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Morgan Freeman and the Magic Hat
By Tuomu
06 February 2008
Sometimes you've got fever so bad, that you wake up for 15 minutes twice a day, then passing out again. I did that a couple of months ago, actaully must have been 10 or so, last march. Anyway, I got up for 15 minutes, wrote the weirsdest dream I had had fora  long time and went back to bed.

So picture this:

   We were off to the club for some big party, but before that we were supposed to meet some friends at a coffeeplace. Now for some reason i took my skates, with wooden blades, because they go better on snow, and I wanted to be there fast, and show them off at people. I was first there actually, but the whole place was almost empty, I mean some of the customers, my old friends Miikka and Pyry were playing poker, and some guys I didn't know were watching football from the screen, or actually it was a small tv hanging from the corner. Anyway we sat with them, there were 6 of us as usual.

   So some girls arrived at the coffeeshop, but the owner just slammed the door against their face. I thought it was an accident because he didn't really look what he did and I told them to come on in. But then the coffeeshop keeper told me that they can't come, because the place is closed at 5 pm. And it was 8 already. Just makes me wonder how I got in.

   So the coffeeplace was a the harbour of our city. There were lost of lights hung everywhere because it was some huge festival going on here, something wintery, I don't remember. So the place was really full of happy people, when the footballgame ended, (dunno which teams thought) and we marched outside. We were supposed to meet some female friends of us outside, and they were there in the line to a ticket booth. You see, there was a theatre play or something like it as part of the celebration.

   I realised I was wearing the skates still, and told my friend angrily that he should have told me not to take them, because they looked silly when everyone else had shoes, and then later on dancefloor I'd probably cut people's toes off, and I really wanted to dance. So I decided as the line was long enough, that I'd run home and change.

   I went down to the subway/metro/tube, (what'sit?) and noticed it was all empty, everyone were at the centre. So I sat for a while waiting for the metro, and only heard wind coming through the tunnel. Now here's the funny part, I saw leaves flying from the tunnel, though there shouldn't be, and I saw a couple walking to the stairs on the other side. Then I realised there was a white-ish hat with brims and a cut cleavage of somekind. basically the brim was wide on the other side and quite thin on the other. From where I looked, it was cut from the left side, if the wide part is in front. I thought it belonged to the couple, but they had disapperaed, so I walked on the dock for a while. I then realised a bum sitting behind a pillar, trying to keep warm. He was a strange looking thing there in the corner, all dressed up in everything he could find. And he looked exactly like Morgan Freeman.

   I asked him if it was his hat and tried to give it to him. But he said it was mine, that he had made it for me. I was so puzzled, I asked him why me, and how did he know that I was there at that time. He just answered that how did I know how to come there when the hat was there and no other people. Then he said I should wear the hat the whole night because it brought fortune to who ever owns it. The very minute he told me that I was sure it was from some movie, that he was just kidding around. But as I recalled it, in the movie the guy never took the bum seriously, and never really wore the hat. I checked out the hat again. It was sewn to look like tweed or something. The bum asked me if I didn't like it. but as I answered, I actually did. I told him I'd wear it tonight, because I had a white jacket and a white shirt and a black tie it would fit with.

   Only then the metro came, after what must have been 20 minutes, and I entered it, trying to figure out how to wear the hat correctly. There were some random people in the car I sat in, a single mom with a kid in a trolley, an old man and his wife probably, and then some youth, probably out on the same business as I was. I finally found a comfortable position to wear the hat in and noticed that everyone was staring at me.  I assumed it was the hat, but I wanted to wear the hat unlike the guy in the movie.

   So later I changed my clothes and returned. I couldn't find matching trousers, but jeans are always good. My friends were just walking towards the theatre. They told me they bought me a ticket too, but the act was going to start in any second so we had to hurry. Then they saw my hat, and most of them started to laugh, some of them said it was horrible, and someone took it off me and threw it away. So I picked it up again, and put it o me, a bit crooked. Then I stood there waiting for the rest and one of the girls, who then seemed to have a solid base in my thoughts that night slapped my bottocks with her hand, laughing a bit, and that's not at all like her. Then my friend Ville did the same thing and I asked what's the joke? Didn't get an answer though.

