Three Dreams

Three nights ago I dreamt about being a college student who nearly got busted for possession of weed. In reality my college career lasted less than 4 months, dropping out as I did after one semester back in 1986. In the dream I sat at my desk separating stems and seeds on a metal tray, without any concern who might see me or what they might think. An old friend Kacy Wiggins sat at the desk behind me. Kacy calmly informed me that authorities were going from desk to desk looking for weed. I acted like I didn’t care - rebel without a clue - but quickly started to put away my shit so I could hide it. First I set the tray under a chair at the desk in front of mine. Kacy said, “They’ll find that, confiscate it, and ask you a lot of questions about it.” So I started to disassemble my stash. I threw the tray in a nearby trash can, I spread the stems and seeds in a grassy knoll, and then I snuck into an empty ladies room on the other side of a campus arena like a concert hall where I hid my stash under a trash can for later retrieval. Back at my desk, Kacy assured me I was in the clear. A little while later campus cops came by but didn’t linger or show any sign of suspicion. (In the so-called real world, Kacy and I both work jobs at two different universities.)

The following night I had a dream that I escaped from a skyscraper that was collapsing. Before escaping I rescued a crippled man who fell off the roof but I grabbed his hand at the last second and pulled him to safety. He was wearing a purple shirt. It was a long, harrowing nightmare and I barely escaped where many others did not. Very reminiscent of 9/11 and the World Trade Center. I descended many flights of stairs, improvising a number of downward “slides” where dusty debris and broken bricks were all that remained of the first five floors of a building that was utterly destroyed. When I made it to the ground I was alone and surrounded by other survivors in shock. I sat in the grass, took my phone out of my pocket, and tried to call my mom. Tried to call my sister. No answer at either number. I was unable to share the news with my family that I had survived this disaster and I was sure it must already be on the news everywhere. Before waking I had another dream about my friend Russell coming to visit. Ironically, in the dream I was visiting with another old friend named Aidan. In reality these are two of my oldest friends who both moved away from Ohio many years ago. Russell to New York (east coast), Aidan to California (west). As I left Aidan’s house I found $105.00 under a small rock in his driveway. A one hundred dollar bill and fiver that somehow I knew were left there by him for me. As soon as I jumped in Russell's car I could tell he was distraught. He said he'd been trying to stay clean and sober but just before coming to pick me up he'd had drinks with his lunch. I asked, “How many?”

He said, “Seven.”

Russell looked tired and defeated. But I remember thinking, “That's not that many.”