Shadows and Wattle

This dream, isn't like one of my normal ones, it's not frightening it's just weird. I couldn't quite help shake the sense that this felt more like a memory as opposed to a dream, although things like shadows don't really come up in reality. That said I was in the body of my 5/6 year old self so maybe it was more of an impression of something I had. So here we go, and since this is a hard dream to describe I'm going to rummage up some images for you. Also for those of you who have never seen wattle, here's an image to help picture it.

I was standing outside my grandfather’s house except instead of being in my usual dream body,  I was in the body of my 5 or 6 year old self. I had just gotten out of the car and was looking up the long driveway of my grandfather’s house. I remember asking my mother why we didn’t park closer, but she didn’t reply. She had gotten out of the car and headed up the driveway, along the path and up the stairs to my grandfather’s house. My sister and I headed to the front clearing just before the gate of the house, where we always used to play. The clearing was basically a dirt area with a few trees scattered along, and spanned 3 houses across. I walked up to the tree that I always climbed, the one where I sat in the tops of as a kid and jumped out at my uncles as they walked by looking for me to tell me dinner was ready. Up in the tree I thought I saw a shadow moved up the branches. I started up the tree only for my sister to come out and yell for me to get down, that people were coming. I looked down the road and into the cul-de-sac, to see my uncle’s car coming up the drive way. My cousin got out of the car… and walked over to me.  I pointed up in the tree and he looked up and said there wasn’t anything there. He pointed over to the wattle tree and told me to go there and get something. I walked up to the tree. The yellow flowers seemed exceptionally bright amongst the bright green of the leaves and the slight brown of the wood that poked out between the flowers. I reached into the tree, passed the flowers to reach for the trunk of the tree. The yellow flowers seemed to lean away and then move back to touch against my bare arm. I began to feel itchy along my arms and I jerked backwards. Looking down at my arm, red bumps began to appear and get itchy. I looked back at my cousin who was gone, and I noticed my other cousin down in the cul-de-sac. I couldn’t quite see what he was doing but I remember feeling like it was something I should roll my eyes to. I rubbed my arm lightly and watched as the bumps disappeared. Weird I thought. Another shadow passed over the tree and back into the clearing. I walked back in there and again tried to climb the tree. My sister called out from the balcony.  I turned to look at her and she told me I needed to head inside. I climbed over the wood fence and across the garden to the stair case. I walked up the stair case, looking out at the clearing. The sun was beginning to set over the top of it. I stopped at the top of the balcony, watching the shadows which seemed to watch me, moving up and down the tree. I heard a whirring sound and saw something coming at me. I ducked quickly as an arrow shot against my head and into the house behind me. A rope was attached to the arrow and seemed to be pulled straight. I looked at it for a second and ran my finger along the rope to the railing. The rope went underneath it and I wondered why if someone was going to put one there, they would put it so low to the ground of the balcony. I saw the rope jerk down and then bounce back up. I felt something was looking at me and looked out towards the tree again. I saw something coming at me and watched as a basket slid along the rope. The basket smacked the railing and bobbed there for a second. I lifted the lid of the basket and a black fog seemed to come out of it and disappear behind me. I reached into the basket and my fingers brushed something soft. I lifted it out only to see I had a handful of wattle.  My hand began to itch and turn red. I dropped the wattle and it floated on the wind down towards the trees and shadows. I could make out a faint laughter and feel a shadow wrap around me. Then I woke Up.

 The drive way leading down to the cul-de-sac

 The front clearing from the balcony ( how it is today, back there there were a lot more trees before they cut them down)

The railing of the balcony and the main tree which has now been stripped back.

Tails

This is two dreams... which kinda add together to be one. I'm not sure why they followed on, or why it decided to be ridiculously long, but it is!

