Dreaming: The Insane Asylum

There has been a mistake.  My boyfriend of three years was sent to a prison/insane asylum but he's really not crazy.  I fake it and pretend I'm crazy so that they will institutionalize me too.  I know without an ounce of doubt that I'd rather be trapped in the asylum with him than be free in the world knowing he's in there.  The prison is in the countryside in a field.  There is a forest around the perimeter.  The grass is golden, so it's probably fall.  The grass is trampled in many places from the prisoners and their guard so that the dirt is predominant in some places.  He is already in his cell when I arrive.  His cell is a large boxlike enclosure with padded air flooring like it was an air matress.  Half of it is just filled up, so the top half is where he stays.  Since only half of the enclosure is empty space, he has to sit and crawl, not stand and walk.  The prison is open and is like an amusement park for some gawkers.  They go to look at him because some of his cell is plexiglass and he can't go anywhere inside it and truly escape their watching.  I am waiting in line with the rest of the convicted and insane.  I am told by a fat, slightly ugly, women warden that males and females are not housed together.  I am devastated.  I absolutely would not subject myself to this hell unless I was with him.  That was the whole point.  I reason with her and the portly man beside her, who is her superior, until he says he will put me in with my boyfriend for now but can't guarantee anything.  I am unsettled but fairly happy for the moment.  I just need enough time to prove to them all that he isn't crazy and neither am I.  I go through the icecream and hot dog lunch line, which is out in the open field too.  I am finally put in the cell with my boyfriend.  We speak to each other and try to deal with crawling on the airmattress floor and dealing with the starers.  We feel like monkeys at the zoo.  Don't these people have any decency?  Why do they stare so and press their faces up against the glass and point?  We are sane and we are innocent!  Since I am new to the prison camp, I get to meet with my appraiser.  She judges whether I am crazy or not.  She stands me next to two other people, one of which is a young black boy.  She asks us each a question, only one, and they are each extremely different and unrelated trivia questions.  If we get the question right, we are free, if not, we go back to the cells.  The boy gets an extremely easy question that anyone over the age of 4 could get.  I am confident I can answer mine.  When she gets to me, it's a very obscure history/geography question that I don't expect anyone to know.  I get it wrong and there are no other changes, no more questions.  It's so unfair!  I am sane!  Can't she see that I'm not crazy!  I tell her the situation, my story.  She listens politely but with the air of someone who will not change her mind.  She apologizes and says one question is all I get, but she will be back to ask another one in three months time.  Three months!  I can't wait that long!  My first year of college is starting and I don't want to miss my classes and miss being in the MV's because I was wrongly convicted of lunacy!  My boyfriend is also going to the same college and he can't miss it!  I plead with her but the woman won't budge.  When she leaves, I run back inside and find my confiscated cell phone and try to dial mom's cell phone number for help.  I was told that an adult guardian can come and sign me off and get me out.  If only mom knew where I was and that I needed out, she could come get me and my boyfriend out by bringing his mother with her.  I can't dial the right number.  The woman will be back any moment.  I'm almost in tears because of fear and frustration.  I keep hitting the wrong buttons.  I dread that this will be like so many other dreams where the dreamer can't run away, etc and fails an easy thing.  But no, this is different.  I get a hold of mom and tell her to come get us.  She agrees and I relax, knowing we will both be free soon. Throughout my time there it bothers me that the insane are treated so poorly, but I'm preoccupied with getting us out and separating myself from the truly crazy in the warden's minds that I push the issue to the back of my mind, but I wish they could be helped to get away too.