I have had problems being myself in my dreams lately. In this dream, I had assumed the role of a girl whose journal I read online. She/I was going to see her friend, another online journaller. I was supposed to take a plane, but as I was inexplicably walking to the airport, I saw an Amtrak train parked on the tracks. I hopped on, just for fun. I wanted to see where it went, and I promised myself I would get off the train before it went anywhere out of my way.
The train started moving, and suddenly we were in the downtown area of a large city. It looked somewhat like the type of city you'd see in a futuristic sci-fi movie: there were almost no cars, and no trees. Everything was skyscrapers and monorails. Lighted signs replaced regular street signs. A sign outside my window on the train said we were headed toward Dallas. I knew that was completely out of my way, but I had never been there and I began to consider whether I should stay on the train or not. I only had one last chance to get off the train before it started its non-stop trek to Dallas.
Suddenly, though, the train left its track. We were flying. And at that point I noticed the train had no floor. My legs were dangling hundreds of feet above the city. I wasn't sure if the train was supposed to fly, or if this was all a mistake. It wasn't flying in any set pattern. It was just swooping around the city, between the skyscrapers. All the other passengers seemed to be having a great time, including my sister, who seemed to appear in the seat beside me. I kep closing my eyes and feeling nauseous, hoping the train would land soon. Instead of landing, though, it kept going higher and higher. We went from flying between skyscrapers to flying above skyscrapers. I could see the whole city. My sister pointed out a Hilton hotel where my family was supposedly staying. I kept forgetting that I wasn't actually me: I was the online chick, and I wasn't even supposed to be on the train.
As the train flew higher, I could see beyond the city. There was a body of water outside the city, and in the body of water stood a huge structure that looked like a parking garags. My sister explained that it was a prison (and it happened to reappear in my next dream of the night). I barely listened to her. I kept thinking of two things: hang gliding (I have never been hang gliding), and this stupid ride at Six Flags I went on when I was twelve. It was an airplane ride: your silly plastic airplane went about fifty feet off the ground and "flew" in a circle for about five minutes. I can go on any roller coaster in the world, but that stupid airplane ride scared me to death. The sensation I felt on the train was too much like that I felt on the airplane ride.
Just as I was becoming nauseated enough to throw up, the train went back down to its track. I got off before it went to Dallas, and I followed my sister back to our hotel room.
