Dreaming Backward                                                                                      

I was someone else, a younger woman who was polite and shy.

I was on a family vacation except it was not my family

I was looking for a dentist but he had moved out and his office was empty.

I was a male student in a comics class, not paying attention, and was called on to explicate a new superhero comic.

I saw an old friend pass by me, quite close, intent on something else. She had aged and her hair was uncombed.

I was a character in a book, but I was also trying to write the book.

I climbed into a treehouse that was carved into a great tree.

I discovered that my boyfriend had spilled something so I wetted two paper towels to wipe it up -- the spill was a yellow-orange color, as if it had turmeric in it.

I was in my sister’s office and her bookcase tipped over and hit her in the back of her head.

I was visiting a billionaire on his immense yacht.

I was crossing a plaza and saw my cousin coming toward me. I realized I wasn’t wearing a mask when I saw that she wasn’t wearing a mask. But I was embarrassed to put mine on.

I was piloting a small submarine in a sea the color of lime jello with a few drops of yellow food coloring added.

I drove with a man who had a wooden car to a factory where we were going to have lunch in the employee cafeteria, but when we arrived there were dinosaurs in the parking lot.

I had to protect a baby – a real baby and a fake baby – from someone who wanted to steal it. There was some question of whether the fake baby was in fact also real.

I was rewriting the Lara Croft film I watched last night, thinking about whether it was likely that she would kill Gerard Butler, her lover.

I was at a beach and someone was swimming very far out.

 

Mary Grimm has had two books published, Left to Themselves (novel) and Stealing Time (story collection), and a number of flash pieces in places like Helen, The Citron Review, and Tiferet. Currently, she is working on a YA thriller.