One Punch Dream

Well, it's been a week full of sun, sand, and surreal semi-nightmarish dreams.  It seems that most every night of our vacation was filled with these somnolent visions, like parallel universes of the real and the unreal bumping against each other, and this morning was no exception.

I found myself back in my boyhood hometown of Orleans, Indiana at a friend's house who lived about a block from me.  We are in the back room just off of their driveway and I notice he looks a little rough around the edges and may not even be the person I remember as "Darren Stroud."  I don't want to be rude, so I strike up some friendly banter when my phone rings.  I answer and it is Darren Stroud who I know to be living and working in California as a musician.

So, I'm talking to him while looking at this shady character in front of me and Darren says, "Hey, this talking on the phone is a little awkward.  We should just meet up."  An indeterminate amount of time later, but what seems much too quick to include a flight from California, Darren walks through the door.  

So, there they are, the two Darren Strouds and I have to prove which one is which, though I know the new arrival is the actual Darren Stroud.  I come up with the idea to ask the criminal-appearing Darren what his "full" name is with the idea that he will not know Darren's middle name and have to give up his ruse.  Never mind that *I* do not know Darren's middle name, but that did not seem important in the dream.

I then find myself in their front room which is quite large with no furniture and the walls are lined with artwork that Darren has produced.  I admire them up close and am especially drawn to a canvas that is about 4x4 feet and prominently features the Japanese anime character "One Punch Man" superimposed over a large rounded Chinese character and a silhouette of Bruce Lee in the background.  While I am taking all of this in Darren's mom enters the room opposite where fake-Darren is standing and leans up against the wall just beside me and starts whispering so that he cannot hear us.

"I found him in a bad part of town near the drug rehab center and wanted to help him out, but now I don't know what to do about him."  I realize she is asking for my advice as someone who works in the mental health field.  We notice he is adjusting some of the works and she tells me he is the one who put this exhibit together.  I suggest that since he has an eye for this kind of thing she could utilize him as a designer for exhibiting Darren's art pieces.  With this new role he is then able to just be himself and quit pretending he is Darren.


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