i am traveling on business, staying in a hotel downtown in a new city. hailey duff is staying there too, and we've been making eyes with each other in the lobby for the last few days. she finally speaks up, and asks to join my table where i am eating and drinking. i run into a friend and invite him over, and then see a new girl i'd rather hang with and try to get away.
somehow, santarpios is near the hotel, even though i am nowhere near east boston, so i go around the corner to get a pizza. everyone there knows my name and usual order, a pie with hot cherry peppers and garlic. i confuse them by changing my order because i am worried about my breath smelling bad with one of the chicks back at the hotel.
i head back to the hotel and the dream shifts. there has been an earthquake up and down the eastern seaboard, and the financial crisis has plunged the country into a depression. there is violence and chaos in the streets, and i am filled with an overwhelming panic to get home to my family.
i see a news report of a highway torn in two and firefighters are trying to rescue an enormous tiger that has fallen into a crevasse. the tiger has had his teeth and jaw ripped away by lions, who the firefighters are fighting back while trying to free the tiger.
i set off from the city i am staying in and find myself on a road through the woods alongside an abandoned strip of highway. there is a bus overturned on the side of the road. people are looting it. i join in and try to maintain order, but still realize i need supplies. i find some shoes and join a group of people who are traveling away from the city.
i end up meeting up with my family, and find out everyone is ok. we are on a bus, but soon part ways somehow?
i travel for a long time and find myself in a flooded rural town with a new group of travelers. we are floating on homemade rafts and in shopping baskets. there is a baby with us now and an older man who inspires us not to give up. i am attacked by a young couple who try to steal my shoes, but i fight them off and return to the group.
we make our way out of the flooded basin and find a road along the town. we see a number of houses, some boarded up, some abandoned, all foreboding. we walk a long time and find ourselves on the outskirts of another city, in a bad part of town, where most of the residents have remained in squalor. i am afraid of being attacked. we travel from a hispanic neighborhood into a nicer black neighborhood. people are listening to news reports. the radio says something about how we have all paid for this current crisis with "our guns." i am filled with dread.
i am back at austin prep. i am returning for a visit, but somehow have to go to class. everyone is gathered in the cafeteria and i am late somehow. they are beginning to file out, but its been years and i don't remember where my table was, who i sat with, or where my stuff is. i fight past the crowd and avoid being spotted by one of the teachers. i scour the cafeteria and finally find the jock table and remember that i sat there for a time. eric anderson is there, marc griffin, others. i find my stuff: a baseball equipment bag, identical to marc's with my name written in black marker. i dig through, but my uniform is not in the bag, and i think it must be in my locker. my old green mizuno batting gloves are in there and a small mesh bag with keys, which i think must be for my locker. the bell rings, and i run down the hall from the cafeteria to the locker room, yelling to someone that i have no idea what class i have right now. i get to the locker room and there are boys and girls in towels. i remember that the school is co-ed now, but i am still surprised that people are changing. the keys i found are numbered, and i find the locker and open it but its not my stuff. everything is written in spanish and i am confused. i look up as mr. moran appraoaches... i explain the situation and go off to roam the halls.
