I was walking along the beach on an island. Walking for miles and miles with a friend and I perceived that we were planning on circling the island by foot. Then I noticed some dogs. One at first, then another and another, they were huskies, all spaced about 100 yards apart. I couldn’t decide if they were a pack or not, but were twelve or so altogether. As the first of them approached, I decided I would turn my fear into my knowledge of wolf psychology, and I approached the first dog, looked her square in the eye, and then turned and ran the other way (the way they were going). The dog pack ran with me, the newest member of their group in their minds.

When I reached my destination on the other side of the island, I collapsed, and woke up in the hospital. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw a really suncooked kid. One of the doctors commented on helping these “yellow people”.

The yellow people comment was more about our race than our condition. We were Caucasian, but to these islanders and their doctor, we were yellow, and we were dumb for getting sunstroke.

I felt a bit better for being in the hospital, and got to know some of the other patients. There were these two black guys who I recognize as some of my neighbors. They were both conscious but hooked up to a bunch of ICU type of equipment. The guy with dreads, after talking to us for a minute, decided he was going to unhook himself and proceeded to do so, because he was so desperate to get out of being hooked up and immobile. He decided to go ahead and just accept the consequences of death, etc. Just as he unhooked, a nurse walked up and said he could be free of the IV and other lines if he got a couple of shots.

The syringe was deeply orange, like the medicine was fluorescent orange paint. The first injection was directly in the man’s heart. boom. Right through the intercostal muscles of the ribcage. The patient’s face was stunned but he was still standing. The second injection was in the middle of the forehead. boom. Don’t ask me how it got in there. Then I woke up.