Dream Wizard

By Dr. Alexander Randall 5th

The Dream Wizard Conquers His Knight Mare is a fantasy adventure in which our hero, Sandy, tackles the weeds in his garden by running off on a series of adventures to find the some "magic" to get rid of his problem. Traveling with his trusty dog Rem, Sandy struggles, blunders and stumbles in pursuit of an easy fix, all the while being given wisd

• Language: English
• Publisher: Westwood Books Publishing
• Release date: Jan 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685362799

Dr. Alexander Randall 5th

Alex Randall is Professor of Communication at the University of the Virgin Islands where he teaches The Psychology of Sleep and dreaming among other courses. In earlier incarnations, he created the world's first e-commerce business - the Boston Computer Exchange and he created a non-profit that distributed computers in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union right as the Berlin wall was coming down. He has been the "Good News Guy" on radio in the Virgin islands and the host of "Freedom Technology" on the Voice of America. Alex has 4 advanced degrees from Princeton and Columbia Universities. He studied with Margaret Mead (Clara Mee) Gregory Bateson (Old Gory Bait) Humphry Osmond (Oz Mound) Henry Reed (Reed Sundance) a wizened old man called the Wizard of Wood, Walt Sundin and a neighbor named Hermie Garlic who drove a bulldozer and blew things up. Randall spent years teaching and traveling all over the world teaching students how to remember their dreams and how to make sense of them. He lives in Princeton NJ. He has a wife and five children, a dog and - yes, a garden. Candace Whittemore Lovely is a Boston Impressionist. Her art is in museums and private collections all over America. She painted the official portrait of Barbara Bush and of Fenway Park in Boston. She lives in Hilton Head South Carolina with her Westie terriers.

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Copyright © 2020 by Dr. Alexander Randall 5th.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Illustrations by Candace Whittemore Lovely

Westwood Books Publishing LLC

11416 SW Aventino Drive

Port Saint Lucie, FL 34987

www.westwoodbookspublishing.com

Contents

In the Garden

Hermie Garlick

In Search of the Magic Man

Lost in a Balloon

It’s all about Trance Formation

What’s a Meta For?

Knight Mare in the Depths of Darkness

Reed Sundance and the Valley of Light

Knight School

Over the Top

Return to the Garden

Big Party

Epilogue: How to Remember Your Dreams

The weeds

Dandelion

Blue Bell

Cardin Thistle

Foxglove

Queen Anne-Lace

Lily of the Valley

Belladonna

Rosemary

Violet Lavender

Shasta Daisy

Spike Speedball

Wild Violet

Forget Me Not

Illustrations

1 - Sandy Fights with the Weeds

2 - I’ll be right back…

3 - Gear that was Garbage

4 - KABOOM

5 - The State Fair

6 - Walter Wizard - Signs and Symbols!

7 - In a Balloon

8 - Clara Mee’s Cloudy Office

9 - This Way

10 - City of the Future

11 - The Hall of Life

12 - Sapiential Circle

13 - It’s all About Trance Formation

14 - Sandy Points

15 - Sandy, Gray and a Spider

16 - Tower Island

17 - The Knight Mare

18 - Paddle for your life

19 - Down in the Valley

20 - Knight School

21 – Falling or Flying

22 - The Heard

23 - Garden Redux

24 - There’s a Big Party

25 - Epilogue

In the Garden

A dragon, coming right at him. Sandy turns, tightens his grip on the sword. Swing. Miss. Stumble back. Stand. Lunge. Miss. His face full of fire. The air reeks of singed hair. Sandy stumbles down, knees on the ground. Wait! What’s that? A rope around the dragon’s neck. Like a noose. Sandy lunges, grabs the rope; pulls with all his might. Pull! PULL! Blink. Awake.

He’s in the garden pulling weeds…. It felt like days, and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. Sandy grabbed a big weed and pulled with all his might. A tiny drop of sweat rolled down his nose, lingered on the tip, then leapt to the ground and splashed in the tangled leaves. The roots let go. Sandy fell over backward. Dirt sprayed everywhere. One more weed was out of the garden.

Everywhere Sandy looked, the garden had weeds. He’d dug up a huge pile. It seemed there were more weeds than dirt. While Sandy’s friends walked past the garden on their way to games and adventures, Sandy was stuck in the garden pulling weeds.

Now, gardens are supposed to be delightful. In the early spring, everyone is eager to enjoy the sunshine and share the work. They’ll till the soil, make the furrows, and plant the seeds. Seeds know all about making plants. You put them in beds, they come up, and, around midsummer, you eat the food. That’s how it’s supposed to go.

