The Lovely Dragons

My story begins at home. I am in the front garden when a fantastical episode occurs: colourful dragons start landing in the field not far from me. They have incredible, vivid colours. At first I am amazed that nobody else seems to have witnessed such a spectacular event, but I quickly get over it and rush to see the dragons up close.

Without any obvious health and safety assessment I climb aboard one of the dragons, who luckily doesn't seem to mind, and we whizz off on a wonderful airborne adventure. They seemed friendly.

On my return I tell my parents of the marvellous event, but they don't seem too interested. I insist that what has happened was real and go to get my new dragon friends to show them.

All the while there is a dreamy uncertainty behind my eyes.

The fun continues around the house and around the houses of my family as I show off my new friends, but something just doesn't feel right.

My parents bring my world crashing down when they tell me that the dragons are not real, despite the fact I have brought my new friends home with me many times. They get quite angry with me as I insist their games are not amusing. They ask me to think seriously about what I am doing.

I think back about my adventures and have flashbacks of dragon-shaped balloons. I am deeply confused, and worried. It becomes clear quite quickly that I have had a psychotic episode. This realisation reminds me that this is not the first time and I accept that my dragons are not real, along with some other fantastical happenings that had occurred.

On my way to school the yards were eerily quiet. I met a friend outside who also had had similar problems to myself on a number of occasions. We entered the school to see that today was exam day and neither of us knew anything about it. I experienced more confusion as I did not understand how I could have forgotten about the exams, but I did not panic and assumed that the school could take what had happened to the two of us into account.

Fast forward to myself and my friend, my parents and her parents all sat outside of the reception at my school waiting for someone to come and see us. It was clear that my father was aggravated by having to deal with me again. My friend and I kicked a ball back and forth to pass the time.

At this time her parents dropped the news that she was to go back to Mexico and leave the United States for good [my school was in England]. She did not take the news well. I too would be leaving the U.S. back for England but I was happy to leave and get back home.

She sat with me and we started talking. Her parents had explained to her that due to her disability it simply wasn't reasonable for her to be taught at a regular school. I felt that they were directing this information toward me also. Their tone suggested that my friend and I had some sort of speech problem and others struggled to understand us. However, neither our parents nor each other had any trouble communicating. She was clearly upset. I told her that no matter what they say I have no trouble at all talking to and understanding her. I began to question this information: neither of us appeared to be experiencing any problems. I thought back again, as I did with the dragons, to try and remember the reality of the situation, but I seemed to be inventing a speech problem that my friend had which I was sure did not exist before I invented it. A distrust of what people were saying had set in. She was the only one I could trust.

I made my excuses and went to the toilet where I was convinced I would be able to hear people talking about us, which would offer a clue as to what was going on.

I sat, thinking about everything I had been told. I was certain the dragons weren't real but everything else I had been told didn't make any sense. I thought about it further and realised that I was way too old to still be in school - why are people trying to convince me otherwise?

I then heard two school friends enter the toilet. I knew them. They thought it would be funny to lean over the cubicle and take pictures while I was sat on the potty. This angered me greatly and I grabbed their phones and threw them out of the door, smashing them. Unfortunately they were not broken and the phones were reassembled and they tried it again. I grabbed them again and threw it at them this time, hitting one in the head. They went outside of the toilet to wait for me.

I waited in the toilet wondering what was going on. Although they are both known for such stupid pranks I started wondering if they were filming me so that "they" knew where I was. I peaked outside to see if they were still waiting. They were. For some reason one of them had blacked himself up. I really don't know why. I also realised that I was now in a supermarket.

I found two tins on the toilet floor so I grabbed one and threw it at the two and managed to hit one of them in the head again. They stayed where they were as they could see I had a second tin in my hand.

The commotion got the attention of a security guard, who looked like Omar Epps. He could see I was in trouble and seemed genuinely concerned for my welfare. Trusting him I threw the second tin at the two waiting for me and darted for the exit, knowing he would detain them and let me escape.

I was now in a large shopping centre. I, again, doubted my surroundings; confused as to why I was here or where I was. I started to walk around hoping to find clues as to what was going on, and even tried to find out what the correct date was. I was still convinced that it was many years later than I had been led to believe.

I found a small solicitor "shop", very much like the gold purchasing shops that have appeared in shopping centres in recent times, apparently an ambulance chaser, and I walked inside. I asked the solicitor for help and tried to hurriedly explain the whole situation as I was acutely aware that people were looking for me. He told me to calm down, raising his left hand, and was clearly doing something with under the desk with his right hand as his eyes wandered around the outside looking for someone. It was obvious he was making someone aware of my presence. I left quickly.

And then I woke up.

But what does it all mean?