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know any better I would say this is beginning to feel like an adventure. Fallen trees, dark streets.

Lynne turns on the radio and starts to flip through stations, and she passes by one that catches my
attention so I tell her to flip back to it, and on a radio news station, three men are debating what the
real solution to the war on drugs in America is.

Soon after they begin to talk about how the violence in the city has increased, and about how two
cops were shot and killed earlier today because of drugs and violence. This makes me wonder
where Derek is, and what he's doing right now.

Chapter 34:
PAGE 2 OF 8, "THE EIGHT DREAMS"

First year, May 4th, I had this dream. I'm sitting on a seat in a subway car. The car is
overpopulated, filled to the max capacity and then some. The car makes a stop, the stop is named
Main. Looking out the window of the car I see more people who expect to find a seat in this car, but
all that happens is even more population is added to a place that is already overpopulated.

The next stop is Fifth, and even more people get on, and it feels like the pressure is building, or
something is going to explode. I decide to get off at Center, which is the next stop after Fifth, and
as the subway car is driving away, I turn around and see an advertisement claiming everything that
I have said and done is both meaningless and purposeless, and the unexpectedness of this event
causes me to become lucid.

After I realize that I am dreaming, I begin to think of Roach and the discussion we had, but I have
a hard time remembering his face and the things he said, most likely because I hadn't yet dreamed
page one, but there are so many factors to consider that I could be wrong.

I decide to search for this man, probably because subconsciously I have no idea who he is and my
mind wants to gain a better understanding of anything it can't comprehend so that it may adapt and
survive. The problem is the only thing I know is his name.

I go to the edge of the platform on Center and overlook the tracks, and in the distance I can see the
next stop, State. I jump down and begin to walk, and when I get to State I see many people waiting
for the next set of cars. Looking at these people, looking through them for Roach, literally,
metaphorically and philosophically, I start to think about how most of us live our lives waiting for
things.

Waiting for the right job, waiting for the right person, waiting for that right moment in your life
where everything you have had to go through in your life all seems worth it now, but these things
may never come. Those of us who aren't waiting are searching, but of course we will never find
what we are looking for. Not usually, anyway. The jokes on us.

After a long time, I've checked Sixth, Park, Seventh and others but I can't find him, and eventually
I give up and go above ground to find a city wrapped in bright lights and a mature night. To my
right I see a bunch of kids skateboarding, and to my left I see more people waiting for a bus to
come. I begin to walk towards the bus stop, and on my way when I'm almost there I feel a hand on