Gwen- 7 NM: Riding a bike & Water Moccasin

[Gweener]

I had a hellava time learning to ride a bike. My Dad would get me on it in the street, give me running shove and soon enough I would wreck. Both him & my step-mother chastised me for not being able to ride a bike at my age. Anyway, we had a horse-shoe shaped drive way but out by the road were big DEEP ditches. In real life, the neighbor across the street had shot the head off of a big water moccasin and in the picture, the snake was as long as the guy holding him up, even without the head!

I still remember this dream so vividly. In my dream I was wobbly riding my bike down the street and fell into the deep ditch. I remember being under water and snakes just biting and biting me as I struggled to get to the surface. But when I finally did get to the surface, nothing would come out my mouth except hoarse screams that I thought in my head, no one could possibly hear. I remember getting bit and thrashing and splashing and trying to scream, and then finally waking up.

Oh in case, you haven't heard me talk about it,... the learning how to ride a bike experience.... swimming was just about the exact same way for me. I love it now. But I was tormented and teased for not knowing how to swim. I was scared to death to go in the water without my swimmies or a ring. Evidently (I don't remember it,) but when my parents split up and I had went to New Orleans to visit my Dad at an apartment, I saw a little girl drowned in the pool with no one else watching. That's the same apartments that I got stuck in the elevator, because I would normally just take the stairs down to ride my big wheel with my friends, but noooo, I had to push the button for the elevator (which on the outside, I could reach), but once the doors closed I couldn't reach the buttons. I vaguely remember that incident... trying to use the freezy-pops I had in my hands for me and my friends to reach up and push the buttons, feeling trapped, trying to be calm, freaking out and screaming at the top of my lungs and squeezing the hell out of those popsicles.  

[Hazumu-san]

Feeling helpless is a very big thing, its what makes most nightmare feel even scarier.

I know what you mean about deep ditches, I lived around farms when I was young all the roads had really deep ditches around 10 feet or so. I was always afraid I would fall in one and not get out.  

[Vicious Mockery]

I was so scared of swimming when I was a little kid! You know how pools often have drains around them? Well, there was this one pool where the ground was high up from the water and there were these big drains between them, it's hard to explain. I was always scared I would fall into one if I got out!