The Imagination Fully Dilated Blog

I was trying to create a new Dilation Exercise when an older one involving the painting  “Dexter’s Freezer,” the first in the four panel art and caption set below, combined in my mind with several other images and story lines I was considering to create a short story.

Freezer Burn

Delirious from lack of sleep during the heat-wave, I was cleaning out the freezer, removing the mysterious ice-encrusted packages and ice trays.

Suddenly it was a whole lot bigger in there, so I climbed inside to get a look around and the door shut behind me.

In my state of torpor, I wandered the frozen wastes, fascinated by the strange formations.

Only when I began to shiver from the cold did I begin to believe this was more than a dream.

I tried to return the way I had come, to find the door and get out.

The ice, shifting beneath my frostbitten feet, tangled my path and left me more disoriented, and I knew that if I didn’t find someone to help me I would die here.

She looked a lot older than she was, and when she told me her name I remembered.

“My name is Chicken Pot Pie,” she said, and I awoke with a start, bumping my head on the edge of the freezer and falling to the floor.

—Alan M. Clark

Eugene, Oregon

In order of appearance, the paintings are “Dexter’s Freezer” copyright © 1986 Alan M. Clark, “Shipwreck Formations #3″ copyright © 2009 Alan M. Clark, “Shifting Ice” copyright © 2009 Alan M. Clark, “Locked in the Angel Closet” copyright © 2005 Jill Bauman and Alan M. Clark.