Dream Log: May 9, 2002

I had a noder dream last night, which is most bizarre, considering I've never met another noder IRL. Several vague, shadowy noder figures and I were discussing the proper pronunciation of noder names. Walter, RalphyK, riverrun and the like were straightforward and agreed upon rapidly. Even wertperch, Demeter, and wharfinger didn't cause much trouble. The next step is when all hell broke loose.

"Segnbora-t?" a shadow said incredulously (the name scrolling soundlessly out of his mouth in text), "What the hell is that supposed to sound like??"

"Or Teiresias!" another irate noder exclaimed. "How precisely does one pronounce that many vowels in one word?"

They went on and on, until my eyes were bewildered with the likes of QXZ, Chras4, and mcai7et2. Even (c)all didn't escape a silent expostulation. Finally, brushing a strand of Aresds out of my eyes, I feebly protested that these were aliases for a writing community. Maybe the pronunciation wasn't important?

That was a bad move.

I became visible to the shadow figures for the first time, and they looked me up and down with one brief glare before one declared, "And what exactly would you have to say about that, Ceallach? Hmm?"

"Hey!" I was incensed. "That's not fair! Just because it's not English doesn't mean it's unpronounceable! It's easy!" I snatched the scroll of my name out of the air, and brandishing it like a shield said "KELLY", and woke myself up.

I woke up naked and cold at the foot of a bed. I knew everything was different. The life that I had lived before I went to sleep was gone and this was all that was left.

I watched myself get up and start to do random chores, such as washing dishes and folding yesterday's laundry. For some reason I had a backpack full of clothes that was mine and I moved it near my parents luggage. I put on a long tee shirt and underwear. I heard my grandmother in the kitchen telling my dad that I would be serving at her party today and I could choose to wear clothes or not.

My mind was reeling, wondering what was going on. I knew my things didn't belong near my parent's things, so I moved them over to a corner by themselves. On my way, I passed my cousin and I heard his friends ask who I was. His responce was that I was just a slave. Shock poured through my body.

I must have done something dreadfully wrong and I knew at once I had been exiled from my family. The only thing I could think of that would cause this was allowing a boy in the house a year ago who raped me. They blamed me for that. And now I was going to be prisoner to them forever.