March 2007
march 6
I meet Dana, Maria and Rose at the Starbucks next to Raley's in Pittsburg. We sit at these small tables outside Raley's. It's late, almost eleven, and nobody else is around. I don't get my drink right away, and Maria asks if I want her to buy me one. She's writing on little notecards. I tell her I'll get a drink soon. By the time I do decide to get one, I have to go down into the shop's basement. The two guys (a man and his brother-in-law) say that since it's after hours, they're not allowed to make any Starbucks drinks, so I say okay and leave. We girls move onto the other shops in the center. We find one tiny building and decide to go in and tell ghost stories. The door to the room is glass, but textured so it can't be seen through. The room is L-shaped, with a mirror at the short side of the wall. We each sit down. The carpet has a really busy pattern, similar to a movie theater, and Dana tries to scare me by saying a dark spot on the carpet is a roach, but I don't fall for it. I start telling a ghost story that I see in my head as I say the words aloud. The story is about a girl who lives on my old street. She's home alone one day, and hears thumping sounds above her, on the second floor. She runs out of the house and to a neighbor's, to find help. Her friends, who are just driving up, see her go, and they go inside her house. They hear the thumping, go upstairs, and get killed. I'm watching over this antique shop, and I'm creeped out because the street is entirely deserted, and it's a rainy, ugly day. All of the stores look like small, run-down houses. I see two men down the street, and I have Pepe with me, so I tie his leash to the front door. I hope no one comes, because the store is a mess and I have a bunch of junk on top of the cashbox. The mail carrier comes by with some stuff, mostly magazines, and I set them aside to take home when I leave. A man comes by, asking if the store owner will meet with his mother at ten that night. I tell him he'll have to call, because I'm just a friend filling in.
march 12
I'm back in high school. I'm hanging out with Dana and another girl. We're walking around and pass by Andrew, and say hello. When he's gone Dana asks why I'm (smiling or blushing?) and I say "Whatever." We're on our way to class, and on the way to the building I stop at this large, square hole in the sidewalk. I can see that it leads down into some place, and I want to climb in and explore, but the other girl with Dana and I doesn't. I ask if they would rather go to see a haunted place that's not underground, and they do. We start walking on this path in a wooded area near James Donlon. Andrew is also on the road, lagging way behind us, and we invite him but he ends up not going. The three of us girls arrive at the house. In a large room downstairs, the staff is showing a historical documentary (on an old fashioned projector) about the house. We have to go through that room to do anything else, and try to to get in unnoticed, but the maid running the movie stops it as we come in. She asks if we're "sneaking in," and we say no, but that we don't want to watch the movie. We go upstairs to the second floor, and I tell them a story about the woman who lived there a long time ago and now haunts the house. She always wore white clothing. There's a secret closet in her bedroom that I know how to get into, but first I have to check that no one will come in. There are two maids cleaning on that floor, and I go into the bathroom where they are to make sure they're both busy. We girls go into the secret closet, and one of the walls is unfinished. On the inside is a boiling liquid, like sulfur, but it has no smell. The supplies to finish the wall (boards, nails, primer) are in the room and I add a couple rows to the wall. I have to stand on a ladder to do the work, and while applying some primer to the boards with a small scraper, I say that the wall is never finished because bad things always happen. Dana wants to work on the wall also, but I'm worried because she'll have to climb to the very top of the ladder and stand on her tiptoes. A fourth girl we know enters the room, wearing a white nightgown that belonged to the woman who haunts the room. It's later and I'm hanging out with the fourth girl, who is very shy, and her mother doesn't allow her to do hardly anything. The mother also insists that the daughter wear only plain (white or cream-colored) clothes. The girl's dad used to try to help her, but the mom went crazy and he gave up. I'm sitting with the girl in her bedroom, looking at a pile of colorful clothes and beads she has on her bed that she can't use, and I tell her that she has to find a way to get around the mom's rules and do what she wants to do. The girl asks me if I want to have pizza with her and her friend Martin that night, and I say sure, if it's okay with his parents. We go over, and Martin's dad is very silly. He's wearing a weird white outfit, including capri pants, and is carrying a large tray with a pitcher of orange juice to serve to us. Martin's mother is very upset because she's found the "helmet" that belongs to the shy girl's crazy mother. (The helmet is just a large piece of white, padded bubble wrap, with a plastic strip to hold it to the mother's head.) They know that the crazy mother is in their house now. We're all eating and watching the security cameras, and we see hundreds of people gathering in a field that turns out to be across the street. Something the shy girl did has resulted in all football being cancelled forever. We know we won't be able to stay hidden for very long, so we go to Best Buy and have a huge party/press conference. I'm serving pieces of a large, thick chocolate cake. The shy girl is standing near me, talking happily to whoever comes by. I turn away for second, and when I turn back, she's gone and I know she was kidnapped by some guys who were mad about football being cancelled.
