Something Squirrelly this Way Comes

Whilst home this past weekend I had a rather unsettling dream. It wasn't a nightmare and I wouldn't classify it as a night terror either (tho, by mere definition it would be a night terror as the dream woke me up). I wasn't particularly scared more excited with a touch of concern. The fact that I remember as much of it as I do, shows just how much it's stayed with me. Especially since I haven't told anyone about it and I haven't written it down, until now. However, I can safely lay the 'blame' for the dream at my brother's feet as the first part of the dream actually happened (up until I say "yeah, they kinda do").

My brother and I were outside on my parent's deck (the one at their current house), looking up at the sky as a storm blew in. It was very windy and the sky was dark. Toph pointed out some clouds saying that they looked like they were rotating in opposite directions. I looked up at the clouds and said "yeah, they kinda do" and then I noticed that sky was turning a slight green color as well as getting darker. The wind picked up even more and we were no longer on my parent's deck in Ohio. We were in Lawrence, KS by the dorms. Yet the dorms looked more like an apartment/condo complex in VA as they were much too tall to be any buildings in Lawrence. However, in my dream it was Lawrence.

I went from being on the ground looking up at the storm in awe to being in a dorm room, about fifteen or twenty stories up, hanging out the window into the storm and watching the funnel cloud drop down. I'm not sure where Toph was. When I turned to look for him in the room, the building shuddered as the tornado hit and I was spun out the window into the tornado, spiraling away with it, my heart pounding in confusion and excitement with only a touch of fear. I remember it being black and the air thick with dust and debris. I was spinning through the air, towards the ground. I crashed into an office chair with wheels (on the ground) and the force of my landing set the chair rolling down the highway. I crashed into a car and a piece of drywall landed on top of me, covering me from sight. Everything was very definite, almost violent in the force. I was dizzy, and giddy with it, while in the air and the breath whooshed out of me when I hit the chair.

The tornado moved on or fell apart, not really sure which as I couldn't see it. Other survivors helped uncover me and I stood up looking at all the damage around me. Then I became extremely worried and looking wildly about as I didn't see Toph anywhere. The fact that I was unhurt, aside from some minor scratches and bruises, never crossed my mind. People helping me weren't shocked or amazed either. Nobody was really hurt despite the level of destruction surrounding us. It was eerily quiet, I could hear folks in the distance shouting for friends and family, the snapping and popping of downed power lines, the thunks of debris falling off of buildings, crackling of leaves and limbs in the air on the ground.

And that was it. It ended with my standing on a highway, surrounded by cars and debris with a dark threatening sky and a heavy, pulsing, electric air that was omnipotent. It was breathing. You know that feeling you get when there's something coming, something not so good. In the movies it's always accompanied by swelling, threatening music and you see the hero/heroine turn around and look over their shoulder in fear? That kind of feeling, though I had the satisfaction of looking at the 'something' head on.