Dream: I'm in a boarding school, scared, young, climbing around on the rooftops to keep away from everyone else. There are microphones listening in on almost every conversation. Nothing is private. It's almost Halloween and they are trying to make us feel like it's a holiday and there are giant inflatable pumpkins and witches heads and it makes me want to climb down from the roof...
Suddenly, it's years later and the school looks like a survivor camp from a civil war, being run by bullies with thugs. There are no children here anymore, it's more like a prison. I am bundled in rags, and the others mostly leave me alone because I've been here for so long.
It's rubbish day which means that the dead bodies are being taken to the gate, littering body parts and blood in the gravel that now fills the playing field. Pebbles mixed with teeth. Part of rubbish day is that the dead's possessions are up for grabs, a horse drawn cart trails after the cage containing the dead and everyone is allowed to choose one item from It. I look through the clothing, but there are so many printed tees for bands and TV shows which no longer exist and it makes me feel depressed.
I'm about to give up when my hand falls upon something solid. A book wrapped in clothing. I pull it from the pile of cloth and it's a copy of Little Women. I hesitate and then hold it high in the air to claim it as my choice and a ripple of voices chases through the nearby crowd. I have a book. I chose a book. They now know that I can still read. Soon the lessons will begin but for now the world ripples through the other prisoners, the word which will become my name, "Book".
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