Three Line Tales | Shoreline

Three Line Tales: Week 154

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Three Line Tales: Waves

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Daily Prompt 7/2/2016 | Kill It With Fire

[In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt 7/2/2016 | Burn]

Fear is a funny thing. Well, maybe not funny, since some fears can utterly cripple the individual, but funny as in… fear makes people do funny things sometimes. There are different kinds of fears, and different levels of fear. For example, my fiance, a big guy, with a history of football and brawling, and a slightly intimidating demeanor and physique, is afraid of just about every creepy crawly you can imagine, no matter how big or small. Ants, beetles, bees, moths, butterflies, mosquitoes, and don’t even get me started on spiders… they turn him into, well, for lack of a better analogy, a little girl. A squealing, quivering, little girl. I wish I were joking, but it is kind of hilarious. There have been countless occasions where I have had to come to his rescue with a shoe, or a rolled up magazine, and squish a tiny critter. I wouldn’t make fun of him if his fears were more severe, but they aren’t. He has no traumatic, triggering memories to fuel his fears… he just gets creeped out, and calls in the cavalry, me.

Dream Journal 4/18/16 | Medieval

Liam and I were visiting family up in Maine, and we were staying at my mom’s boyfriend’s mother’s house. Liam and I were staying in her split level house, while everyone else was staying in the obscene large mansion that she had casually built onto her old split level. I was sitting in the dining room, Liam on my lap, talking to a few family members, when I started feeling tired, and curled up on the floor with Liam. Everyone kept on talking, and I fell asleep.

I opened my eyes and it was morning. I could hear whispering, and turned to see my mom’s boyfriend’s son, and his girlfriend, staring at me from the hallway. I was still lying on the kitchen floor. They were wearing nothing but towels, and they hurried past me, through the kitchen, and out the door, without a word. I stood up, and suddenly started to panic, because Liam was not with me. I ran around the house calling his name, but he wasn’t there. I entered the mansion part of the house through a massive, iron gate on the other side of the living room, and tried to find someone to help me look for him. Several family members saw me running from room to room, but none of them offered to help, and just ignored me.

I found my mom, and her boyfriend’s mother, sitting at a long dining table in a great hall, and asked them if they had seen him. My mom told me that the only available bed was in the attic, so they locked him up there. I started crying and ran to find the attic. Upon reaching the room, I found it empty, and I screamed dramatically. I opened a door on the other side of the room, and was suddenly on a rocky beach. A few yards away sat Liam, kicking his feet in the shallow, ocean water. I ran and scooped him up, squeezing him against me, sobbing, while he playfully tried to push me away.

I went back inside, and found all of the family members sitting at the large, dining table now. I started shouting about how awful, and irresponsible it was for them to leave him alone in the attic, especially when there was (freaky magical) access to the beach. They all just stared at me, and my mom’s boyfriend’s mother laughed and told me to stop being so overprotective. I was livid. I put Liam down and grabbed a chair, chucking it forcefully at her head. It crashed against the table, and everyone started screaming and running away.

I grabbed one of the chair legs, stuck the end into the nearby fireplace, and threw the flaming torch into the scattering crowd. One of the family members called me a monster, and she threw a mug at me, but it missed and shattered on the ground. Liam started crying, and I picked him up, calmly walking out of the large room, while everyone kept shouting fearfully.

We walked back to the split level part of the house, and walked out the door. I checked each of the dozen cars parked in the driveway for an unlocked door, and ended up stealing a black sports car. I drove the car to a nearby park, we got out, and started heading toward a nearby swing set.

And then I woke up.

Dream Journal 3/31/16

[Since I’ve been so busy being glued to the couch with my sick, clingy toddler lately, I haven’t had any time to type out the dreams from my dream journal. I finally have a few minutes today, so here is dream 3 of 3.]

Kyle, Liam, and I were driving to Canopy Lake Park in Maine, and we were lost. I was telling Kyle to ask for directions, because the GPS on his phone was acting up, but we ended up finding our exit and following a bunch of signs to get to the park. The parking lot was completely empty, and I asked Kyle if they were even open, but he assured me that they were.

