. And "I" didn't move a muscle.

Then, like a movie, honest to goodness, the entire dream went white, bright white, that's all I could see.

When an image returned, I don't know whose eyes I was looking through. The vantage point was apparently on a dock near a river or lake. "I" saw three large men holding a large beige sack. Though "I" could not see inside the sack, "I" knew that it contained my lifeless body. There was no doubt. The men tossed the sack into the water and turned to walk away.