I had a dream. It started when I and Nath and some other people were trying to cross a huge muddy river. There were bridges ... rickety, dangerous ones. One in particular did reach the other side where there were red sandstone cliffs and caves. We left it too late and the I could see that the end of the bridge was now submerged, but I thought that I could still cross and leap across to the other side.
We walked. It took forever. It was a black, asphalt bridge, a thin ribbon, and the distance was really far, and reaching the end, more of the bridge was underwater than I thought. There was no way to walk. I jumped. The water was awful - it was dirty and it stung and was full of lacerating objects. It was agony and I screamed "No, no, it's dangerous!" But I managed to make it across.
The next obstacle was a cave mouth. We entered and were looking for a lever or button so that the cave would open out further or there would be a doorway. Other members of our party were pushing at various slits or holes when suddenly a huge metal door came flying up with a huge clang, trapping those people when their whole floor flew underground and they perished. Only Nath and I remained.
We were on either side of a low barricade and we decided to keep moving until we reached a restaurant. We had heard of an Indian restaurant that was right nearby by a wall prevented us from reaching it. I'll just go on until this barricade ends, I said, and we'll connect up when there's a gap.
The barricade ended up stretching a long way. It was a dusty journey. All along the barricade, to my right, workmen were building something. The whole city was constantly under construction, shifting, with soaring mountainsides and doorways in the cliffs that seemed to be inaccessible. I kept waking until I noticed that the barricade where all the workmen were building something was really an entire river; I could see the water flowing through gaps in the planking and the water was the color of emerald. I had lost Nath completely.
I kept walking and presently reached a new part of the city where the barricade had ended. I was apparently no longer over the river. I reached a T junction. Across the street was a black-walled mountain and on the street corner was a frosted glass store front called "Wada Science Fiction."
I know this place, I thought. (At first it looked like the Other Change of Hobbit bookstore in Berkley.) I called Nath on my cell phone. I said, I'm fine now, I've found a science fiction store that I recognize, remember, I wrote SF in the old days, this is familiar territory. Nath tells me he and Muay are sitting in a restaurant just on the other side of the science fiction store.
So I cross the street (it us an old street, perhaps cobbled or at any rate very worn). The door of the science fiction store is open but I don't recognize any of the objects. I realize it is not the store I knew before.
I walk to the right where there is a turn (the mountain ends) and I can round the corner. All of sudden there is the back of the store, but they are not selling science fiction. It's an assortment of Hindu gods, brightly colored, many heads and arms, statues that line the path and then there are steps up to a plateau where thousands more gods are on sale. I realize that I am already carrying a golden, heavy god statue in a black shoulder bag (I haven't been aware that I had this bag until this moment.) The gods on the hill are gleaming, glistening, very colorful. The shop is more like a pagoda, with steps and levels (not a Thai pagoda but more like a Japanese one). I go on past the shop, heaving towards the restaurant where Nath is waiting, though I have a feeling I am still not close to where he is.