I was heading home from Uni with my friend Nat. For some reason, instead of going out seperate ways once we got off the bus, she was coming back home with me. We got on the train and got off at the next stop. It was dark when we got off the train and Nat was telling me she felt hungry. My phone beeped and I looked at the message on it. It was from my mother telling me I had to call my sister because something bad was happening. Walking down the street I pointed out a KFC on the corner and Nat decided we'd have dinner there. I gave my sister a call and she was crying. She kept saying she had been to do the doctors and they'd found cancer in her "lady bits". She was really unhappy and then all of a sudden she seemed to get really angry blaming everyone for what had happened to her. Whilst still on the phone, I stood in line with Nat who was reading the menu. There was a girl with blonde hair standing to the right of me with her back to me, looking out the window into the street. I hung up on my sister telling her I'd be home soon to talk about what was going on when the glass behind me smashed. I ducked down, covering my head with my arms to stop the debris hitting me in the head. Once the sound of glass disappeared, I stood up and turned around. The blonde was still standing there, the window debris covering the floor around her. All of a sudden a grey long tail like object with a large... arrowhead end came through the window. It wrapped around the blonde violently and pulled her through the window and into the dark. Nat ran through the side entrance and I hurried to follow her only to be pulled to the side as I burst through the door. It was one of my guy friends who placed his fingers by his lips to motion for me to be quiet. I looked at him questioningly, and he pointed down the side to where the underground car park was. Taking a quick sweep of the area I noticed Nat was gone, assuming she had run off and was safe I followed him into the car park.

The car park was dark and seemed to just be a tunnel leading down. There were no cars here and as we got closer to the bottom I began to notice bits of grey clinging to open spaces, drifting down and covering most of the exits. The materials seemed to stretch out across these opening and however were only attached thinly to the sides. In the middle of the room was a large grey mass with several tail-like parts sticking out of the middle. I kicked a rock while walking down and the tails jerked as if to look in my direction.  "Isn’t she beautiful?" the guy said. The tails seem to come up to him without any intent to harm him. One of them jerked and came towards me, I yelled "fuck this" to the guy and ran up to the entrance of the car park. I could feel the tail behind me as I ran down the side street. I noticed a supermarket in front of me, large metal shutters coming down around it to avoid the creatures. I missed the first window, banging my fists against the metal shutters as the creature made up the distance between us. I ran to the next but was too big to fit through it.The third shutter stopped inches from the ground and I crawled under just in time to hear the tail smash hard again the metal shutter. One of the store clerks helped me up off the floor and I looked around. There seemed to be a few terrified people standing in the supermarket. The metal shutters thudded again, leaving a slight indent which seemed to get deeper with each smash of the tail. One of the clerks handed my a bottle of perfume and told me to spray it on since the creature had my scent. Looking down at the perfume I rolled my eyes letting her know that this perfume would just make my smell more distinct and it wouldn't do anything. One of the clerks brought up a big bottle of green liquid which looked and smelled a lot like mouth wash. He poured it over me, drenching me in a sticky green liquid. As the liquid seeped through my clothing and dripped from my hair the thudding on the door stopped. Standing in the liquid I listened to the outside and couldn't hear anything. The clerk grabbed a couple of bottles and handled me one. "Head for the train, he said, If you make it there, it can't follow you". Opening the door slightly, I climbed out of the door and a couple of the customers within the store followed. We started to run towards the train station. I could feel the liquid drying off me and I could see a shift of movement in the darkness. Running down the stairs, we were lucky a train was waiting with its doors open. I ran through the doors waiting for it to move, a little girl dropped a teddy which i picked up to give her, but she wouldn't come onto the train. Instead she smiled at me and pointed at the door as the tail came down the stairs. The train door slammed closed, trapping the teddy in between the carriages and moved off.

When I got off the train I was back where I started. I called my sister who told me she had gone to "Fresno" which was the next station over from where I was. She would be staying with friends until it was safe. I told her I'd go there in the next day or two once the trains started up again. One of the guys on the train came up to me and asked me if I was ready. Not recognising him I looked at him for a second, judging if I could trust him. I said yes, and he led me up the train stairs.

I woke up here to get a drink and then went back to sleep... The dream continues.

