It’s weird how dreams stick with you. It’s even weirder how your subconscious blends in with the real stuff and leaves you feeling things; confusion especially. I also really wanna go find the bird that I found in my sleep. That was freaky time slip disco right there.
What did I dream about, you’re probably wondering? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is a large veranda. It was wide, like a rooftop, surrounded by a wrought iron fence, and white. Think hospital or office. And yet… as dreams are often wont to do, the fence became bushes and flowers with a creaky gate hanging open off to the side.
Before I knew what I was about, there was a group of faceless junior high school students to my left, blurred by my peripheral, lined up, and being addressed by a teacher who looked eerily like my old English teacher, Mr. Archibald. (If you ever happen to read this, Archi, you’re the best! Tell everyone I said hi!) To my right, a string of sweaty teenagers were dumping their rank, yellowed T-shirts in a pile at my feet. I’m concerned now with how saturated they were with sweat. Never in my life do I hope to experience this firsthand.
Now, when I was a teenager and young adult, I didn’t understand why laundry was such
a big deal. It was a chore! It was a pain sorting out the colors from the blacks and making sure nothing red ended up in the whites. Boy, has my tune changed! I enjoy doing laundry now. And that’s exactly what I did in my dream.
Cue environmental change and I’m back in the crowded garage of my family home. The amount of laundry I personally generate wouldn’t even be adequate enough to fill the humongous Samsung Autobot my folks have, but I digress. In the dream, I threw all the nasty shirts into the barrel and set them to go. In the meantime, I hear this chirping.
Mind you, birds flying in and getting stuck in the garage isn’t unheard of. Sometimes hummingbirds will chill on the junk my dad has hanging from the ceiling or sit on his tool boxes, watching everything. But the noise I was hearing belonged to a cockatiel and I found him! On the floor! With a bum wing! Now, this is where things get strange.
Apparently, this little guy was missing but, in my dream mind’s eye, I see a breaking news story that the bird was reunited with its owner as it happens in real time. The woman was crying and was so ecstatic over being with her pet once more but… it was right there with me as well…? How could I possibly be experiencing something, while at the same time, also living it in my head? Yeah, I dunno but that bird stuck with me after I woke up.
Do you ever have strange dreams that hang around in your head?
A Journal for Ashley 