In Sandy’s garden, it’s a little different. Only fairy tale seeds sprout overnight. In the real world, they take time to grow while other seeds in the ground grow too. They are the curse of gardens, and the horror of every field. They choke food plants and strangle flowerbeds. They are horrible nasty plants called WEEDS!

When Sandy was a little kid, he played in the garden while his parents worked there. He spent his summer fighting dragons, capturing monsters, parading his army through the city yet never left the yard. His bright, blue eyes saw faeries in the flowers and elves in the woods. On most days, he’d don his T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, pull his baseball cap over his sandy colored hair and seek an adventure in the yard.

His constant companion was his fabulous dog, Rem. Sandy and Rem always played together and were best buddies. No other dog quite as bright or handsome as Rem. He was mostly black but his paws were snowy white and he had tiny spots of brown color like freckles on his nose. One ear was proud and stood up, but the other one was lazy and was alert only when there was excitement in the air. But, most of the time, Rem slept. He’d lie on his back, with his paws in the air and twitch as he chased monsters in his dreams. Sometimes, Sandy would sleep with his head on Rem, and they’d snooze away an afternoon.

But this summer was different. Sandy’s parents said he was old enough to tend the garden. They told him he was ready to learn the rewards of hard work, and they said something about fun and productivity. But the garden, full of weeds, was NO FUN AT ALL.

As he surveyed the scene and wondered how to escape a hot summer in the weedy dirt, a voice came from behind.

What are you doing, Sandy?

He knew that voice, it belonged to Kami, the girl who lived in the house next to the garden. Sandy thought Kami was pretty much fun - - - for a girl. She wouldn’t go adventuring like Rem, but Kami and Sandy did lots of things together. They’d climb trees and play catch or run races with Rem (though Rem always took shortcuts and won). She was just about Sandy’s size and age, and her dark brown hair was usually tied up in pigtails, which made it easier to climb trees. Her freckles made her smile more appealing, and, even though Sandy couldn’t really say it, he really liked Kami a lot. But right this minute, the weeds were in the way of any fun.

I’m pulling weeds, he answered. See, Kami, you pull on the weed as hard as you can, then it lets go, and you chop it into little bits.

That’s all you’re doing? Pulling plants and cutting them up? Kami asked him. Doesn’t look hard to me.

OK, you try it.

No, you’re doing fine by yourself.

Really, Sandy pleaded gently with a hopeful smile, come and try it. You’re making room for good plants to grow. Kami just stood and shook her head. She was perfectly willing to help Sandy since he was her friend, and she liked him too, but she knew that if she waited he’d come up with a better deal.

Well, Sandy continued, how about if we work together now, and, later, we’ll share the food we grow.

But Kami kept shaking her head. Sandy tried again, Well, how ’bout if you help me now, and we share the food, and when we’re done with the weeds, I’ll do something you want to do? Come on, this is kind of fun.

Kami pretended to hesitate. She knew this was Sandy’s best offer, so she knelt down, saying, Well, OK, but just for a little while.

She picked a big weed and began to pull on it, more and more, and, suddenly, the weed let go; Kami fell over backwards, sprinkling dirt all over her face and pigtails.

That’s no fun. Why do you have to do it at all, Sandy?

Kami, don’t you know anything! Sandy puffed up his chest and went on with an air of authority, condensing what his parents had said. Weeds are awful. They grow where the food plants should be, and, if we don’t pull up the weeds, there won’t be any food for dinner. We’ve got to pull the weeds or we’ll nearly starve. So we’ve got to do it, and that’s all there is to it.

You mean the ones we pulled out are useless?

Right, said Sandy as he triumphantly hauled up a real monster weed and let Kami get a good look. It was a huge, long thin black cylinder, and coming out of the center were dozens of long spiny tentacles that tangled and turned like a thousand squiggling snakes. To Sandy, it looked like the ugliest of enemies.

Yuck, Kami looked away with disgust. What is it?

Just a dumb ol’ weed growing where I’m supposed to grow dinner. Sandy picked up his trowel and proceeded to beat the weed to bits, threw the pieces far away, then bent back to the task.

Well, I’ll help you, Sandy, but you’re going to pay for it later, Kami said with a matter of fact tone. Sandy nodded, realizing that playing her game was better than pulling weeds alone. Each of them selected another weed and pulled, grunted, moaned, then they chopped and tossed them away. They did it again and again. The harder they pulled, the more the weeds held their ground. The more they pulled, the harder the weeds held their ground. It was a small garden, but, from the middle, it seemed to go forever; brambles, bushes, crabgrass, and weeds seemed to be