running & safety

I was running away from something—a machine like a robot. It was short but moved quickly and was gaining on me. We were tearing through the corridors of an institution that housed lecture halls, rehearsal studios, theatres and more. It was multi-leveled and vast. I realised that the robot would have trouble following me up and down stairs, so I raced into a central stairwell and ran as fast as I could up the zigzagging staircase, winding my way to the uppermost level of the complex. Once there, realising that the robot would be in hot pursuit via another means of getting to the top, I ran out onto the landing and, following another woman, I jumped over the railing and slid on my bottom down a sloping wooden structure like the tiers of seats in a theatre, minus the seating. The slide to the floor went on and on as I steered myself around architectural objects, shooting down at high speed. At the bottom, the woman and I ran across the foyer through the automatic glass doors, out across a grassy square to a building on the other side. We were flushed and laughing. I realised that I had had fun and she commented on how well I looked.

Later, I was sitting around a table with a group of people I knew and loved in a house where we all lived. It was night and we were quietly talking. A big man came in and sat with us. He had just woken up and he smelt of stale alcohol. He was hairy and brutish, his bare arms punching the air as he shouted about this and that. I knew there would be trouble, specifically something concerning me, so I did my best to quietly leave the table and exit out the front door. He realised I was going and roared after me. I fled down the stairs into the dark garden and, knowing he would assume that I took off down the street, I doubled back around the house and waited around the side behind a bush. He thundered down the cement driveway and up the road whilst I crept back up the stairs and signaled to everyone to be quiet, I hid back in the bedroom area of the house. Everyone knew that I was in danger and kept silent. My friend C was there and she took me in her arms for a moment, saying she understood, before I found a discreet position behind a bed.

Later again, I was at a party in a backyard that sloped down away from the house. There was a table set up under a canopy from where a few men were serving drinks. I was standing in front of the makeshift bar, watching a group of people sitting at a table not far from the bar, further down the slope, as well as keeping an eye on a bunch of men who were standing on the verandah overlooking the yard. There were plastic glasses of sparkling and beer, none of which looked very appealing. I was talking with the guys serving drinks when there was a thudding sound from up near the verandah and raucous laughter. One of the drunk men had thrown himself off the deck, bellyflopping onto the grass below. He got up and did it again. Others followed suite, recklessly allowing themselves to fall, even though the verandah was high above the ground. I was dismayed at their behaviour, knowing that it would end badly. Even the men serving drinks began to act badly—they became rough and unpredictable. Eventually, the crowd disappeared and I looked around me. There was only one person left, a lovely woman with dark hair. We embraced and I told her that I loved that she was dependable, that I could count on her. We walked out of the space together and went to our home. There, we each went to our respective rooms and threw open the windows which had been sealed by huge wooden doors. The light flooded in and reached the innermost rooms of the rambling house. We rearranged the furniture and made ourselves, finally, at home.