There was no one stationed at the gate, so we just walked right in, and headed for the first ride we saw, which was a teacup ride. There were no people in the park, but we didn’t seem to notice or care. Kyle kept complaining about how sunny it was. The gate to the teacup ride was locked, and Liam started to cry. We decided that we would spend some time at the large wave pool instead, but when we got there, there was no water in the pool. We found a large hose, and put it in the pool, and filled it up ourselves, even though we couldn’t get the waves to work. The water was crystal clear, and it looked like a tropical beach, with the bottom of the pool covered in white sand.

A woman showed up at the pool and waved at us enthusiastically. She was the only other person in the park besides us. She took off all of her clothes and jumped into the pool completely naked. Just then, a group of 6 or 7 little kids, which I assumed were with her, came running out of the locker room, and jumped into the pool after her. There were now several beach balls being thrown around, and we kept getting splashed, so we got out of the pool. Kyle was angry, and was cussing up a storm, complaining about the woman. We did a lap around the park, but there were still only a few other people there, and none of them were employees.

After walking for a long time, we came across a large archway, with a “Zoo” sign, and Liam starting jumping up and down and cheering. We walked down the path to the zoo, which descended into a thick, green rain forest. There were brightly colored birds, terrifyingly large bugs, and pterodactyls everywhere. I had a large camera around my neck, and was taking pictures of everything that we passed.

There was another group up ahead of us with several children, and they were all screaming about something that was going to get them…

And then I woke up.

Dream Journal 2/25/16

Present day.

Kyle, Liam, and I were at an amusement park on a pier, similar t one I grew up by. All of the rides were being repainted bright green for St. Patrick’s Day, and there was a group of protesters shouting something about how St. Patrick’s Day is racist against certain individuals, or something like that. There were police all around them, and the protesters were getting rowdy and violent, reaching out to grab at families and people that were walking past. We rushed by them, and were walking toward a large arcade at the end of the pier.

I put Liam on my shoulders, and he pointed to one of the policemen and said, “Constable!” and I was so shocked that I almost dropped him, because that was his fist word ever besides “mama“. Kyle was laughing and I was nearly in tears, and Liam kept bouncing on my shoulders shouting, “Constable, constable!”

The arcade was getting painted when we went in, and the floors were covered in wet, green paint. We walked through the paint, along with the other pier-goers, tracking footprints everywhere, but no one seemed to mind. Kyle was trying to win a prize in the claw machine, and getting angry at it, while I took Liam over to play one of those Whack-A-Mole type games. He went nuts, and hit every single one of them.

An announcement came over the intercom that the arcade was closing, even though it was early in the afternoon, and people started to get upset. I took Liam outside, and we couldn’t find Kyle. The protesters had broken through the line of police in the distance, and were running around, destroying the buildings and rides. I put Liam back on my shoulders and started running toward the parking lot, but the protesters had lit all of the cars on fire. I started screaming for Kyle…

And then I woke up.

Daily Prompt 2/10/2016 | The Perfect Storm

The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt 2/10/2016 | Sudden Shifts

“You’re at the beach with some friends and/or family, enjoying the sun, nibbling on some watermelon. All of a sudden, within seconds, the weather shifts and hail starts descending from the sky. Write a post about what happens next.”

“Liam! Nooo!” I shrieked, as my one-year old son dropped a fistful of wet sand into my head. I pulled out my ponytail and shook my hair violently, trying to disperse the itchy particles from my scalp. My little terror smiled brightly, turned on his heel, and took off in the opposite direction toward his father, who was doubled over with laughter.

I rolled my eyes, giving up on my hair, and leaned back into my lime green beach chair. My eyes adjusted to the shade provided by my comically large beach umbrella, and I sighed in defeat. I looked over at my husband and son, who were happily attempting to build a sand castle, with little success. Life with a one-year old, never a dull moment. I smiled, and turned my head to survey the rest of the beach. Families and groups of friends, both big and small, were scattered across the vast, sandy beach, frolicking beneath the warm, July sun. It was the third day that week that we had spent the day at the beach, as the weather had been perfect, and despite having to dig out sand from every nook and cranny of my body, and having a slightly pink complexion, I was definitely not tired of it yet.

