Stone, Rachel

Dream
by Rachel Stone

Grade 10
Prompt Code: N10B
IST: Gayoshi Rodrigo
Evaluator: Greg
(read the Evaluator's comment and Connections)

****************************************

             I woke up this morning and started the day off as usual. I went to the bathroom, ate breakfast, and then headed back to my room to finish getting ready. I grabbed my makeup bag filled with an assortment of MAC products and headed for the bathroom once again to do my makeup. Startled, I froze in my tracks as I glanced towards the mirror on the wall above the sink. At first, I thought I was having an extremely vivid dream and struggled to wake myself up. I pinched myself and splashed water on what should be my face to try to wake myself up, but nothing worked. It wasn't a dream! It was reality! I saw someone other than myself in the mirror. I then ran my hands over my face and body and realized that everything was different. I was in Morpheus' body from Neil Gaiman's novel, The Sandman.
            At first, I was frightened and didn’t know what to do. I tried to rationalize the situation, but I only became frustrated at the fact that there was no way to scientifically account for what had happened to me. I then grabbed at my face as if to pull off a mask, but to no avail. The other face was what I was stuck with for the time being and maybe permanently. “Was this temporary?” “Or was this change permanent?” “Would I ever be myself again?” “Would I ever see my reflection in the mirror again?” Thoughts flew through my mind so quickly that it was almost disorienting. All I could think about were the negative aspects of being in a different body. The positive aspects hadn’t even crossed my mind once. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. “I am Morpheus from the Sandman,” popped into my head along with all the questions that went with it. I wondered if I had all of Morpheus’ abilities along with his appearance.
            I started concentrating on the dream realm in which Morpheus lived and could travel in and out of. All of the sudden I was standing in the realm of dreams. I saw the huge castle that was Morpheus’ home. I saw the vast landscape sprawling out as far as the eye could see. I could touch and feel things, smell things, hear things, and taste things as well. I even encountered a few of the residents of the dream realm including Fiddler’s Green who is a jolly, friendly, well tempered fat man and the Corinthian who is this horrible nightmare creature who has no eyeballs of his own, but can take the eyeballs of living or dead people and place them in his eye sockets and see whatever the person or thing saw and how they would see things. I was awake in the dream realm. Not only was I awake in the dream realm, but I was Morpheus, the master of dreams and the supreme ruler of the dream realm. I could do anything. I could fly; anything I could imagine would appear before me. Nothing was off limits. I then remembered that Morpheus could travel into other peoples’ dreams as well. My lips curled into a gigantic smile as I realized that I could not only travel into anyone’s dream that I wanted to, but I could also manipulate the dream in any way that I saw fit. Dreams were now my own personal playground. I sat for hours thinking about all of the possibilities. I could make someone’s dream really beautiful and amazing or I could give them the most horrific and terrifying nightmare that anyone has ever had in the existence of mankind.
            I decided to try out a nightmare on a group of people who I felt deserved a really excruciating dream. First, I linked all of their dreams together and grabbed the Corinthian to join in on the fun. I searched each one of their minds to find out what their worst fears were and then turned those fears into a “reality” in their dreams. I felt powerful watching these people scream, tremble, and try to run away from their fears that I had brought into their dreams so vividly that anyone would have sworn that it was real. No matter how much they screamed and tried to run away, they couldn’t escape. In fact, the more they tried to escape, the more interested the Corinthian got. When he was interested enough he would enter into that person’s nightmare and pull out one of their eyes in order to experience what they were experiencing and to create even more trauma for the person.
            All of the sudden, I exited the dream realm and found myself in my bed. I quickly ran into the bathroom and checked the mirror. I felt an extreme sense of relief, yet a strange longing to be back in Morpheus’ body at the same time, when I saw that I was in my own body again. At first, I wondered if it really had happened or not. But, I did not wonder long due to the fact that there was an eyeball in my pocket. Next time I dream, I hope I run into the Corinthian so I can thank him for the parting gift.

Writing Program Evaluator Greg comments:

Rachel Stone’s essay “Dream” nicely sets up its setting, establishes the plot to follow, and creates compelling suspense—all in the first paragraph. This is exemplary reflective narrative writing, hooking readers in, compelling them to follow the narrative. Also effective is the opening paragraph’s concluding line, as it informs readers about what’s going on in the narrative—the essay’s narrator has morphed into a character from a novel—which helps readers to make sense of the otherwise seemingly complex moves of the narration. Just as an effective narrative should, moreover, Rachel’s appeals to various senses throughout the details, not just relying on the sense that is sight to propel readers along the plot. The essay’s playing up of reality, too, makes for an engaging reading experience, especially as the narrator tries out some of the various skills acquired from morphing into a fictional character—for example, when the narrator “decide[s] to try out a nightmare on a group of people.” Finally, the essay’s last line very effectively wraps up the narrative by bringing the narrator back to the present, but with a twist, with something remaining in the narrator’s pocket (we don’t want to give it away!) that draws into question the fluid space between reality and fantasy, fact and fiction, dreaming and wakefulness.

Connections:

*If the nightmare scenario in "Dream" has you in a tizzy, we suggest reading "How to Cure Your Nightmares" by Cameron Schultz in Illuminations, the 2005-2006 Gorman Anthology.

*Review the description of the reflective narrative mode in the Student Guidelines. After reviewing the conventions of the mode, how do you think "Dreams" fits this mode?

*What do you think about that space between reality and fantasy, fact and fiction, dreaming and wakefulness? Write a story that blurs that space as "Dreams" does. Or, write an expository essay in which you explain your ideas about that space. Do you think that it is a fluid space where distinctions are blurred, or do you think the distinctions are much more cut and dry? Why?