We walked along the bridge and headed down the ramp to the main street. We passed a lot of smal shops which lined the street. He grabbed a couple of sandwiches and handed one to me as we walked, telling me I'd need to eat. I bit into the sandwich not realising how hungry I actually was. We walked down to a large building and I stopped to pick up a strange looking rock. On the back of the rock was a blue and green strip that looked like a microchip but a fair bit larger. I pocketed it and we headed to a side entrance. He reached into my pocket and pulled out the strip and slid it into a small slot  by the door. The door opened and we walked into an elevator. A girl with blonde hair and black glasses stood there. We stepped in and slid the strip into the slot by the elevator buttons. The girl in the elevator gave the guy a smile and a wink; he smiled back as I pressed a long thin button. The elevator jerked to life and moved extremely fast before opening. I pulled the strip out and stepped out into a long corridor which felt more like a testing facility than anything I'd seen before. I opened one of the doors on my left and the guy walked in. There was a strange glowing white-yellow light inside the room and it tickled against my skin. The guy began to scream as the light surrounded him. I tried to pull him out but my hands kept going through him. The light vanished and he ran from the room and out into a park that was next to the facility. I ran after him and he stood there, staring into the trees. I caught up with him and asked him what was wrong. He kept saying he couldn't do this over and over again. I noticed another guy standing in the distance watching him. I pointed him out and asked him who he was. The guy looked up and said, you've got to go back in and get the stuff. We need to fix it. He told me where to go and told me I'd have to get it before they did, as he nodded in the direction the other guy was standing in. I noticed there were more men standing there watching us now. I took the strip from his hand and ran back into the facility. I started heading down corridors unable to find what it was I was looking for when I turned into a shopping centre. I noticed the guys were behind me and following me. I attempted to lose them but they appeared to be everywhere. I dodged in between a family with a lot of trolleys and hid behind a fruit stand. I saw them walk past as I headed back in the opposite direction. I turned into of the staff doors and headed along the walkway to another door. Slipping the strip into the slot again I was back in the facility. I walked around the facility until I could hear a slight humming coming from one of the doors. I unlocked it and walked in. Again there was a bright yellow-white light which tickled at my skin. I walked into the middle of it and saw an image of the men coming through the hall way. Reaching out I picked up a large oxygen tank which seemed to suck the light into it. I noticed a small hatch on the other side of the room and squeezed through it, landing on the pavement. There was a guy sitting in a vehicle which flickered in and out of sight, which looked like a cross between a spaceship and a car, if a space ship came in a triangular shape. He motioned for me to hurry up, looking anxiously at the door, I climbed in and he slammed his fist on the bonnet of the car. The car seemed to flicker in and out of sight. He swore and climbed out. He hit it again and the car came into focus. The men were coming up behind the car as he jumped in and told me to drive. I drove fast through the street, taking sharp corners to lose them. He pointed towards a small alley way, I wasn't sure if we'd fit through but we just squeezed through. He told me to go left I turned sharply, swerving and missing a few pedestrians than seemed none the wise. Taking another turn I appeared to have lost them as I turned again to head down an old dirt road. Getting to the bottom I saw the guy from the train sitting on the steps to the porch of a large white house. I stopped and hopped out of the car, carrying the tank with me. I sat down next to him, the tank balanced in front of me. "now what?" I asked? "I don't know" he said. A car pulled up behind us and 2 girls got out and the little girl. They seemed to stand there for a second then approached us. The guy picked up the tank and hid it behind us. My phone started to ring. I picked it up and woke up.

Ghost Hunting

I knocked on the wooden door and dropped the bag in my left hand to the ground. A guy opened the door and gave me a grin. “Bring the stuff?” I rolled my eyes and said of course. He picked the bag up and let me in. I flopped down on the couch and put my feet up on the table. Jase walked out from the kitchen area and sat down next to me. He handed me a file which I started to flick through. The other boys took my bag into the back room and started to set up. Jase ran me down on the information, telling me I needed to take the recorder with me and that I wouldn’t be alone during the sessions that everyone would pair up. I rolled my eyes and smiled reassuring Jase that I knew the drill. There was another knock at the door and he got up to open the door. I flicked through the rest of the file and slowly got myself off the lounge to head to the door to see who was there. One of the boys came in carrying a baby. After apologizing numerous times he headed into the spare room and put the baby down to sleep. Jase walked over to me and asked me if I was ready. I tossed the file onto the lounge and grabbed my voice recorder and camera and we headed towards the back room. We went through the kitchen and down the hallway to the right before turning right again into the back room. The room was dark and smelled musty. The walls had panels of wood placed sporadically around the room. The thick curtains were drawn to ensure no light could enter. I sat down on the bed and placed the voice recorder next to me. Holding the camera in my left hand I began to walk around the room. The room itself had an eerie feeling around it. I could feel something in the room besides Jase and myself but unfortunately couldn’t see anything. Jase tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a picture behind the door. I walked over it, the camera pointed in the direction as we I walked over there. The picture was framed in a strange coloured timber. The image itself was frightening. It appeared to be three or four faces all merged together with three or four different images surrounding it. The picture seemed to distort and change before my eyes, giving off a faint eerie glow. I couldn’t help the feeling of being overwhelmed and overcome with something I could not explain.  The image seemed to warp and move off the canvas. I stood there stunned as a scream broke out from the other side of the house. Jase grabbed my arm and dragged me from the room. Leaving the room it felt as if a heaviness had lifted as I headed in the direction of the scream. Heading into the front room where we started the guy who had brought the baby in sat on the lounge, his head in his hands, shaking back and forth. He seemed to be speaking but I couldn’t understand anything he was saying so I headed off to find the baby. I went back through the kitchen and saw two of my friends sitting on the table. They both had metal bowls on the table and were pulling at something in the middle of the table. The bowl itself seemed to contain something that looked like a cross between shredded paper and shredded bits of a barbecue chicken. I watched them for a minute, the methodical movement back and forth. Then one of them stopped and picked up the bowl. She walked over to the firewood oven and tossed the contents in to the fire. A thick smoke filled the room. She smiled, even though her eyes looked lifeless, and then walked back to the table, sat for a moment and continued. I left the room, feeling an odd chill as I moved to the spare room to find the baby.

