Dreamland

Cars in Snowdrifts, Apricots

I'm walking through a parking lot outside of a tavern on the South side of town. The lot is filled with classic 50's autos, all half buried in ice and snow. I walk into the bar, order a beer, and ask the bartender what's the story with the cars. He replies "A sudden storm came up, took us by surprise before we could get our cars out. They'll just have to sit until spring thaw now."

I leave the tavern, walk past a '57 Chevy buried in a snow bank in front of a dilapidated clapboard house. There is a chrome jet hood ornament hanging loosely on the hood of the car. On impulse, I grab onto it and snap it off easily, and start to walk away with it. A young boy runs out of the house and yells at me: "You better not take that, that's my Dad's car!"

I hand him the hood ornament and apologize for my actions. The kid runs into the house with it, and I can hear him telling his father what happened. A dog on the side of the house starts barking at me. I run down a path behind their house, into the woods to get away from them. I can hear the man in the background: "Don't worry son, he won't get far in those brambles." Sure enough, the path ends in a briar patch.

I find a huge apricot tree. I pick several that look ripe and sit down next to the briar patch and start eating them. The boy and his father show up. They ignore me, and start picking apricots. The man says to the boy: "You can tell if they're ripe or not by the sound they make when you bounce 'em."

He bounces one on the ground and it makes a hollow ringing sound. "That one's ripe." He tells the boy.

He picks another one and bounces it, it makes a dull thud sound. "That one's not ripe." He says, teaching the boy the difference.

They walk away with a bag full of apricots. After they leave, I bounce my last apricot on the ground. It makes a dull thud sound. I don't care, I eat it anyway.

I walk back down the path, past their house, and out to South Main Street. I walk North towards the center of town, unsure of where to go next...