June 25, 2008
dreaming
We’re at the pool, but it’s not our regular pool, it’s more like a lake with rocks and big trees but not a lake, a pool, and it’s a bright sunny day and there are parents and kids playing everywhere and people with fancy drinks and it feels like a very chic hotel until the men come to round us up. They are wearing black helmets and black clothes and they have some sort of weapons and they don’t really threaten us but they make it clear that we have to go with them, right now.
The part of me that knows that this is a dream thinks that this is PRECISELY WHY I should always have a change of clothes in the pool bag. And then thinks what a stupid thing that is to worry about now.
They take us to some kind of detention center and we wind up in the infirmary, Wade and the boys and I, because apparently something is wrong with me although I feel fine, but Henry is coughing and coughing and Wade starts to worry because it can’t be good for him to be coughing, and I misunderstand why he is so worried and decide that I will ask the nurse for help because she seems kind or at least neutral and less frightening than the men at the pool and so I explain that my son has a cough and he was taking medicine for it but we don’t have it with us and she asks what kind of medicine and I say oh just an antibiotic and she stares at me with a completely blank face while Wade is hurrying the kids down the corridor because I have not understood that if Henry is sick they will take him away from us and we will never see him again and I watch them running down the hall and I see Charlie looking back at me while Wade pulls him along and I hear Henry coughing and coughing and coughing and I know that they will be looking for him now.
I wake up with a sick feeling in my stomach and hear Henry really coughing (he has terrible allergies or a little cold or something). I get up because I am afraid that if I go back to sleep the dream will start again and I don’t want to know what happens. I get water for Henry and he drinks it and then I lay down with him in his bed and he curls up next to me and closes his eyes and leans against me and goes to sleep, without coughing any more.
Posted by Susan @ 2:00 pm • everyday life
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June 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm, Nick Says:
I’m so sorry you had to go through that… That dream sounds unbelievably terrifying… Very Orwelian and creepy.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:41 pm, First Rough Draft Says:
Oh, that sounds terrifying! What a horrible dream. It sounds like something straight out of a novel.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:04 pm, Sue Says:
How terrifying! Sounds like a Holocaust story. No more nightmares! And I hope that cough clears up.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:51 pm, Jane Says:
That is so not cool. I have strange nightmares that incorporate the tornado sirens when they go off while I’m sleeping - before I jolt awake. Sorry…whatever you do, don’t go watching Sophie’s Choice any time soon.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:36 pm, blackbird Says:
oh you good mom, you.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:39 pm, Jeanne Says:
Yikes - sounds like a scene from some post-apocalyptic novel or movie!
Hope that dream never comes back!
June 25th, 2008 at 8:32 pm, Jessica @ A Bushel and a Peck Says:
That’s an awful dream. I hate those vivid dreams that follow you even when you wake up. I’m sure some snuggling helped though…and I hope that dream never comes back!
June 25th, 2008 at 9:39 pm, Angella Says:
Oh, that is AWFUL!!
I hope you have *sweet* dreams tonight.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:00 pm, Tracy Says:
You poor thing. I feel sick to my stomach just reading that. Glad you woke up.
Ugh.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:16 am, Kyran Says:
so weird I’d see this the morning after waking up from a dream where my own most sensitive child was endangered. those are no fun, and it takes every ounce of training to remind myself it’s a little super-8 allegory about something that’s going on with me, and not a harbinger of doom. just remember its all about energy–where it might be stuck, where its trying to go. I have some great, simple resources to help if you want them.
xo