September 1990

There was a huge Mormon conference, and I had to attend. All of us kids (me and my peer group from church, from my younger days, basically) were held in a corral made from a school playground. It was mostly flat and empty except for two HUGE trees, which were in diagonally opposing corners. The corral was subdivided into "rooms" by ropes or low fences; one person per room, no exceptions. No fraternizing was allowed.

The first night, A. snuck over to my room (even though she was not a part of my Mormon peer group at all-- turns out in the dream that she was a recent convert to the church). We snuggled together under one of the big trees, and discussed how religion, in general, is bullshit. She and her family were going to return home the next day.

We realized that they would be checking our rooms soon, so we kiss and then sneak back to the corral. However, instead of going back to my own room, I sneak to her room, to talk some more, but then a whole bunch of sprinklers turn on. Everyone wakes up as the water begins to spray around, and they all begin to intermingle, despite the rules. In fact, by this time there is much smoking, drinking, and fooling around going on all over the corral.

Or, actually, I guess this had been going on for some time, because the church hierarchy was apparently using the sprinklers to instill order. So A. and I look for a place in the shade (even though it's at night), that's away from the sprinklers. We end up in a tool shed, but dozens of other kids have hidden there as well. A pleasant evening ruined.