All your dreams are on their way

In the dream we were staying at A.L.’s house – me, Stumpy, Chui, M.B., HJ, N.B. – and other people. A lot of the rooms were painted navy blue and there was an extra living room hidden beneath the kitchen. We all seemed to be living there together for a while. Then, it changed into this big industrial space with a huge drop off on one side and an extremely long, difficult ladder with really close-together rungs. Everything was different – there was a kind of makeshift shelter within the space that was made of bones and sticks and pieces of flags and kites and tattered sails. Chui sat in it watching "Poltergeist" on an old TV. There was an unknown Japanese chick (maybe 20 years old) with really messed up teeth staying in the space. Her father was there, as was T.S. She showed us her dental x-rays and we were all giddy about them – about how much money we were going to make (or something). Somehow, her teeth indicated that we would be able to build something magnificent. Then, the subject changed and we needed to make a decision about what to do. Someone jumped off the edge, which seemed to be the only way out. I realized that I was filled with grief because one of my children was gone – must’ve been Sasha, though I didn’t think of her. Chui was afraid of the movie and there were a bunch of dolls piled up in the corner of the structure she was sitting in. I kept telling her not to bother me. I decided I was going to jump with the three other people who were there – it was the only way out. But then, I realized that I couldn’t and that I shouldn’t let Chui watch "Poltergeist".

So that was the beginning part of a long dream on Saturday night.

The following is a dream from last night:

In the dream, we bought an old house with a vineyard and a wine shop attached. It was just before dawn and it was cold outside. I had to wait outside for Stumpy to come with the sellers to hand over the keys. There was frost on all the vines and it covered the house too. The electric fence didn’t work; I touched it to find out. When we finally got inside, the little wine shop was attached to the kitchen. There were a lot of doors and gates that didn’t open, that we didn’t have keys for. The man who was selling the place told us that we had to keep an empty wine crate available to customers, next to the till. We would sell more wine this way. There was a teenage girl that lived on the property who was going to work for us and help us fix it all up. Somehow, in the midst of all this, I found out I’d been shortlisted for a very important literary award. Everyone was congratulating me, but I couldn’t remember writing the novel. The house was very old and interesting and we made a fire in the huge fireplace and looked at all the old stuff that the sellers had left behind. We talked about how strange it was to buy a house with a whole lot of other people’s stuff in it, and I had a quick thought that it would not be easy to sell if we had to sell it. There was a fleeting worry about being stuck. At one point, I went to look for Chui and I found her sitting on a big stone window sill next to a wide open window with a little drop below. I wasn’t terrified, but I cautioned her about windows and falling.

(Note: When I woke up Chui this morning, she told me her dream had been about "silver leaves".)

In the supermarket today, the nectarines were paradise. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" played on the speakers - the real version, not the Muzak - and everybody that went by had to pick up a nectarine and smell it: the simple and binding olfactory imperative. Put down your pale oranges, your waxy cherries, your avacado like a brick. Come over here to the nectarines. Come over here and sniff. And listen - there's Garfunkel, singing you back to your childhood heart.

On the radio in the car, they were talking about ghosts and old cinemas. There was an energy in the air like something extreme was about to happen.

But nothing did.

(Or maybe something did, but somewhere else.)

We drove home in the rain.