Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes

a dream is basically a lot like a soap bubble.  if there was only one person in the world dreaming at a time then the person’s dream would be a nice round bubble with the world of the dream inside.  if you had a dream ship like ours then you could sail around on the bubble part until the person woke up, and then the bubble would pop and you’d be lost into nothingness forever.  scary, huh?

but what really happens is that there’s like a bajillion people in the world and basically 1/3 of them are asleep at any one time.  it’s always bedtime somewhere, right?  and so instead of little round bubbles the dreams are like a mound of bubbles in your bubble bath, all mushed up together.  and if one bubble pops theres still lots and lots of bubbles, and more bubbles being blown by dreamers all the time when they fall to sleep.  so if you have a dream ship, as long as it’s a strong, well-built ship like ours is, when the dreamer wakes up you just sail on to the next dream.  sometimes its a little rocky if a dreamer wakes up all of a sudden and the ship isn’t in a good position, but there’s always another dream there to catch you.

when you go off the ship you have to be really careful not to wake up the dreamer.  thats why its good for kids to go, because we are smaller and hopefully the dreamer won’t see us.  my dad gave me a big sack and my mom gave me a big hug and told me to be careful and come back as soon as i could, before the dreamer woke up and the dream bubble bursted.  then she tied a piece of rope to my belt loop, to keep me safe, just in case.

i climbed down one of our special rope ladders and stepped off onto a hard marble floor.  quick as i could i ran to the banquet table and hid myself under the table cloth.

the table cloth was heavy, so the space beneath was dark and it took me a second before my eyes adjusted.  i could hear the voices of the men around the table and mostly they kept saying things like “oh, what a lovely serving wench you are.  give us a kiss!” and “more wine, my lassie!”  if they kept asking for more wine i wondered- what would happen when i started stealing their glasses?

but dad wanted the goblets so i went to the farthest end of the table from the king (remember?  he was the one dreaming) and first i peeked out from under the table cloth and then quick as i could i grabbed one of the goblets.  it was very heavy but i put it into my sack and moved to the next one, and the one on the other side of the table as well.  then i moved on down the table, trying to time my grabs for when the dream people were busy talking to the serving wenches.

the dream people didn’t seem to notice me, but they noticed their goblets were missing!  from under the table i could hear them start to fighting.  everyone thought the others were stealing their wine and their goblets, so they began to argue and threaten one another.

i really wanted to be done and go back to the ship now.  but i figured if they were all arguing and fighting maybe they wouldn’t notice if i went for the last 3 goblets up at the head of the table.  and i didn’t want to disappoint my dad on my first mission.  so i peeked my head out and it looked like the king had gone over to try and stop the others from fighting.  i crept out from the table with my sack and quick as i could i grabbed 1, 2, 3 goblets.  PHEW!  i had them!  i tried to pick up the sack but it was really heavy and so i turned backwards and started trying to drag it back towards my ladder.

just then the king turned around and i just stared back at him, frozen.  and all of a sudden the dreamer and the table and the banquet and everything was gone and i was falling…

until the rope on my belt caught and i hung on as tight as i could to my sack and my dad pulled me up back on to our ship.  and then i was aboard, and he was smiling and hugging me.  he was so proud that i’d remembered to hang on tight to all those goblets!