Subconscious Flood

I dreamt there was a flood. I swim better than most and I was helping rescue people. I would swim out to a house and carry people lifeguard style to safety one by one. The water kept rising and I am more and more tired. My muscles are screaming, but I make myself swim out, take on the weight of another person and swim back.

I know this is going to be my last run. The water moves too fast and rises too high. I swim to where an overweight woman and her baby are chest-deep, even standing on their roof. I tell her to give me the baby. I promise her I'll be back for her. I lie.

I have no intention of coming back. I'm too exhausted. It's too dangerous now. I'll save her child, but she's going to die. But I lie to her and give her false hope so I don't have to face her realization and her sorrow. It's just easier to take the baby and deliver a weak promise.

I wake up disgusted with myself.

I should write more.

Here are some more story ideas:

Time travelling thieves steal great works of art. Things that are "missing" in our time (faberge eggs, Leonardo da Vinci's "Medusa," Michaelangelo's " Sleeping Cupid," etc.) have been stolen by art thieves from the future. Of course, time-travelling art police follow them, but the thieves are the ones we're rooting for. Heheh ...Art Police... Stop! In the name of Post-Modern Impressionism!

This is probably more of a novel concept than a short story: Adam and Eve in the first year after exile from Eden. They see the entire Earth dying (changing seasons from Fall to Winter) and blame themselves and each other for their sin. The story of their relationship follows the seasons from Summer - when they're first exiled to the following Spring - when they accept and forgive one another and Cain is born with all the wonder and promise of new humanity. A sequel following Cain, Abel and Seth would make millions!

A Nazi officer loots the French countryside after the German invasion. In one of the chateaus he finds the stabbed Picture of Dorian Grey and absconds with it. The painting is restored, but as the war progresses, Dorian's painting transforms into a painting of the Nazi. Following Wilde, the officer first indulges in his power, cruelty and hedonism and the picture becomes more horrible. Unlike Wilde, the Nazi never is repentant and displays his painting with pride and revels vampire-like in his immortality.

Wanna make a million bucks?

Periodically, I get these ideas for getting rich. This is my latest:

There hasn't been a ground-breaking Christian dating book I've heard of since "I Kissed Dating Goodbye." We should start the next fad and call it "Jesus Is My Wingman." We could relate what a wingman does in the secular dating world with how Jesus does the same thing spiritually and emotionally.

For example, your wingman supports you in approaching the opposite gender - Jesus fills you with confidence so that you can approach anyone, not just attractive people. Plus, Jesus can help you see the inner beauty of others and more importantly yourself. Your wingman distracts the "friends" so you can keep focused on your "target" - Jesus took your sin and now you're free to seek God. Plus having Jesus as your wingman is evangelism!

However, that won't make a million bucks.

What WILL rake in the cash is the merchandizing. Seminars on DVD, T-Shirts, the novel series (one for young adults and one for grown-ups), and the official "Jesus Is My Wingman" Study Bible. Once that gets underway, we'll squash that "Chicken Soup for the Soul" section with "Jesus Is My Wingman for..." Adolescents...Divorcees...Widow/ers...Single Moms...Over 40...

Call me if you know a publisher. I'll let you in on a portion of the profits.

Nice Dream, Jellybean.

My son has had a fever for three days. As a result, he's had strange dreams. This one he had sounds like a fairy tale:

There's a witch who's spreading evil in the land. My son and some friends killed her and she collapsed. As she hit the floor, her body spilled into thousands of jellybeans.

He decided the jellybeans were evil and he should not eat them, but one of his friends, a girl, put some in her pocket. When she ate them, she turned into the witch.

There's a moral in there somewhere. I just have to find it...

... _ _ _ ...

You've retired and spent all your retirement savings on a sailboat. It's not the biggest, fastest or most luxurious, but it's yours and gives you a few years of good memories when you find yourself in a dire situation. While sleeping, your ship lost anchor and is now headed toward a waterfall. You're a pretty savvy sailor and recognize that you've probably past the point of no return; the boat will go over the falls. However, it's dark and you're not certain - but the thousands of gallons falling hundreds of feet are loud enough to have woken you from your slumber and very, very near. You have the following choices:

A) Fight with all you've got to try and save the ship and your possessions. It's probably too late and the kind of maneuvering required will most likely tear up the hull and sail, but you've got to try to save your investment. Likelihood of survival is tiny.

B) Go down with the ship. You've had a good retirement; you can't start over with nothing. You resign yourself to your fate and enjoy what is bound to be your last moments alive. Likelihood of survival is virtually non-existent.

C) Spend what little time you have tearing down the sail and making a parachute for yourself in true MacGuyveresque fashion. You might get out with one prized possession from the boat (though the boat itself is doomed without its sail). Likelihood of survival is excellent, but you'll have lost almost everything.

What do you do?

Does your answer change if instead of stowing possessions, you're sailing with your best friend? The extra help increases your option A) likelihood of survival to "small" and the extra weight decreases your option C) likelihood of survival to "great." Option B) will continue to condemn you both to certain death, but you've got a nice bottle of wine you've been saving up for a special occasion...

Quick, write these stories before I forget them!

A warlock or evil priest enters a town known for its righteousness with the intent of polluting and destroying it. Rather than corrupting the town, he is himself transformed, arousing the anger of his dark gods.

A young Japanese man discovers an Oni who may be either benevolent or harmful. The Oni will grant him three wishes in genie style and the young man decides this is a good spirit, a Kami. He makes wishes for wealth and success, enlightenment and hedonism and finally for eternity. It is this last wish that the Oni demonstrates his true nature and betrays the man.

A woman wakes up each morning with the distinct but unprovable belief that she died the night before in her sleep. She seeks the advice of doctors and sleep specialists, metaphysicists and existentialists and finally a voodoo queen. The voodoo queen reveals she is a disembodied consciousness who lives the last day of women's lives.