Chapter 3 Lucid Dream

She saw a coin, an ancient-looking hand covered in dirt, the engravings worn and the head so stained from times. She held it in her left grip, staring at the mud that dirtied her skin. Flipping it over and over. So close to her face that the coin had the aroma of musty blood and rustiness. She turned to her right palm and in the seizing was a new cloverleaf, fresh and beautiful.

And as far as Catherine could remember, according to Irish tradition, those who found a four-leaf growth were destined for good luck, as each petal in the clover symbolizes good omens for faith, hope, love, and luck for the finder.

A perfect sphere of clique dew crowned the leaf, reflecting a picture of Catherine's face, grated and peaceful, yet the sadness was recognizable. When she flipped back the coin, the form of the mysterious man had freed himself and journeyed over to the cloverleaf, stirring the growth of powerful root and even blurring at the edges. She couldn't tell up from down. Her vision was blurry. And she felt so dizzy. Her heart was beating faster, she was not indeed sure if she was breathing at all.

The misery was unbearable, growing, and strengthening. Again, that sentiment; the dream of her pain.--and a scream was torn from her chest. A moment of silence followed.

Everyone on the bus was looking at her like she had grown a horn. Uncomfortable, she looks down and puts on her glasses.

Alone and unhappy, all she wanted was to get rid of that dream, the dream that somehow invaded her lonely nights. Giving her pain and heartaches. But this time it was a slight difference. The man who freed himself and journey over the leaf has a deal with. A face she knew. A face that earns her a shiver and hopes that she had never met him! Oh, God!! Why him? Why not Henry Cavil? Or Ryan Gosling? She could use a hard sugar in her so-boring-life. She dreamed.

She assumes all her daydreams were just like those that everyone on the planet has. Yet, Catherine's dream was different. Her daydreams weren't rainbows and bursts of sunshine however her dreams became her reality. She was more alive in The Land of Nod than in the actual world.

Not only that, but she recalled her mother used to tell her about the hidden meanings of her dreams. Likewise, she told her once that there were many theories about dreams that deny they have any considerable meaning at all. Yet, her unexpected reasoning about dreams was that they were little films that Catherine encounter and take part in.

But, if dreams are films, do they have producers and script-writers and directors and all the other crew required to make one? Catherine asked that and somehow her mom would then explain to her that her dreams were non-lucid, that her dreams were often bizarre and incoherent. And just a simple thought. Nothing out of ordinary.

And her mother assumed that most of them were forgotten when she awakens. That was what she often broached, unbeknownst to her, Catherine could recall every single dream she had since forever. Catherine could even conflict with those characteristics in her dreams with those of a film.

Yet, her dreams were like the creation of a cinematic movie; it is a purposeful activity. She could show an overall scene which was something like: to give the movie-goer an exciting, emotional, disturbing, or satisfying experience, and they might want to ask if she could ascribe a similar purpose to her dreams? Yes. She could! That was why she called it the Land of Nod.

Her mother asserted that several "of her dream cycles" occur only at night. When Catherine is awakened during the initial cycles, she would then document her dreams. And for her, Catherine's dreams earn to be interpreted and appreciated, as they were much more powerful than she could give them credit for. Catherine tried not to see dreams as just one conscious, but many and not solely within and of herself. As it wakened her during subsequent cycles, it becomes more confusing, strange, and chaotic like deletions were made and her mind "fills in the gaps" to continue up a narrative of sorts.

At first, she could not recall her dreams from the last dream cycle, the one before waking, but in the long run; when the dreams have developed into the most chaotic and odd she could now remember altogether. Yet, at an early age, she does not have any solid theory about dreaming, so it was particularly easy for her to have an open mind. She believes that there were many possibilities (some stranger than others) of what happens in the state of her consciousness and why was she dreaming of some peculiar places she'd never been before. She had many memorable dreams and some even paranormally odd, as it was very difficult to categorize them or what they meant. However, some of her dreams were simply a test of her character in different scenarios, and she awakened asking herself, "Is that really what I would have done?".

In the end, she would candidly assert that it was a gift. It was like messages sent in parables. That she has to interpret it. She has to seek the meaning behind every dream until she realizes somebody much much powerful was sending it.

She knew that there was the possibility that her dreams were constructed by a dream-maker (if there are any) she bet she was the dream maker or maybe part of her was the dream maker, as Catherine often seems that there was an alternative interpretation of her non-lucid dreams to lucid because somehow it intensifies as her experience goes beyond human perspective.

"Darling, you are probably missing something, even something undeniable right in front of you and you do not realize it. There is something ascribed to the matter that you are to determine. Maybe you need to pay more consideration. It depends on the point of the dream; but if you are dreaming with a person and there is a dream-within-a-dream with a particular situation but related to the same individual, it may mean that there is something you are missing. Or that this person is "putting on a veil" and it is not trustworthy in the situation or with you." Her mom would say that for sure. Nevertheless, Catherine was way more confused than ever.