Dream: tragedy at Ashfield station

This dream starts on a platform at Ashfield station. I am standing there with C, her fiance and Marek. Though there are several sparse light poles, it is almost completely dark and I can barely make out their faces.

All around us, trains are passing by. We are discussing where to go to get the train to the city. I suggest that we should go to platform 1... but what platform are we on now? platform 5? we are puzzled as there are very few visual clues.

Steadily, the crowd grows around us. None of the trains seem to stop, but the number of people on the platform is increasing exponentially. Soon Marek and I become separated from the other two, who are swallowed up without a noise by the crowd.

For the number of people there are, it is eerily quiet. We are still walking up the length of the platform when we see some steps leading up to an overbridge. Let's go up there and see if we can see a noticeboard. I say to Marek.

We start up the stairs, but then a rush of people come down the steps and Marek is lost. I am now alone and the stairs seem to never end. They weave left and right, but there is nowhere even to stop and have a rest as there are no landings to separate the flights. I feel out of breath and my legs are burning, but the swell of people behind me push me forward.

I take out my phone and call Marek. The phone goes to voicemail which is fragmented, as if someone tore up the recorded message and scattered them in the sky: please... tone...  message.. not...  It goes on and I hang up. I try calling C but the phone is silent. Suddenly I feel very afraid, my hands and feet cool from perspiration.

Unceremoniously and without warning. the stairs end and I am at the top. I struggle to remember, is this really Ashfield station? It is so dark I cannot see anything on the noticeboards. I decide to go to where I think platform 1 is, and as I go down the steps, weeds grow into them and intrude upon my descent. I trip several times, not being able to see where they are.

I look up and the moon is shining bright. It casts its rays over an area just to my right, revealing a high ledge that looks like a brick wall. I try to climb up the side of the stairs to get to that ledge, convinced that there I will find some answers. It is a rather difficult climb, but eventually I get there and sit down on the cool bricks, utterly exhausted.

It's a great vantage point from which I can see all 5 platforms of Ashfield station. The trains come and go in all sorts of random directions with no pattern to them.

No wonder we couldn't find the train to the city. I think to myself.

Then I see them, dark shadows leaping from the tops of trains. All of a sudden, the truth is crystal clear - to get onto the right train, one must get on top of the train and jump from train to train - these trains cannot be boarded in a normal way. I feel overwhelmed with the idea of doing this though, and feel rather heavy in my heart.

Then I see Marek's shadow on top of a train. Tall and thin, it's definitely him. I stand up and begin to shout to him, but before the words leave my mouth, I see him leap into the air, trying to make it onto the top of the next train. In impossibly slow motion, I see his body falling, having missed the train altogether. Before he hits the ground, I see his body propelled forward in an extraordinary fashion. With a truly sickening feeling in my stomach, I realise that another train has hit him.

My heart feels like it will burst out of my chest. Then I wake up. 

Dream: Marrickville and the elephant sanctuary

In this dream it is dark. I am with Grace and we are off to meet some people for dinner in Marrickville.

We are at a bus stop which appears unfamiliar to me. The bus arrives and I cannot recognise the number or the route, but we get on anyway. It is terribly dark inside the bus, and we can barely see where we are going. We sit and silently watch the abandoned streets pass by.

After some time, we still have no idea where we are. No one else is on the bus, and I start to feel more and more restless. I check my phone for a GPS signal so that the map can show us where we are going, but there is just a flashing blue dot on the screen.

We must get off, I tell Grace, and I press the button. At the next stop, the bus pulls up outside a train station. A sign outside says Central, but it looks nothing like the real Central station (or any other train stations I've been to). We descend the steps as Grace protests that the trains are unsafe in this city.

I look at the clock and it is just after 7pm. We are not going to make it in time, I tell her, we must hurry and find the right train. We try to buy a ticket but all the ticket machines are switched off. There is a ticket booth but no-one inside. The whole station is abandoned.

We go down several escalators to a platform, and an old steam train pulls in. Just as we jump on the train, my phone starts ringing.

And then it cuts to the next scene. We are in an elephant sanctuary and have just reported for work. Grace is the vet and I am the elephant keeper. I feel greatly relieved as I don't think I would be any good at being a vet, especially of elephants!

There are about a dozen elephants in the sanctuary. A few of them are babies, the smallest one being the size of a horse and absolutely adorable. My job is to feed them, observe their activity patterns and do some record keeping. Occasionally the elephants will break into a playful fight, trumpeting loudly from the other side of the reserve. They seem to respond well to me though, and when I show up the fight is broken.

I love my job, and I love the elephants. Then one day I notice that two of the male elephants are both interested in one of the female elephants. I wonder if some of the previous fights have been over her, and I approach Grace to ask about the mating patterns of elephants. She ponders the question and pulls out the files on those elephants, looking at them carefully.

You must keep this elephant away from her. She says solemnly.

Why? I ask.

Because they will make really ugly little elephants. She says without a trace of expression.

Then I wake up.