Beer Auction
Begin: I had come across a note in the back pages of some publication about a place where a group of people got together on a particular day in a warehouse where beer was auctioned off. Those fortunates who knew about this event paid half price for their guzzle.
I had somehow determined where this place was, and parked my truck (much larger than the tiny Japanese pickup of my waking life) outside the building some time before the auction was to be held. I apparently needed the battery charged and had the truck plugged into an outside outlet on the building with an orange extension cord about 30 feet long.
People started arriving for the auction just as it was getting dark, and I just wandered around looking as though I belonged there. I unplugged my truck so it wouldn't attract attention. With various other people I wandered in through the side door of the warehouse, and finally the auctioneer arrived. a kind of chubby woman gave some introductory words in a sort of pep talk manner. The auctioneer stood on a small stage in an alcove and started to explain the proceedings for the benefit of any new people. He said the auction would soon begin, and that the smallest lot any of us could bid on was eight cans. He then went on to say there would be no talking and no joking. There would be no food eaten of cooked. The only activity would be the auction, and drinking of beer, quietly.
He stopped for a bit, and I noticed on a table to my left a globe with a votive candle in it that was guttering out. I got a piece of paper and tried a couple of times to get it burning to light a replacement candle. The auctioneer came over and blew it out, and gave me a dirty look. The doors were about to be closed and the auction started. I started to wake up a little and said to myself, "There is something really strange going on here. Something seems like a trap. I had better get our of here before those doors are closed". I slipped out and headed for my truck. No-one took notice or tried to stop me.
I woke up at this point and stayed awake for a while. I later returned to sleep about 5am and seemed to return to the same location, but it was in bright daylight. I was out behind the building with some familiar seeming people helping them move cases of beverages, some of which, at least, were soft drinks. Some of these were being consumed on the spot. I still had this feeling of a trap and planned to slip away before all the stuff was moved. At one point I came around the building and heard someone ask where Andrew was. Someone else said they did not know, that maybe I had left.
I took a look around, but nearly everything had been moved, so I took a last bottle of soda and headed up through the building, forgetting my previous suspicions somehow. I had been going around in the building. At this point one cheerful lady (Louise Bebo ?) said, "OK, I'll get him, and started sliding a door closed behind me.
I turned and said, "Oh no you don't!". and threw the bottle at her.
Unfortunately I missed and the door closed and latched. I think the wide
door to the left at the top of the stairs was still open, but do not know
if I made it up and out as I was startled into waking at this point. I
wondered at this moment if, with waking, I would disappear entirely from
this place and they would find me mysteriously gone. My waking was at least
in part deliberate.
End.