Sleeping through bomb blasts

I was in the room of the back of a club, talkin with those in there and intending to leave at some point when I fell asleep. Next thing I woke up and the time said it was just after 7, which I found mildly embarrassing since I thought the place closed earlier. It looked like the owner was just waiting for me to wake up, so I told her as she closed up shop that if I ever fell asleep there again she was to wake me up and toss me out.

Upon leaving the building I saw that outside was light. There were also a lot of schoolchildren in uniforms standing around waiting to get into class. I'd not slept a few hours; I'd slept the night through. I felt really embarrassed and slunk away as fast as possible.

As I walked off I went past a place which looked like it'd been hit by a bomb blast. I found out a bit later that it was a stadium and there had indeed been a bomb, and all the people I could see picking up bits and pieces were cleaning up. I wondered if anyone I knew had died in it, and then thought about how my family wouldn't know if I was alive or dead. I took off to the nearest train station to get home.

When I arrived at the station I noticed that it was Fruitgrove and that there were a lot of odd people wandering about. I recognised one of the station workers, so was a little reassured, but when I went up to the ticket counter they asked for some kind of paperwork regarding public transport—which I didn't have. When I said this, they said that it'd cost me $15 (which I had, but was loath to pay). I protested this, thinking about how that stupid bomb blast was making everyone into paranoid freaks.

After my carrying on about it a bit they said that it'd always been there, they just never enforced needing the paperwork before. Now they were, although they denied any relation to the bomb. Right. Upon some more complaining they said I could use my mother's if I had one, and right at that moment I remembered that ma did have one, although I didn't know if I could still use if if she were still alive. They nodded away, still not letting me on the train. I stomped off.

I went to the bomb blast area, which had now happened a while back and was growing over. Society had changed to a rigid order, people being strictly regulated. As I watched, someone bounced their red ball and was quickly chastised for it. The red balls were magical; I had one myself. When the possessor of the ball protested, throwing it higher and higher, they yelled out that although they might have a ball capable of growing larger, mine could grow into a dragon. I was dared to throw it up, too, so everyone could see the veracity of their claim.

After a bit of procastination, I threw it up. At first our balls merely expanded to much larger sizes, about three times a human for the other person's and my own becoming impossibly large. But still, no dragon. People stood around and whispered fiercely amongst themselves, myself hyper-aware of the fact that authorities could come any moment and drag us off for disobeying their rules. Still, no dragon. Unfortunate, for it would have meant an end to it all.