Ignoring the camera that was set up to the left of the room, I moved in the darkness in an attempt to find a source of light. I reached out in the darkness in an attempt to stop myself from bumping into anything, not that it helped as I stubbed my foot on the corner of what felt like the bed. My hand grasped at some material and I yanked backwards but nothing happened. Letting go of the fabric I continued to walk in the direction of the slight light peeping from the side of the window sill. I grasped at the thick curtain and again pulled backwards. The moon outside illuminated the room filling it with a white light. I turned to look in the crib and the baby was sleeping soundly in it. I picked the baby up to take outside and turned to face the bed. The boy who had opened the door was sprawled out on the bed. He was covered with a thin white sheet. I reached for the sheet and pulled it down. He was staring out the window unmoving. I waved my hand in front of his face but he didn’t move.  I poked him to get him to stop acting like an idiot, but again he didn’t move. I turned and backed out of the room. Heading back through the kitchen I noticed the smoke was getting thicker and I covered the baby’s face with the blanket as I headed into the main room. Handing the baby to the father I sat down next to Jase and told him what was going on. We walked back into the kitchen. Jase looked at me and asked me if I was going to deal with this. I looked at him and he said “well do you really want another 5000 ghosts tramping their way round this house?”

I walked over to my friends who were still pulling at something in the middle of the table which I couldn’t quite make out through the smoke. Grabbing my friends shoulder I pulled her away from the table as Jase grabbed my other friend. I slapped her hard across the face, waking her from her trance. I asked her what she thought she was doing and she cried that she just wanted to see her dead relatives again. I slapped her again, hard. She started to cry and slumped to the floor. My other friend had a similar reaction as I slapped her hard to wake her from the trance. She kept screaming I wouldn’t understand because I couldn’t see. But I could see. I could make out figures standing in the room, surrounding us. Figures which I knew were actually in this room. I headed for the kitchen cabinet and pulled it open. I threw a bunch of ingredients on the table and told the girls to get to work if they wanted to make it through the night. I watched as they grinded up Rosemary, Garlic and Rock salt together into powder and instructed them to seal all the entrances and exits with a line of the mixture. Jase and I headed to the room with a small wooden bowl of the same mixture. “Ready?” he said with his hand on the knob of the door. I took in a deep breath, nodded and he swung the door open. A sickening smell escaped from the room into the hallway, surrounding everything in a pungent odour that only reminded me of death and blood. Repulsed by the smell I forced myself into the room and pointed to the bed. The boy laid still, the sheet just covering his stomach downwards.  An old lady was standing over him, her hair white and her skin pale. She looked up as we entered the room and brought a finger to her lips. “Shhh” she whispered as she pat his hair, “you’ll wake them up”. “Wake who up?” I said to her, and she stared at me... or was it behind me? I felt someone shift behind me and turned. Jase was standing next to me so it couldn’t be him. The smoke had begun to pour into the room and I could make out figures standing behind me. Turning to tell Jase we had to get out, I noticed there were also figures standing beside him, staring at me. The look on his face told me it was the same behind me. I turned to face the old lady, and more and more figures seemed to appear in the smoke as it began to fill the room. She looked at me and said “told you”. Then I woke up.

