A few miles south of Nolan there was a state park with some Indian mounds and an old plantation. People could go see the cotton fields and slave quarters from the 1800’s and some of the first farming equipment that was invented in the industrial revolution. Most people didn’t visit the plantation side of the park, but school bus after school bus would pull up to show children the Indian mounds. They wanted to make sure that all children knew that the mounds were built by Native Americans and that they were sacred to their religion. When driving away they may or may not casually reference the plantation as they bus drove past.
Nolan’s school was going to visit the Indian mounds tomorrow. This was one of the best field trips of the year. It took all day and you got to walk around outside for most of it. There was a little video, some arrow heads and a blow dark demonstration at the end of the tour but by then everyone was tired of walking and needed to sit down. Swirling in his head were thoughts about the governor and his brother and the CIA. All the things DJ had talked about that morning with his dad were seared into his memory. It was hard to go to sleep as the thoughts swirled. Tomorrow they would eat at the hubcap burger place next door to the mounds. The governor used to eat there a lot too and Nolan wondered why. It just felt like he was connected to this somehow.
When he finally did fall asleep Nolan had a very short dream, his first dream of the night. He saw Abraham Lincoln speaking to a group of old newspaper men. Lincoln was telling them about the mounds that had been dug up all across the country. “The eyes of that species of extinct giants whose bones fill the Mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara as ours do now.”, Lincoln said in this little dream. Nolan woke up perplexed, he had never heard of a race of extinct giants. Nolan thought the Mounds of America were filled with Indians. He couldn’t even fit the idea of this dream being real into his head. It wasn’t what they learned at school, it wasn’t what the Indian mounds state park people told the school children.
Back to sleep he went, all but dismissing the Abraham Lincoln dream. Then Nolan fell into a deep sleep, very deep. Soon he found himself in a large stone building with many rooms. There were several people in there with him and a woman from Hollywood owned the home. There were pyramids and Egyptian art works in every room. There were hundreds of little stone statues on every shelf and in every drawer. There were papers and books and jewelry, all of it had an Egyptian feel to it but it also felt evil.
Nolan and all the other people in the building were gathering the statues and papers and charms together into little groups. Each person was supposed to destroy the group in front of them some day but no one wanted to go first, so Nolan went first. He was so happy destroying these evil items that he began to fly from room to room and help all the others get started. It was the most fun thing he had ever done! He ripped up papers and smashed figurines as he flew through the house, laughing all the way. This was pure joy for Nolan!
The others started helping out once he got going too. Nolan flew past these miniature pyramids and smashed idols. Soon the others were smashing so many idols that Nolan didn’t have to. He flew through the house and suddenly out of his mouth came a booming cry, “Ra is fallen!!!”. This proved to be a little bit difficult because he also shouted this out in real life and woke himself up. Waking up from a deep sleep while he was busy flying around doing things was difficult. His body bounced on the bed and it took a long time to catch his breath. By the time he was back to his senses, he looked at the clock and it was 12:04, he must have made the proclamation right at midnight. He knew a little about Ra and the Egyptian gods from school but nobody ever told him they were real, he learned about them as myth. It was a busy night already and the early morning hadn’t even come.
Practice Outlaw 