Annie Oakley

Yay a full dream with a plot!


I had a mission to do.  Destroy the power in the city with a huge white and green futuristic machine.  There in the middle of the city was a wooded park so I hid the machine in there and set the detonator.  Why i was doing this I don't know but I knew it must be done.

Then I got a text.  Claire.  Mother Russian. She says the theatre director is going bonkers over missing actors and techies.  I'm not even in this show. haha.  I hated that text.  Claire was mad for only God knew what and the only reason she was texting me was because she was tired of hearing the director bitch at everyone.  I couldn't tell if she was mad at me or the rest of the world.  She never exactly clarified.

I look back at the machine meant to destroy the city's power grid and double check that it's on.  I don't know how long the detonator is set for, but I can see the green glow of the coils holding everything together.  The glow or green next to the white sheet metal almost made it for a pretty piece of equipment if you chose not to think about the destruction it could cause.  I pushed back the branches of the pine trees to make it harder to see even though I knew it was a big machine and it is almost impossible to hide.  I heard sirens from a far off police car.  The police knew something big was coming.  And somehow by talking to the wrong stranger I had been forced to the center of it with this device.  Yay.

I ran at the siren towards the theatre building.  A beautiful skyscraper with a stage in the round at its base.  It was two city blocks away from the park so naturally I was out of breath when I arrived.  I went back stage to the girls dressing room.  Only then did I realize what show they were doing.  Oklahoma!  Mother Russian.  I HATE HATE HATE  that show with a burning and fiery passion.  Why?  Because I've done it 32 times!!  I've seen the show 36 times in my life and worked on 32 of those showings!  I'm done with Oklahoma!  I find Claire.  All dressed up in western garb...odd because in life she'd never act in a musical.  Any who...

Claire looks at me.  I know that look better than anyone.  It's the look that screams before she even opens her mouth.  It's not an angry scream it's a sad scream.  Imagine the look on someones face who's unrightfully been banished to the labor of the forth level of Hell (Look it up if you don't get the allusion, it's important to get my point) and that's the look she has.  Worn down.

"What's up girly?"  I ask her.  She explains to me the problem.  Apparently Annie Oakley (who I guess is in this dream version of Oklahoma!) is missing in action and she is needed for the final number.  The only other person Claire could think of who knows the play and the dance and the lines would be me, the person who's seen/done it 36 times!!  As much as I hate Oklahoma, I can't say no to Claire, at least not when she looks like that.  "Problem though," I say.

"What?"

"I don't happen to have an Annie Oakley costume on me."

"That's fine, we'll make something work," Claire says as she gets up.  As she starts to move, James, a mutual friend of ours, starts to move towards her all peppy and ready to go.  With one glance from Claire, the glance that says "say anything and die," James sits back down.  I'm the only one allowed in her bubble right now.  And I honestly don't want to be in that bubble.  Frankly I want to lock her in a bathroom all alonefor two or three hours to cool off before I want to go near that bubble. Lol.

We go further into the dressing room and pull together some clothes to make a quick costume for me.  All the while I'm worried about not knowing when the city's power is going to be destroyed. 

Show time.  I walk out and realize what they've done with the stage.  It's a theatre in the round, but they've lowered the cat-walk  so that it acts as a second story to the stage.  The actors, myself included, go and sit in the audience, because that's how they want it to be done and the show begins.  The lights fade and I start to panic because of the machine in the woods.  I know this show.  I know they don't need me until act two so I bolt.  I run outside...in costume.. and run down the two blocks back to check on the machine.  It's still there and hasn't detonated yet.  I breathe a sigh of relief until I realize the police are closure than they were last time.  So I run.  I run two more block farther down and wait until I catch my breath and hope the police haven't seen me.  I look towards the park once again...the police begin to search it.  They'll find the device.  I know it.  But my heart is in my throat just the same.

*Willy Wonka Wistle*  Another text.  Claire:  Um, where are you?  We're at intermission.

Shit.  Intermission already.  And I'm four blocks away.  I start to run.  I focus my eyes on the building I need to make it to and don't stop running until I get there.  Either I run really slow or dream running really sucks because I didn't make it in time for the beginning of act two.  I missed it by one stupid scene.  I see Claire and she waves me over.

"Okay, you remember what to do?" She asks me.

"Yeah, I got it."  We wait patiently for the song that features me to start.  While waiting, I watch and figure out who is who in the play.  Tyler (whom we've nick named Unky TyTy) is the lead.  Obviously.  And he and some other girl are to be wed.  BUT in this version of Oklahoma, he has an affair.  This mistress is played by the beautiful and lovely Claire.  Annie Oakley (me) was just a cameo more or less to make some jokes, do a dance, and shoot a gun into the air.  Fun.  The image of Claire and Unky TyTy making out on stage however, is hysterical in my mind. 

The dance music starts.  Claire is already out on stage with half of the cast and they are doing their stuff.  I wait until my cue and Enter the second story of the stage which is a circle shape above the stage. I do my dance and say my jokes and shoot my gun.  Same old same old.  Then the girl who is playing Tyler's bride-to-be-dumped sees Tyler and Claire kiss and screams "BITCH!!!" at Tyler (not at Claire, at Tyler).  Right when she yelled the power went out.

With it dark I hear Clair and Tyler and James and everyone else try to figure out what is going on.  I feel my way around.  I feel nothing but walls.  I'm closed in.  I can hear everyone, yet somehow I'm trapped in this space. I can't leave.  A door opens to the outside, blinding everyone inside including me.  So blinding, it woke me up.