Paris

9th August, 2011 : Paris


"Hey, wake up" the voice next to me said softly. My eyes opened and I looked around the blurred room slowly. I blinked a few times to clear my vision and realised I was sitting on a plane. The girl next to me, a friend I was assuming, had a large grin on her face. I smiled back and she shifted excitedly in her chair. "We're almost there". Shifting to a more comfortable position, I leaned over to pick up my handbag and its contents which were spread out on the floor in front of me. It must have fallen while I was asleep I thought. Grabbing my wallet I leaned back in my chair and stared out of the window. The city below was unfamiliar to me and I couldn't shake a slight excitement that coursed up my spine as I looked down below. The buildings were bathed in an orange hue and the water beneath us seemed to shimmer up, reflecting the night sky and it's thousands of stars. The plane began its descent and we landed on a pier, the city behind us and the ocean in front. I got up and off the plane, ignoring any luggage and grabbing at my camera in my bag. I stepped off the plane into the night air, it was cool against my skin and the air smelled of sea and what could only described as musty old library books. I turned around and the plane had disappeared and the group of people who I was with, who seemed more like a class than a random bunch of travellers, were standing discussing excitedly about where we were. I looked up past the buildings and made out the image of the Eiffel Tower in the background. Paris? I thought to myself. Scanning the buildings around it, it didn't feel like Paris, it didn't look Paris but I couldn't shake the feeling that this was where I was. I looked up across the water at a bridge in the distance. It spanned across the water from one side of the land to the other. I made out the faint lights of a train passing underneath the section of the road, and a few cars driving in and out of the streetlights on the bridge. I took my camera and began taking pictures of some of the buildings, the bridge and the surrounding landscape. A feeling of dread crept up as I took a picture of the old prison. Turning around to tell my friend about it, I found myself standing alone on the pier. I looked up at the bridge, there were not cars, I glanced around the street and not a person was in sight. The silence that sounded was deafening and was only broken by the occasional wave breaking against the wood of the pier's support stands. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow disappear into the prison. I turned quickly and headed in the direction, calling out for whatever it was to stop. Throwing the door of the prison open I moved into the darkness.


Inside the prison, there was only a dark spiral staircase leading down below. Gripping the railing tight I began to descend down the stair case, taking the stairs one at a time for what seemed like a long time. The first section off the stairs was a door way to the right in the stone wall. I reached out and tried to turn the knob. The door wouldn't open or budge. Turning it the other way I threw my weight against the door. Still nothing. Giving up I continued down the stairs, the light seeming to get dimmer as I went down each stair. The second landing had an open door. The room itself was bare with only an old metal bed with no mattress sitting in the corner. An old pot laid cracked by the small slit in the room, which was lit up only by the full moon outside on the water. Walking to the small "window" I got the strange impression of a girl pacing back and forth by the window. She had no shoes and her hair was messed. I imagined she smelled from the look of her ratty clothes. I could feel her sadness and anger, which seemed to mix together in an overpowering emotion. I hurried out of the room, closing the door behind me. I could hear my heart in my ears beating quicker. What was this place? I saw a shadow moved below and again hurried to catch up. The next landing brought me to a small kitchenette. There was an old wood fire stove in the corner. The middle of the room held a large wooden bench which seemed to be rotting. I turned from this room and headed down again, ignoring 3 more landings before reaching the bottom. The bottom appeared to be a dungeon. I could see, or maybe it was a feeling or just my imagination the image of a man chained up against the wall. His head hung downwards so I couldn't see his face over the mess of unkempt hair. His hands where he had been chained were stained with dried blood. On the opposite side was a woman, her hair messed and tangled. Her body caked with months of dirt which just clung to her. Her feet were covered in dirt and mixed in with the red-orange of blood that had smeared as she walked back and forth over glass. I got a feeling of being trapped and turned to walk up the stair case, only the stair case wasn't there anymore. In its place was an old wooden door with a brass handle. I took a deep breath and turned the handle, opening the door. I stared into darkness. There was nothing there, no light, no shadows just black. From the distance I could make out a blur of something coming towards me. Faint at first, the white blur moved closer and closer, getting bright and brighter until it hit me, hard in the chest, throwing me backwards.


