You and Ball Who Dream of a Dog

The place begins with a dark, endless room. You feel weightless, as if you're not standing on anything, as if you don't exist.

Then it's as if someone is pouring paint, and a landscape slowly comes into view. It begins with a blue wash that forms an endless sky, and you startle because now you're truly falling as the other colors splash to form the land.

Forming the ground, the roads, and the trees. Falling to the ground, you feel sick. Your head feels dizzy as the colors swirl and spew in all directions, and a white burst hits you. Now everything appears white in your mind. And you ask a stupid question. "Am I dead?"

You try to open your eyes when something wet sweeps across your face. As you open them, you see a black dog, licking you.

You jump away, feeling disgusted by all that slime. But the dog seems not to understand because it just comes closer to you.

You scream. "Get away!" But the dog just comes closer and without thinking, you kick the dog.

A hard knock lands on your stomach. It's as if someone just kicked you.

You lie on the ground. As you moan in pain, you suddenly realize that something is wrong. You're not cursing, you're barking.

You try to get up, but your legs can't support your body. You look at your hands, and they're paws. You look at a young man near you, and it's you.

You're glaring at yourself. Screaming. "Don't come near me or I'll kick you again."

"How can this be?"

You're stunned. That person is you, you're sure of it. His attitude is exactly what you would do, his words are exactly what you would say, but you're here.

Without realizing it, you've come closer again only to get kicked again. The pain feels abnormal. Like tingling, but it really hurts.

If this is a dream, shouldn't it not hurt?

You weakly look at your other self. He's pulling his hand out of his pocket, taking out a rubber ball the size of a baseball ball.

"Take this and don't bother me again."

He throws it at you. Maybe it's your dog instinct, you reflexively catch it with your teeth, biting it hard, and at the same time you feel like you're being bitten too.

You can't move. You can't move. Your whole body feels like it's being stabbed by ten sharp objects. And you're in a cave with its slimy stones pointing towards you.

Or not.

You're in the mouth of a dog. You can't move because now you're a ball. The rubber ball from earlier.

Well, you're starting to get annoyed. From human to dog and now a rubber ball. What's next?

You drip. As if your body is drawn by gravity and falls apart. Your hands, legs, body drip onto the ground.

Amazing.

You roll your eyes when you know what you'll be next.

Saliva? Sure, why not.

As your head drips onto the ground, you wake up.

Blink your eyes a few times, look around.

Oh, yeah, what a crazy dream. Being a ball, being saliva and then the craziest thing, being human!

You look at your legs, make sure you're really awake, your form is really back perfectly. Even though black-furred legs alone should be enough proof, you run to a puddle and look at your form.

Yeah, your dog form looks very handsome. You're fully awake now. Time to find food in the nearest garbage dump.