I dreamed i was in "Bali" - only that was just the name my mind gave to the place. Everything was a hurry, sloped; vaguely, there must have been an ocean somewhere below, but it was never in sight. I was with a group of people; families? and we walked down a narrow street of shops made of cast-off wood and corrugated iron. I saw the hula dancer figure we'd encountered at a street fair in Queens turning infinite loops on a shelf. Everything was cheap and the people were ugly. There was a hill where the grass was threadbare from walking and on it a few girls were posing for tourists. The corrugated roofs were all rusting, patched and the patches rusting.

We had to hurry, there wasn't much time left. At some point several of us age-mates separated from the adults and found our way out of the tourist/market side to the back lots and dumping grounds of the village. The mud was black and oily, full of trash. There was a hill with train tracks, i forget what was on the other side but my friends ran over them to see it. I was so tired and barefoot, careful trying not to step on anything rusty or sharp. When i got to the tracks (there were several sets running parallel) i saw that they were all shiny, they were all regularly used - not rusty. I was so heavy tired i did not think i could make it across; sure a train would come. When i got, stumbling, to the last set of tracks, i threw myself at them, hoping the momentum of the fall would carry me past them. But then i was down and still not across and so tired i couldn't move. I rocked and rocked between the rails trying to roll over the last one, trying to hurry, too tired to shout; but i was nearly paralysed. I never made it across. Perhaps i rested.

On the way back over (to the village), i was just as tired but made it across the rest of the tracks i'd already passed the other way. The mud on the hill was kneedeep and grotesque, with children playing barefoot in all the junk. There were several interesting broken teapots and other shards in the mud, but there was no time to investigate - i had to slog on.

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