I landed hard on my behind on the stone street beside the peer. My friend offered a hand to help me up and laughed that I was "such a klutz". She said she had been looking for me everywhere and that we had to head to the hotel. We started walking in the direction she claimed was the hotel. I followed her, looking at my surroundings. The buildings were the same, the bridge was the same but there was something different, something not right. As we got closer to the hotel, I began to notice that while it resembled a hotel in size, it felt more like the prison that I had just been in. I grabbed my friend's arm and told her that we shouldn't go in there. She turned around to ask 'why not' only it wasn't her face I stared into; it was the girl pacing in the first room. She grabbed my arm, squeezing hard and just said "run" before she appeared to burst into a dark liquid which seeped into the ground. I turned and ran towards the bridge. I could hear my feet thumping against the floor and then a pain shot up my leg. I looked down and saw that I wasn't wearing shoes. Where had my shoes gone?? I stopped to pull the large piece of glass that was gutting from the sole of my right foot. Warm blood filled up the gap where the glass had been. I tossed the glass aside, hearing it break on the side of the street as I continued towards the bridge. A train pulled in to the right of me, from the train got off a guy friend of mine. I ran towards him, screaming his nickname, "A", and he caught me just before I tripped over, slipping on the blood from my foot. "What the hell happened to you?" he said, helping me to my feet. I gave him a quick hug and said "we need to get out of here now, it's not real". He looked at me puzzled. I continued running up the metal staircase leading to the bridge. Hesitantly, he took off after me and finally I was standing at the start of the bridge. "A" caught up behind me and stood next to me. The bridge was covered in a white-grey fog that seemed to get thicker and thicker. In the fog I could make out a guy walking towards me. He was dressed in a suit with a cowboy hat on covering his face. He's voice seemed to come from everywhere as he spoke. "It's not going to be that easy". From behind me was a large crash. I turned to see the hotel disappear down into the ground, debris flying towards other buildings. A large black figure seemed to creep up from behind us. Its arms hung down low past its knees and seemed to almost drag against the ground. The shape of the creature seemed to be about four or five stories high. I took off along the bridge, A followed me. As we headed along the bridge, I could make out small white creatures coming at us. The appeared to be cat-like in shape, but had fangs that protruded down past the creature's chin. They also had razor sharp claws and tails in the shape of arrows. The lunged at us, I dived down past the first one, wishing I had kept that piece of glass with me. Another creature lunged at us and I rolled over to the side of the bridge, almost falling off. I balanced myself and got up. I moved towards the deserted cars that were sitting on the road. None of them would open. "Fuck I swore", as I saw one of them come up behind me in the reflection of the window. I ducked down at it went through the window. Its tail caught on the side of the car and ripped. I grabbed the arrow, and drove it into the stomach of another creature that had crept up behind me. I could hear the large black creature coming closer as I took off, A was nowhere in sight, I hope he had gotten away.  More little creatures came at me, I dodged left and right, however they just seemed to grow in number. I could see that I wasn't even half way through the bridge and I was growing tired and dizzy. My foot ached and my hands were covered in blood. A few of the creatures lunged at once, scratching me deep in my shoulder. I kicked out hard, connecting with one of them in the face. I rolled to the left; however the bigger creature stomped hard at this moment. I was unable to stop and rolled off the side. I gripped onto the ledge with both hands; however the blood made it hard to hang on. My right hand slipped and I struggled to re-grip onto the bridge. The creatures came closer and ran their fangs along my knuckles. Unable to hold on, I let go and fell down into the water below. It was ice cold.  I could make out A in the water, he was just floating there. I dove down and grabbed him and began to rise to the surface. Breaking through the water I took in a large gulp of air. A looked up at me, coughing up water. In the water I could make out the images of a lot of people, including the girl who had told me to run. A looked at me and said "definitely should have stayed home". I heard a deafening roar and covered my ears with my hands. I was feeling lightheaded, and I assumed I had lost too much blood. I looked up at the bridge to see the little creatures jump into the water and head towards us. "Fuck" I swore. But that wasn't the worse of my problems as the large creature also jumped from the bridge into the water. They swam at us, moving faster and faster along the water, a blur of white and a dark shape in the middle. From the bridge I heard laughing.  The man with the hat stood there, watching.