march 15
I'm visiting someone at Antioch High and it's about 3:00. School is getting out, so it's very crowded as I'm trying to leave. It had rained earlier and there are large puddles on teh ground. I slip and nearly fall over, yelling out "Whoa!" but only one girl laughs at me. We're walking down some concrete steps at the same time - she's in front of me - and then she nearly slips. I laugh but I catch her and say "We're even?" But she has an evil look on her face and I don't trust her, so I'm walking in front of her, and turned around so I can see what she's doing. I have a large, green canister of pepper spray that I take out and hold in my hand. She's holding a taser. Her little son or brother is now walking with her, and he starts taunting me. I spray him in the face a little bit. The pepper spray is all green and gooey on his face. I'm running off to my car and he uses the taser (from a distance) on the back of my head. I'm too far away to feel anything other than a warm, tingly sensation. They're in their car right behind me, and I can't seem to lose them. Finally I do, at an intersection where some people cross the street between my car and hers. The people all seem to be disabled in some way, including a blind girl, another girl who is limping, and a guy on crutches. I honk at two girls who are just standing in the crosswalk, frozen. I drive into a neighborhood, to the house of a woman who works at the same company I do. She's there arguing with the boss, who is insisting on using her house for a dinner he's having with the same girl I just had a fight with. I'm annoyed because I have to actually cook the dinner. While making potatoes, my dad and brother stop by, and my brother messes around with the ovens - turning off the big one I'm using, and turning on the small one to the wrong temperature. I have to watch this video of a seminar my boss went to. Everyone is watching this presentation, and large sheets of paper and bubble wrap are coming from the ceiling. I have to use the video to put together some reports/maps of Central and South America. I'm reading a MySpace message from an old classmate who went back to visit the high school, and sent everyone an update on the teachers. I reply asking her if Spelling and (some female teacher?) are really in the classrooms next to each other now, and if another instructor is really being in school for more teacher's training.
march 16
I get home from somewhere, and get mad at my parents because they ate some of the fish. They don't think it's a big deal. I leave again and drive towards the Antioch bridge. I get on 160, but get off at the first exit, where you can board a ferry. I want to go on a trip, but looking at the prices, the cheapest one is $49.50, and I change my mind. I'm leaving and some girl makes a comment about me being "way over the weight limit." I keep trying to just leave, but I end up getting in a fight with her and her friend.
march 18
I'm at the office and trying to finish several errands early, because I'm going to a play at LMC at 3:00. I need to pick up some stuff at a store called "Paint Center" that's on East Leland between Railroad and Harbor. There are so many people that I have to leave without getting what I need. I'm running around, trying to find the bus that will take me to LMC. I find it, but I have only two $20 bills in my wallet, and the driver can't give that much change (the fare is 75 cents). A woman sitting near the front gives me one dollar and I thank her. It's 2:50. Before we can leave, the bus driver insists on checking each of us to make sure that 1, We're not chewing gum (I am) and 2, That we did all of our homework. She has a big binder that lists all of the assignments we have in our classes, and picks one at random to check. For me, she chooses something called "Giants Game." What I have are a bunch of pictures of girls trying out to be cheerleaders. The bus gets to LMC right at 3:00, and I find Dana - I have her ticket to the play. I'm back at work and checking my e-mail. I have one from a girl named Stephanie Cameron, who describes in a little poem what I did when I got home from work the previous day: Put on a sweater and made a purple margarita. I'm trying to figure out who she is, and whether she works at the office, because she has an e-mail address that indicates she does. I'm at home, reading the newspaper. On the front page is an article about a town - Pittsburg, Minnesota - that has six inches of water on the ground that won't go away. There's a picture of some guys who belong to a motorcycle club, and of a cute wiener dog.
march 19
I'm at a class reunion being held at a casino. At the front desk, there are two older women handing out the name tags. I'm standing off to the side and two people cut in front of me, so I move to the middle where the line is. When it's my turn, I'm trying to give the woman my drivers license so I can get my name tag, but she wants the rings on my fingers. I'm wearing at least two or three on each finger, but none on my thumbs. Some of the rings are very tight, and she's getting mad when it takes awhile to get them off my fingers. I joke with her that I'll be counting them when she gives them back. She starts appraising the rings, kind of apologizing but saying it's the only way she can make any money. One of the rings is a diamond with a small white shamrock in the middle, and she says it's worth lots of money. I tell her that it belongs to my grandmother who died only six months ago, and I'm not going to be selling it. She's disappointed but says okay. It's later and I'm sitting next to a female classmate. Spelling walks by and I call out to him, asking if he wants to get a margarita later. He says okay and points to the restaurant (Chili's?) he's going to be eating dinner in. The girl starts teasing me and asking what's going on between us, and I tell her "Nothing." It's later on and he and I are in my bed, naked under the sheets, when he suddenly stands up and walks across the room. It's dark outside but his skin is kind of glowing in the moonlight. I'm getting upset and tell him to come back, that I have condoms in my dresser.
march 29
I'm the girlfriend of a mobster, and I do something that gets him angry at me. He sends one of his friends over to beat me up. I'm watching a little girl at the time, and when the friend comes, I tell her to run out of the house. When the guy starts beating me, he hits me in the mouth several times and I start bleeding. I manage to lock him in a room and run outside, looking for the little girl, and I don't see her anywhere. There is a huge rottweiler walking around the street, and I get scared and jump up on top of a pickup truck parked in the driveway. A man and a woman who are trying to help me are sitting in the cab of the truck, and I climb in. I find the car key at the bottom, under one of the mats, and start the the truck. My mouth is bleeding again so I keep spitting out the window. There are a bunch of cars and large trucks on the street, so I drive like a maniac trying to get away. The three of us go to a video store where the other woman is a customer. She tells them that she's changed her name to Nmonmo and wants to have that change noted on her membership card. One of the guys working there tells her she'll have to fill out an application, but she seems like a good candidate to have it done. She is doing this to help us hide out, and when one of the other workers starts looking at her suspiciously, I move behind the counter and take a bottle of water out of a cooler to distract him. Later, I end up back with the mobster, who puts me on some sort of drug(s) that make me act like a zombie. He spends time "training" me how to act, and I can't talk to him, but have to write to him in a notebook. One of the things I did before that made him mad was writing lies/gossip about people in the same notebook.
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