A Space Boy Dream
Belle & Sebastian
The Boy With The Arab Strap (1998)

I dreamt I had to go to Mars.
I'm always kidding on about going to Mars for the day, but faced with the reality of it, in a dream, i was terrified.

And it wasn't going to be like a moon trip - there was three of us going, but we couldn't all go on the same ship; we had to go one at a time with a day between us.

I had to go first, and it was the thought of passing through all that black space, all the darkness with nothing in it, and then being the first one to land there, all alone... I knew it was supposed to be all dark around, with just a red surface, but what if I got there and it was light, all civilised and populated and stuff?

So I made a plan. The other astronauts were going to be my dad and my sister, and my dad would come first after me, so i decided when i landed i would just stay in my seat until he got there, and then we could get out together and have a look around and see what sort of things were there.

And when I woke up and I was lying in the darkness, I thought I had landed. And I just lay still for a while, waiting for my dad to get there too