Dream: Mister Crocodile's Bus

Dream 20031027, 4:00 AM:

The first part of this dream seems to have had more complexity than I can remember, because it seems like I was in the midst of doing something when these little things started screaming out of the sky. They were small light bulbs with little beads or bells attached to them, and they chased people around, like some kind of pursuing firework. They made a high-pitched noise. They didn’t explode or anything, but once they chased someone down they would stick to that person’s clothing or hair. I was very upset to see them; apparently, they represented some kind of danger, or at least were an indicator that other, more dangerous types of thing could be coming soon.

I track them backward along their trajectory, trying to figure out what part of the woods they’re coming from. I find a young boy, who explains that there’s a ladder leading upward, and I know that this is where they’re from, somewhere up in the sky. I ask him how far up the ladder goes, and he explains that it’s about an hour up, and then there’s a lid. I don’t remember climbing the ladder or lifting the lid, but it seems like this kind of happened in absentia, like it was just mentioned, not observed.

It turns out that there’s some wicked women, possibly even a female demon or evil spirit, who is sending the little screaming people-chasers. My image of her is in a pose like the Dancing Kali, although without the extra arms. She lives up the ladder in the sky. I have to hunt her down and destroy her by means of an elaborate ritual. It seems like I have a woman with me who is helping me on this quest. We trap the demoness, and she starts the ritual; it involves throwing a bunch of tiny brass spheres, slightly larger than bee-bees, at a glass window; they stick in a geometric pattern that reminds me of a crux ansata or a fish. The brass spheres seem to be magnetized to the window. There is a chant of some sort involved, and gestures. We do something wrong, because the demoness is able to wriggle out from beneath the cloth we’ve tossed over her to trap her, and she escapes.

I am standing, all alone now, beside a roadside in a wood. The trees are tall and lofty, not branching until far up in the air; they remind me of eucalyptus. There is no underbrush (much different from the forests of my childhood, which were brambly and thick). I know that I need to get help from some other spirit, and I see a piece of some thin white material, either sheet metal or sheet plastic, that is cut out in approximately the shape of an animal’s lower jaw. I know that I can use it to get in touch with Mister Crocodile. I see a white mini-bus go by on the road, and it has a piece cut out of its side panel in the same shape. I wave and flag it down. It’s driven by Mister Crocodile, a kindly-looking older man with pale skin and white hair. I get in the bus, and we take off. He can take me anywhere; it’s his magical talent, being able to pilot any mode of transportation. There is a kind of “and then there were various adventures” part of the dream – I don’t know if there’s a lot more dream that I just can’t remember, or just a sense of various adventures, efforts to capture and destroy the demon woman. I remember that Mister Crocodile picks me up in various modes of transport throughout the dream; it seems like they’re always some kind of vehicle that one person would “captain” while several others ride. At one point, we are sitting down in a cafe, and we need to go and pursue the demoness – he is able to make the entire cafe get up and move, kind of slug-like, just sliding forward. It has something to do with the fact that it’s a business that is “driven” by one person that serves many people at once. He does the same thing with another business, I think it’s a law firm.

Finally, I receive word of where the demoness is hiding out. I am in a business office complex, and someone explains to me that I’d need to take the “Organizer’s Path” to get to where she is; it’s at a school nearby. I walk into an office, and ask a very smooth-faced bald man if he is an Organizer, and if he can show me the way to get to the school where the demoness is. He explains that he can’t show me, but that I’m welcome to use the path. He points to a blank white wall. I try to walk through it, and I don’t bonk head-first into a solid wall, but it seems like I can’t pass through. A helpful woman shows me what seems to be an elaborate ironwork bunk bed, and explains that if I try to hit my head on the iron work, that will be easier. I do this, and after a couple of tries where I actually bump into the scroll work, I pass through and am on my way to the school.

The school is actually a series of outdoor tents. We saw the movie 28 Days Later last night, and I’m pretty sure the “school” is from the outdoor hospital that the survivors walk through. I walk down a row of these pavilion-like tents, intent on finding the woman and performing the banishing ritual correctly this time. There is a man with me, I think he is my brother in the dream, or perhaps just a good friend, and he explains to me that I can’t kill the demoness, he’s planning to marry her. I explain to him that she’s evil, needs to be destroyed, but he is adamant. I don’t remember the final resolution, but I think that we end up getting her.