Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

I was living in Pumpkin Holler, but it wasn't the Pumpkin Holler that I know. I was living in Pumpkin Holler of the late 19th century. As I walked down the street, it changed from what I know it looks like to what it looked like in the late 1800s or there about. Streets moved from their present locations to where they were then as I observed them. New houses and buildings disappeared to be replaced by trees, old houses, or other objects that existed then. Finally I arrived at my destination. I'm not sure of what the building was called, but I suspect it was similar to "Pumpkin Holler County Convention Center". Strangely enough, time had progressed. It was now the late 1950 or perhaps the early 1960s. The interior was dark and smoky. Just inside the entrace was a bar/restaurant that seemed quite busy. The barstools had long, wooden legs. The leather seats had brass or copper rivets. The low pile carpet was old and slightly sticky from accumulated spills and neglect. Ashtrays dotted the the length of the bar. I walked along through the restaurant until I came to the main hall of the center. The doors opened and I entered the long corridor. The walls were light blue and the heating and plumbing pipes along the ceiling were all painted the same. The paint seemed new and fresh. I immediately remembered having visited this place many times as a child. I knew every turn and where all the doors led. The sounds of people holding meetings came from behind some doors. I was a little sad because this place seemed so vibrant, so alive, yet I knew that it had been torn down at some point in the future. People stopped going there. It was no longer relevant. Yet here it was in all its glory. The hall seemed much longer than I remembered. Perhaps because as a child I had run through it, making the yards seem like feet. Finally, I reached the end. I tried to open the main doors, but couldn't. I could see the handles but they weren't really there. Something within me told me why...I had reached the end of the virtual simulation. What lie beyond had not yet been modeled. Maybe because no one remembered exactly what it looked and felt like. Maybe because no one cared. I walked back down the hall. Somewhat confused, somewhat curious. Why had someone bothered to create such an elaborate hoax? Why had they chosen this particular era to model and why this particular building? I proceded back out through the restaurant, back through the bar. I stepped out of the building and awoke. I felt a little happy about remembering that building, and felt a little sad that it had to be torn down, not because something new was to replace it, just because it was no longer important. That's when it hit me. The building I had remembered so fondly had never actually existed at all.

-HBH