You Forgot to Pet the Turtle

MORNING OF JUNE 14, 2010

I was walking through an amusement park filled with very unusual characters. I had just re-watched the movie, Mirrormask the night before, which probably explained the visual appearance and style of many of the characters I was seeing in the dream. I wasn't freaked out by their otherworldly appearance, as I assumed it was all costumes and effects put on for show.

Then, suddenly, it was as though this park was supposed to be the new Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios in Florida. I remember standing beside what was supposed to be the Flight of the Hippogriff coaster.

Then I walked into a large building that seemed to serve as both a rest stop/cafeteria/souvenir shop for the premises. And, for the record, things now looked once more like the original dream park than the Harry Potter one.

I saw a pair of reporters doing a live shoot from this location. The first one introduced himself and where they were broadcasting it from. Then he pitched it to the other guy (who looked a little like Al Roker). The other guy just froze and couldn't think of his line. Finally he just uttered, "I'm on national TV in front of millions..."

I moved on to look at some of the souvenirs. One of them displays featured a large box shape sitting on top of a pedestal. There was a circular opening in the box through which you could see the items for sale inside. This particular box had a series of souvenir pens. Each pen had a little "creature" on top of it which had been made from the gluing together of standard craft items like pom-pom puffs, googly eyes, tufts of hair, etc.

After picking up one of the pens, examining it, and putting it away (the little topper on this one almost looked like a cartoony fruit or vegetable), a man urged me to look once more into the box. "You forgot to pet the turtle," he explained.

Indeed there was a smallish turtle huddled in the inside corner of this display box. It was completely tucked inside its shell, so I just reached in and patted the shell at this gentleman's suggestion. Suddenly, the turtle's had emerged and looked at me.

Now the turtle began to grow and mutate right before my eyes. He came right out of the box, and before all was said and done I was looking at a four foot tall human-turtle hybrid mutant sort of creature. It was VERY disturbing.

But about this time, my friends Richard and Jessica's daughter, Cailey, came running up, wanting her picture made with the turtle-man. We tried to oblige her, but when she was standing to pose with the turtle-man (who didn't talk, but only made grunting noises and gestures), they got into an apparent argument.

My last memory is their falling out. By now, I guess, things were just too weird. Even for my subconscious.