i am a sickly sack of potatoes

I stayed home from school sick today. Once my mom told me I could spend the day at home sleeping, I wrapped up an e-mail I had been writing and crawled back into bed, whereupon I had an odd dream.

It started out in a park that was like a long path with a fenced garden on one side and a beautiful lake on the other. At the end of the path there was a large clearing, where school was being held. There was an assignment up on the overhead, and the teacher flicked the switch for the sun so that we could see better. I only completed the first problem -- there was a drawing of Indiana Jones, a mountain climber, and a teacher all behind a desk yelling and pointing fingers at one another while two boys and a girl quietly sat on the other side intently watching them. The directions were to point out where Indiana Jones and the girl were. After I had completed the problem, I set down my pencil and bounded out of my desk and ran out of the park. I thought I saw my parents driving Pat's car and hid behind a building because I didn't want them to know that I had ditched school, but then I realized that they didn't drive a car like Pat's and I exhaled, relieved.

Suddenly I was in a building, and I couldn't find the exit. It was a conglomerate of various businesses and empty hallways. I came to a resilient maroon doorway and peeled it open, but then realized it was a seemingly abandoned office and I let the door fall shut. Then I found a rusted iron door and opened that, and immediately knew that it was a restroom in KMart. I slipped in and tried to find the door that led into the main shopping area. There was an overweight woman leaning against a sink who must have been in her fifties -- she was decked out in shabby clothing and she messed around with my mind ,and told me that this door was the exit, and then once I had opened it and discovered it led elsewhere, she told me another door was the exit instead. Frustrated that I couldn't find the way out and scared that I might not be able to, I ran out of the bathroom, the woman's cackles echoing after me. I spotted Bobby meandering and randomly shooting pictures, and thinking he might know where he was going, I resolved to stealthily follow him. There was a girl equal in age with him. I assumed she was his girlfriend but then I hesitated, thinking I should be more tact -- I called her his sidekick instead. I never discovered her name, so throughout the dream I referred to her as "the sidekick."

Somehow I gathered the courage to speak to Bobby and invited him and his sidekick to my house. I got the impression that, whereas I greatly admired Bobby, he was exhausted with boredom and keeping vigil for a window of opportunity to escape me.

Then we were at my house, and Bobby and his sidekick were camped out in front of the television. When I took a second glance I saw a plate on Bobby's lap and mumbled with scorn that my mom must have put it there. While Bobby & Co. were distracted watching a droning TV show, I combed through my house searching for a camera. I was determined to have my picture taken with Bobby. I knew I would be famous if I did. I looked all over my house and looked fervently for a camera. I saw some cameras strewn on my bed, but they were all dismantled and in pieces all over the house. I attempted in vain to reassemble the miscellaneous bits of camera. Then I stood up without warning and somehow knew that Bobby and his sidekick had left my house. I stormed down the stairs and burst through the doorway, and there was Bobby and his sidekick ambling down my driveway. I hurried over to Bobby and asked him anxiously if I could borrow his camera and take a picture of him, so I could have something to remember him by. He permitted me to and handed me his camera -- sunglasses with a button. I slid them on and found a gorgeous shot of a patch of vibrantly colored flowers, a river, and a path. I tried to take a picture of all three, but the camera lens wasn't big enough. I turned away and then looked again, and the scene I had wanted to capture had vanished. I instead thought I could take a picture of the sun illuminating the aforementioned river, and only after I had taken the picture did I suddenly recall my mom telling me that taking pictures of the sun can ruin a camera. I panicked and silently debated as to whether or not I should warn Bobby of what I had done. I decided not to. I handed Bobby his camera and looked away, and then Bobby and his sidekick had vanished like the patch of flowers, the river, and the path. I saw Pat's car parked on the curb. Thinking Bobby was inside, I flung open the door and dove inside. Greg (one of Nick's friends from school that he met last year during acting class) was at the wheel with Rick in the passenger seat, and Nick was sprawled out in the back. Greg instantly revved up the engine and sped away. I thought I saw Bobby sans sidekick darting in the opposite direction down the street otherwise devoid of human life.

That's when Pat called and woke me up. He came over and hunted for jobs for awhile -- last night while delivering pizzas he was almost attacked by a man so drunk he could hardly stand, and now Pat desperately wants a new line of work.

I feel more sickly than I did when I woke up this morning. I have an ear infection. My throat is sore. I feel like I am a sack of potatoes that have taken root and a burly man is dragging me along over his shoulder, and I keep wishing he would just release his hold on me and lay me to rest on the frosty ground, where I could remain sickly in a burlap sack and no one would find me until I was beyond recognition. I don't want to eat. I don't want to sleep. And I don't want to go to school tomorrow.