Story Week 11: Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La

The Dream of Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La

She wakes up with a jolt. Confused and processing, she makes her way out of bed and downstairs. Thinking to herself, what just happened. Knowing she could think clearer with a cup of coffee, she starts the Keurig. As it grumbles, her roommate walks in, chirpy and excited for the day. "Hey, Jordan. Oh my god. I just had the strangest dream." 

Jordan, one never to miss a chance to hear a story, sat down at the table and replied, "Well, are you going to tell me about it? Is it about that guy you have been texting?"

"No. No, not at all. Let me fix this coffee first, so I can think." 

When she had finished, her coffee, she joined Jordan and said, "Ok, I am ready. It was so weird. I was little again playing with my brother in our backyard. You know at my house how we have that big lot behind our fence with all those trees? We were back there and there was a boulder. Never have I seen it before in my life. We played till we passed out on the boulder." 

Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La or El' Captain, the rock this story is about

Jordan interjected, "Your mom would have never let that happen." 

"Yeah, I know, but that's not how the dream goes. So I wake up from a nap inside of my dream, on the moon. Trippy, huh? My brother is still there. While we were asleep The boulder grew until it was nearly touching the moon. I don't know how we were breathing. So five-year-old me starts freaking out. I can't get home."

"That's when you wake up right?"

"No, then the animals gather below. I don't know how I can see them, but I can, and they meet in like a council to figure out how to get us down. First, the rat and the mouse jumped up and tried to get up the wall, but they barely got off the ground. Then, the grizzly bear jumped. He got higher than I thought he would but did not make it over the boulder. Finally, the lion tried and despite getting the farthest up the boulder, he didn't make it up."

Jordan looked at me confused, " So, then you woke up, right?" 

"Not yet. Then, my brother started crying because we thought we were going to be stuck up there. But the inchworm said, 'Never Fear,' and started crawling up the side of the boulder. He made it all the way to use and yelled 'jump on my back! My name is Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La' and I can help you!' I had nothing to lose, so I did. My brother took a little bit more convincing, but he got also got on the inchworms back. Then the inchworm carried us down the boulder." 

"An inchworm?

"I said it was a dream, didn't I? He got us all the way down and walk us home. When I walked in my backdoor, that's when I woke up" 

"Ok yeah. That is a strange dream."

Author's Note Legend of Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La (El Capitan)

This is based after the Legend of Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La. I kept the story mostly the same but I changed the narrator. I wanted to use mostly dialogue so I thought about recent conversations I have had that this would work in. I chose a conversation between me and my roommate early in the morning because the dynamic is fun, it's unlike anything I have written, and I like the change in perspective. I felt as if the change in perspective made the story a little bit more interesting because imagine if you were taking a nap and woke up on the moon. It would be something you told people.