   So they had bought all these tickets in one red/blue card. Or it had like 4-5 detachable slices, and each had 3 tickets. This was because the place was very full and we had to sit in different rows. I was on row 10 with 2 of my friends. The friend who just had slapped me found out that his seat was taken, but he found a seat in the front row, and sat there alone. We felt pity for him, though it did amuse us at the same time. You know, how they always sell too much seats from the train because most times a certain amount of people don't come. So statistically if they sell 10 seats too much they'll make more money and have no problem. Well they did that here too, which doesn't really mean sense, i mean, if people come to the ticket booth to buy tickets a minute before the show, they're surely coming.

   So before the projected on a screen a new sitting order, which meant we, as in me and my friends had to move completely to the other side. no problem, our friend even got the same place with me. But there was a handicapped person on my new seat, and all the others were taken. And I noticed her place would have been unreachable, so some of us gave up and we went outside.

   It was a bit dark by then, and we were waiting for the show to end and pondering werther to go to the club now or later. I don't really know what happened, but we stood there for at least an hour, and at some point the girl I mentioned ended up kissing me, and not just on the cheek. I felt all fuzzy after that, I mean really, like high on something. And then I saw Morgan Freeman smiling at me. I thought I was drunk, but I hadn't taken anything. but it occured to me, if there was a movie, and I think there was, the way I remembered it, the guy in it after finding out what it could do, like makes dreams true of wishes or something, well he tried to take advance of it. He got a lot of money and all, and he got lots of busty girls around him and a huge car and stuff like that. But the thing is, he never got happy. And I realised he never did because that was not the point of the hat.

   Those were really not his dreams, he never dreamt of houses and money and cars and stuff. And I thought I'd keep my hat on for the rest of the night, just for the sake of it. And we went to the club, and danced together, and you know, everytime I saw one of my friends smiling, I sort of knew it was because of a wish I had developed in my head while wearing the had. And every other time there was Morgan Freeman smiling too. After the night, it was way past little childrens bedtime, we decided to go home. It had been the best night for me at least. And then I though, bloody hell, have I been in that very same movie just now. I mean, you don't meet Morgan Freeman every day, and it was exactly like in that movie.

Reviews

Written by Fledermaus (3448 comments posted) 7th February 2008
There were a few odd constructions, and I do think that to appreciate this piece fully, one probably should have seen film you mention (which I have not), that said, it had a very nice atmosphere.

Written by Asferthecat (851 comments posted) 9th February 2008
I enjoyed this - though you are right about it being wierd. If it was based on a dream it was surprisingly logical. In my dreams I would never have got back to the cinema.  
 
I too haven't seen the film you refer to. If you hadn't mentioned it I would have thought this was your own originality and would have been more impressed. 
 
Little mistakes like "and show them off at people" instead of "to people", make me think that English is not your first language. 

Written by Tuomu (3 comments posted) 11th February 2008
Yeah, about that. There's no such film as far as I know. Though it felt like it then. And yeah, I'm not a native speakers, at least not in 39 degrees fever :)
Quirky
Written by ianhobsonuk (169 comments posted) 13th February 2008
A quirky story, with more mistakes than a centipede has left legs, but I enjoyed reading it - it reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye.
Usually for a reason...
Written by applemuncher (39 comments posted) 21st August 2008
I believe that Dreams are something your brain manufactures to try and apply a sense of logic to a situation in your life (just my belief) - I think your fever must have helped you here. 
 
It was very entertaining to read - do you think the film was 'Bruce Almighty'? There were a couple of things in the dream that mirrored parts of the film. 
 
I'm not sure I agree with the previous 'Quirky' comment above, I'm not particularly bothered about reading spelling mistakes or grammatical errors but I don't believe that you can make 'mistakes' when you're story-telling, which I believe was the aim of this piece. Sometimes a story has to be appreciated for what it is instead of what it could be or how it's pieced together. :)

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