Inadvertant Time Travel

MORNING OF JANUARY 6, 2012

This may be the first dream I've had in which I so overtly and vividly time travel. You'd assume it would come from my love of Back to the Future or even Doctor Who, but I think this dream most likely comes from my recent reading of Stephen King's newest book, 11/22/63.

I was walking through downtown Anniston (a small, nearby city) one afternoon. I knew there was an underground "shortcut" to get through Anniston to get to the next town, Oxford, which is where I meant to go, so I found its entrance and made my way beneath the city.

Underground Anniston was, naturally, a dark place, compiled mostly of concrete pillars with rubble and dirt littering the ground all around. The ceiling, mostly old pipes and wires sticking through concrete, was just high enough that the average adult could walk standing upright, only occasionally having t duck.

I was the only person traveling through this subterranean wasteland, and it didn't take it long to begin to feel creepy, though I was too fascinated to care. I found the entrance to an old building barely exposed in one of the walls. There was a huge, floor-mounted plaque at the entrance. The inscription indicated it was to dedicate a bank in the early 1950s (I think 50 or 51 was the exact date inscribed).

As I read the plaque, I noticed it was in remarkably pristine condition to be 60 years old and lying in a dark underground ruin. And that's when I noticed that I was actually standing inside the aforementioned bank, fully restored and full of life! Somehow I had stepped through a portal that had actually transported me back to 1950s Anniston!

I mildly panicked, mostly because I was wearing my 21st century clothes and I assumed they'd make me quite suspect in this bygone era. A couple of attractive, retro-looking ladies came walking around a corner and I ducked into a restroom and locked myself in.

The room was incredibly small and claustrophobic. I just stood there, looking into the little mirror over the sink, trying to calm myself as I heard the conversation of the women outside. How did this happen? Was the entrance I walked through a portal? Was there some magic about reading the old plaque that transported you? Most importantly, could I get back to 2012?

This is about the last part of the dream I recall.

There was a different dream in which I was in a large bookstore, sort of like a Books-A-Million or a Barnes & Noble. I saw an acquaintance from high school whom I now only know as an acquaintance on Facebook. We spoke for a moment and he drew my attention to one of the merchandise displays in the center of an aisle.

One item featured on the display table was a basket with several deflated balloons attached to it. My friend inflated the balloons, placed some sort of plush toy into the basket, and then released it so that it floated away. My last memory of this scene is simply the slightly surreal experience of watching the balloon-basket floating across the crowded store.