MY FRIEND PATTI'S DREAM: (Patti happens to weld; she is from Pittsburgh; and she does work often with transgender people, but those facts don't make this any less strange--and great too.)

i was ordering welding supplies from a 'man only' foundry. tanks and tips. oxygen and acetylene. little bits to bind things. the men, there were many, were melting down scrap metal in a giant vat. the metal was stirred and then spit into strips onto a conveyor belt. it was a metal of 7 special kinds they said. it was pure, they said. they told me the name. i wish i could remember. it was the answer to one of the world's problems.

i then drove to pittsburgh. there was a party for my dad. it was my mom's doing. when i arrived my mom made me go pick up a somebody of some sort. i drove far. to a salon. a fancy, fancy salon. i went in to find the uncertain guest. i knew he was getting his hair done. but it was not a he, but a she. but a former he. beautiful, brown skinned and handsome. we got ready to leave and again it was he, not friendly, but delibrate and ready. it was clear his hair had to be maintained for the good of all, the reason i cannot remember.

we now had to leave and to find the car, the far far car. we leave, the man is now a woman, a different woman, my partner, we're a tagteam for this action. we continue. we walk past a girl holding a snake. it's an albino python with the head of a cat. we think this is rare. just past that scene. there is a patch of stuffed cats arranged into a garden. we walk onto the premises. we've entered the estate of the girl with the snat (snake/cat). she's mentally ill. it's her family's estate. they've left it to her. it's to big for her to maintain. she follows us and tries to get our attention. we do not have time. we have to finish our mission.

we head to the train yard. we have to get to london. but must first catch a train to the car. there's a man there. he sprays our necks with a special spray. at first it feels good, but then it feels bad. he's looking for metal. he has a palm pilot stun gun. he uses the spray to see inside of us. the PPSG (palm pilot stun gun) scans us for metal. my partner against crime she hands me a tiny silver sliver. i'm to protect it from ill will. perhaps it's from the foundry.

the man he still sprays. and i hate the spray. the spray it's no good without the gun. i get the gun and throw it onto the tracks. i grab his hands and throw him on the ground. kneeling on top him i fear he still seeks the sliver. i watch the big screen and wait for the credits to roll and then it's safe to release him.