Runs Like A Girl

2 comments | Friday, January 19, 2007

Last night I dreamed I was in the Middle East (what I imagine it would be like anyway).

I was in an outdoor market and this one shop I was in had no roof, but sort of thatching and bits of corrugated metal at random angles balancing at the top of the mud walls to provide shade. It was busy, people-wise, but not ~crowded~. People were milling about, taking their time, mostly it was locals, a few of us foreigners peppered around buying fruit and hats and such.

So, this shop, as I said was roofless, it also only had three walls, the front, being exposed and open to the market 'street'. It wasn't large by any means, the average size of a local convenience store here, basically. I was near the back in one of the two corners, perusing said fruit.

Out of the blue, a crowd started to form around the front (the exposed bit) and a man yelled something I couldn't understand and lobbed a flaming bottle with liquid in it towards the other corner in the shop, at a one of the men in there? two? Not sure who was with whom.

Then things were in slow motion for a few seconds. Here's what I saw/remember: four more men approached the area and they too started yelling and throwing flaming bottles too; some of the glass was green, most of the flasks were clear...all a la flamee.

Some of my compatriots stuck in the shop with me began climbing up on teetering tables and struggling to get a foothold on the walls, grappling at the niches and hollows naturally carved into the facade over years of market-wear. They reached down for the rest of us to follow. The fiery flasks just kept on coming...

Then...everything sped up again and I was terrified. Some of the younger kids that made it to the roof were jumping off the back end of the shop and bolting away. I saw three people go up in flames, one in almost the same spot I was standing only seconds ago. I had no idea what anyone was saying, but I know we all had the same look upon our faces. We kept trying to help more people up, as one got up, another jumped off the back. There just wasn't much room.

There were moments in the chaos that I should been deaf by the noise, but things would slow down again and seem almost tranquil in the imposed silence within myself.

I woke up. I was horrified...I think I scared myself awake.

posted by boho

at 11:11 a.m. Permalink