26thAugust2008LateMorning

After a series of exciting experiences, which I forgot when I woke up, I slept again in the hope of reviving or resuming those series of experiences. The scene took a different turn and I saw yet another weird and "different" kind of dream, something that has never happened to me in real life.

I saw myself, with my college mates going to some other place, as a team to attend a workshop and conduct some experiments as a part of that workshop. We took a bus to that place. The place looked like very old, with faded colored walls with dark patches, and dingy ambience inside the buildings. We wore special suits kind of thing, like what bomb disposal squad wears or those dealing with viruses or biological weapons! I saw myself and others sitting in the same row, with old looking desks and apparatus, with washing sinks in front of us. It reminded me of the chemistry lab of my school which looked quite like that lab we were sitting in.
After the trip, I felt like I desperately wanted this kind of work or project. But I didn't have good CGPA or experience to support my predicament. Nevertheless I approached the professor, and as expected he dismissed me because he expected some "better" students to take up such projects. I couldn't believe it because the professor believed in giving anyone a chance.

In my desperation, I fell for my friends' suggestion of fabricating a false identity that showed that I belonged to a family which was a part of some specific groups of families. The trick worked as the next day the professor called me himself and offered me the project. My friends' had changed my identity quite meticulously in each of my records with the college authorities.
A couple of days later, during late hours of evening, as I walked by the dean's office, I heard this, "I found this. He's son of an army officer, he's an army kid." and before I could think of my next move (I easily guessed they were talking about me.) the professor saw me, and his face showed anger and disappointment. I looked at the dean, and (OMG, what happened!) he looked different. He looked a little younger and had dense hair on his head. The dean wouldn't have delayed a judgment so long. The professor won't spare me for what I have done, so he possibly couldn't be preventing the dean from suspending me for a week and calling my parents. I had this feeling that he wasn't the real dean, but a fake duplicate. But why couldn't others see the change in his looks, and his behavior. He didn't show any signs or anger or frustration, but falsely made a concerned and angry face.
I was ridiculed by many in the college the next day. People stared at me and talked among themselves, wherever I went. But something else was disturbing me. I wanted to find out more about the changes in the dean. My friends had no idea about it and surprisingly didn't even observe any change in the dean. It was only after I told them about my observations that they agreed.
Next night, I managed to get myself into dean's office. I searched for any clue that might explain such a behavior. I found a few deadbodies inside the cushioned side row just outside his cabin, where people sat, waiting for their turn to meet him. The bodies didn't have disgusting odour but did feel like human body when I touched them. The faces were recognizable but not of anyone I had ever seen. It confirmed that the present dean wasn't the real dean. The real dean would have suspended me but this dean didn't bother and spared me. Is it that dean was in danger (or perhaps dead, which could be, with so many dead bodies supporting this claim!) and this pseudo dean has some other business here that he's least bothered about the college and isn't interfering much with the administration work.
Sitting there in the dark, in front of the opened side row, with dead bodies in front of me, I could hear his words ringing in my mind, "he's an army kid". I felt the energy and the fervor within. I realized that I had a big responsibility to shoulder and get things right. I must find the dean and the answer to why can't anyone else realize that the dean is missing and this dean is not real. Could it be that the day I missed college for the workshop, that same day he replaced the real dean and did something to everyone else?