“Is it supposed to rain today?” I heard my husband’s voice, and turned my head lazily to face him.

“No, I think it’s supposed to be sunny the rest of the week. Why?” I asked him, sitting up in my chair to embrace my tiny toddler, who was now climbing into my lap.

He made a confused “hmm” noise, and turned away from me, staring out toward the water. I suddenly became aware that the sun was no longer shining brightly down on the beach, replaced by the shadows of storm clouds, dancing across the sand. A chill entered the air, and I wrapped my beach towel around my son and myself. Kyle turned to me, opening his mouth to speak, when suddenly, something heavy landed on top of my umbrella, startling us.

“What the hell was that?” I asked, picking Liam up tilting my umbrella to investigate. A large ball of ice slid down my umbrella, and landed with a thud in the sand. Confused, I looked up into the sky, now dark with storm clouds, and shivered. Was that hail? Was it hailing? How? I heard a loud curse from behind me, and turned to see Kyle bending down to pick up another large ball of ice from the sand, while rubbing his head gingerly.

My eyes widened as he presented a baseball-sized piece of hail to me, and we stood there speechless. All around us, concerned voices, as well as cries of surprise, rang out, and families and friends ran to gather their belongings. Without another word, we quickly packed up our chairs, towels, and other beach accessories, and ran as fast as we could toward the parking lot. I held my umbrella over heads as best as I could, nearly tripping several times.

“This is crazy!” Kyle shouted, but it was still hard to hear him by my side over the roar of hail falling around us.

We got to our car and quickly barricaded ourselves inside. The pounding of hail rang loudly in our ears, and I was surprised to discover that my tiny toddler was remaining calm, and seemed to be amused by the balls of ice raining from the sky. We sat in silence (well, not really), and watched hoards of people as they dove into their cars in desperation. I couldn’t help it, and I began to laugh at the bizarre shift in the weather. I turned to Kyle, and saw the intensity melt from his face, and he too began laughing, reaching for my hand, and squeezing gently.

He started the car, and we followed the herd of other vehicles to the main road. Less than a mile later, the sky opened up, and the sun made a welcome appearance. We drove home with smiles on our faces, both ignoring the fact that the outside of our vehicle now likely resembled the craterous surface of the moon. I glanced in the rear-view mirror at my son, now sleeping soundly in his car seat, and sighed contently. We drove home in a happy silence, hearing only the sound of our tires crushing the occasional ice ball on the road. What a beautiful day.

Thanks for reading, friends!

Jan

Dream Journal 11/29/15

Near future.

I was at the beach with a large group of people, I’m not sure who they were. I had my son with me, who was around 3 years old, and I was carrying him on my shoulders and wading out into the water. We weren’t even waist deep, and suddenly the water just started quickly receding out toward the horizon. I could hear people screaming, and turned to see what was going on.

There were large rock formations to the far end of the beach to my right, and there were massive waves crashing against the rocks, throwing people around, and trapping them. I put my son down and told him to run to the other end of the beach, where our group was, then I ran over to help.

I dove into the massive waves, despite my fear of deep ocean water, and swam out with a few other people to try and rescue some drowning individuals. There was a man braving the waves with me, who was searching frantically for his son, but we couldn’t find him. He grabbed a teenage girl from the water, I grabbed a middle-aged woman. We were being thrown into the rocks, along with countless other victims of the ocean’s fury, but we managed to make it back to the shore. The teenage girl thanked us both before running to her family. The woman that I had pulled from the water was unconscious, and the man helped me perform CPR on her for a long time. It didn’t help. After what seemed like an hour of performing CPR, I looked down, and her lips had turned blue. She was gone.

I started crying, upset by the fact that I wasn’t able to save her, but the man pulled me away from her lifeless body, saying that we needed to go back into the water. So we dove back in.

We ended up saving three more individuals, despite being thrown into the rocks so many times that you would have thought all the bones in my body would have broken. I even got trapped in a small crevasse in the rocks with a small group of people, and nearly drowned. But we lived. The rest of the people who had been screaming in the water vanished. They were either saved by other people, or they didn’t make it.

