That Old Trick of Reality
i dreamed i was lying on the couch taking a nap while my roommate got ready for work. all of which was really happening. on tv was a cartoon space adventure that my dream turned into a video game. i got up and went into the kitchen, heard a strange loud staticy sort of noise, and worried i’d lose my game or it would fry the computer, so i turned around to go save and shut down. but i collapsed onto the floor and had to crawl with all my effort to get to the computer. i saved the game and exited and then i tried to type a line on the screen, which was black except for the cursor. i typed and the letters began to fizz and disappear one by one. i tried again and the cursor had moved halfway across the screen and when i typed, the whole sentence went out in a fizz, letters running down the screen.
next thing i remember i was back on the couch, everything the same but the show was a cop show now. i sort of knew and sort of didn’t that i was dreaming, like part of my mind understood that this was on the tv and it was too loud and bleeding into my dream.
i got up and thru the window, i saw a car pass a pickup on the road outside, a road where you can’t pass, it just isn’t wide enough, and i figured the truck had to drive into the yard to miss a collision. only he didn’t pull away and i am a very suspicious person so i was watching him thru the windows. he pulled to the side of the house and kept going. this is what prompted my trip downstairs, i guess. i got up and went into the basement. it was strange down there. there were cross sections of materials, samples and newspaper clippings relevant to the house, like in case someone wanted to replace anything, here were all the details. i was trying to get out that side of the house to see what was up. only there aren’t any doors there but in the dream there were. i went thru one in the west wall and it slammed shut on the hood of my sweatshirt. i strangled a little and struggled and finally pulled it free, thinking my roommate would be surprised and upset to find me dead outside the door when he was only a few yards away.
i walked up a brick path and noticed that side of the house was now on a rise and that the dirt had been shorn away and there was construction going on. huh. and someone had been out there on my brick path because some odd brick pieces had been picked up and placed safely on the dirt wall. i angrily knocked them down. no one should have been out there but us and no one should have been moving anything. (that’s me!) i noticed we now had neighbors back and behind the house. so that was where the truck was going. i turned around and headed back to the front. but then i saw there were now two doors into the basement. there are really not any doors and i stood for a long time in the rain and cold looking at them. i was having an intense argument in my head over whether there should be doors and why if i see doors i can even ask such a question. if you see doors, they’re real- right?! but i *knew* we had no doors there.
finally i decided i was late and really needed to get inside. it was after 10 and things i needed to be present for were going to happen. i went around the front corner of the house and found the yard was entirely flooded, the water almost up to the house. it was over a foot deep and covered a huge rock i have out there (usually on the other end of the house). the yard was now a tan muddy lake and the rain was coming down harder. and i was in my work shoes. so i skipped from clump of grass to grass around my rose garden and tried to climb onto the deck thru a wire lattice we’d put up for the flowers. the hole in the lattice was pretty small and i had to squeeze for a long time to get myself thru. i was amazed to see there were roses blooming there in a little planter and some pink welcome chime and other pink stuff. i abhor pink and welcome isn’t a sign you’ll ever see on my home. the dream was all so bizarre because it was so accurate and yet filled with all these things that didn’t belong.
then i saw a colorful little bird hiding inside one of my bird feeders. i thought it strange since i haven’t had any feed out in a long time and with the inclement weather. as it came out and i got beyond seeing its little red crown, lemony yellow feathers with lime greens in them, i noticed that it had a wire noose around its neck. it was dragging bird furniture behind it, as if it had escaped a cage after getting entangled in little feed trays and bird mirrors. as i reached out to catch and free it, another bird was with it, its mate it seemed. tho it was free of encumbrance, it stayed behind with the other bird. the one i was helping seemed to watch me closely.
the whole dream left me feeling weird. it was so Real and had so much in it that was actually happening around me but was surreal at the same time.
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