Ride (dream journal entry 1)
At a “Pirates of the Carribean” ride at I guess Disney World with my family. It’s just like a high-up treehouse thing and you jump out and fall 90 stories. Apparently you land on an “apple” but I can’t see it. It’s dark and I’m worried the park is closing soon but I’m afraid to jump and I feel like we’re just sitting around. For a long time it’s just me and my younger sister. She’s less nervous than I am. She’s done the ride before. We have to wait until the park attendant comes back up and then maybe we’ll jump together.
The whole time I’m thinking: I wish we’d gone on one of the fun rides first, that would have made me less nervous to do this and also I hate that this is the only thing I’m probably going to do at Disney World. Why did we come so late? Why didn’t we do any of the fun simple rides that showcase our favorite characters? I’m pretty sure I have to work in the morning too. All of it’s making me pretty depressed. I’ve only gotten to come here twice before, once at Magic Kingdom when I was like 4 and got to hug Pooh and did Mr. Toad and 20k Leagues, and then I think 9 at MGM and I was too scared to do Tower of Terror and regretted it forever.
I remember staring up at that thing, you expect it to be like gray or silver or ordinary building color but it’s not, it’s this shifting maroon/lavender. It looks like it’s reflecting brimstone or something. Truly- and then you realize, of course- this is a Tower of Terror. I suppose Vision of Hell may have been more fitting. I was absolutely fascinated by it but no way was I riding it. It involves a big scary drop that creates the sensation of free-fall and, one would assume on some physiological level, impending death. It would be a few years before Tom Petty would help me form a softer association with the idea.
Some point in the interim I found this Disney World tour cd-rom in a big bin at BJ’s, convinced my parents that yes I really do want to spend my $20 on this I’m certain, and did a virtual tour of the ride. I got the gist. By now I’m like “man, I should have just done it when I was 9. I should have known it wouldn’t have hurt. It would have been fun and I might never get another chance.” And now apparently it’s some Marvel shit.
The dream ends with me eventually doing the jump. My sister does it first and bounces right back up to where she was. The attendant treats it as an annoyance, like it’s not what was supposed to happen but it’s not a big deal. Anyway now it’s my turn. I look over the edge, I see the apple or maybe it’s a tomato now, it looks actually pretty close but I am terrified. The attendant is shouting at me and I’m hanging on to these bars and I keep almost letting go and grabbing onto another one and my heart’s pounding and I fall, only like 20 feet and look back up. I’m not hurt and now I’m irritated that it wasn’t a bigger fall. I feel ripped off. It’s 11:20 AM now and I wake up. Grab my phone