Everything was calm again as we went back to the shore. The drowned woman’s body was gone. The man shook my hand, and another young woman, who had been helping with the rescues, hugged me, and we went our separate ways, as if nothing had happened. I don’t know if the man ever found his son.

Everyone at the other end of the beach seemed to have no idea of what had just happened, mere yards from them. Everyone was smiling and playing. I sat down next to my son, who was playing with a large Tonka truck in the sand, and starting sobbing uncontrollably. One of the girls from my group asked me where I had been, with a huge smile plastered on her face. I was incredibly upset me, because so many people had just died, and they were sitting here, blissfully unaware, playing in the sun. I glared at her until she walked away, still smiling.

I watched my son, who was still happily playing with his toy truck. I couldn’t stop crying. No one seemed to notice.

Then, there were more screams. The ocean, which had been receding this entire time, had turned into a massive tidal wave, thousands of feet high. Despite being miles away, it cast a shadow over the beach, and people started running away. I grabbed my son and his toy truck, and ran back to the rundown motel that we had apparently been staying in.

There were people running through the halls, breaking down doors, and stealing large pieces of furniture. I don’t know why. I grabbed a backpack off of the bed from our room, and we ran out of the building.

Everything, everywhere, was deserted.

I had just made it to the road, with my son holding tightly onto my back, when the tidal wave came back into view. It had made it to the beach, and was moving impossibly fast. We ran down the middle of the road, as the shadow cast by the massive wall of water loomed closer and closer…

…And then I was awoken by a crying baby at 5:00 in the morning.

Have I mentioned my fear of deep water? Terrifying.

Dream Journal 9/20/15

I was carrying Liam on my shoulders while walking down a beach. He was a little older, probably around 18 months old or so, and his hair was longer, and had more of a coppery/red tint to it, like my hair gets when I’m in the sun. I looked the same as I normally do in my dreams, a few inches taller, about 50 pounds thinner, longer hair, clearer skin, etc. Basically, didn’t look like myself at all.

The beach looked similar to the beaches from my hometown, but I don’t think that I had ever seen this specific one before, if it even exists anywhere in the world. It was endless, covered in light tan sand, littered with rocks and seaweed, with the occasional shell. Even though I knew it was a beach on the ocean, the ocean wasn’t moving. It looked like an endless lake, sprawling out to the horizon. The sky was a dark gray, almost stormy, but there was no wind. It was really calm, an dark.

We were just walking in silence, except for Liam’s random giggling as he pulled my hair, which made me smile. And as we walked, there were people walking past us in every direction. The further we walked, the more people there were, as if we were walking toward a really populated area. I don’t think it was summer, because there were no bathing suits, just jeans and t-shirts and other normal clothes. No one was talking though, it was just quiet, with baby noises.

The far end of the beach turned into a busy road, and we were waiting to cross the road with an older man, who was talking to me, but I wasn’t listening. He was smiling at me and talking, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying, and I wasn’t responding to him. We crossed the road and we were in a city. Liam was walking next to me now, holding my hand, and we went into a Starbucks (or similar coffee shop, I’m not sure), and we both god hot chocolate. The old man was there, and I was watching him meet with a younger woman, who he kissed on the cheek and sat down at a table with her. Then we left the coffee shop, and it was sunny outside. We were still in a city, but it looked different than from when we went in. Liam was holding my hand, and he had one of his socks in his other hand, and we were walking behind a young, gay couple on the sidewalk, who were arguing about something that I couldn’t hear, but they were both really angry. There were people stopping to stare at them, and then they stared at us walking behind them. It made me anxious.

Suddenly we were back in our apartment, but it wasn’t the same apartment. It was big and bright, with shiny wood floors and big windows, and there were vases with tall, decorative plants everywhere. I was in the kitchen, and Liam was sitting on the counter, eating blueberries while I cooked something. I don’t know what I was cooking, but I was throwing a bunch of stuff into a ridiculously large pot on the stove.

I put Liam on the floor and walked to the bathroom, but I tripped over a pair of boots on the floor and fell. I scraped my elbow, and Liam was laughing, and I felt embarrassed.

That’s the last thing I remember before I woke up.

Thanks for reading.

Jan