Surprising returns
I just had a visit from a retired colleague, T. This is an accomplished older person who ran economic development programs in various states and now, pamphlet in hand, had arrived in my living room to inform me that he’d started a company that plunges sewerage drain lines.
Yes, this was me waking up from a dream.
Also in this dream, I was expecting many, many checks in the mail — as I have been doing my entire life since I was 12 — but when the mailman brought the mail into the living room (as they are not wont to do, in my experience), it was only junk mail… but my newly giant-sized mailbox outside turned out to be overstuffed with garbage, as well as all the outgoing mail he hadn’t taken.
Meanwhile, I was politely telling T. that it was nice to see him and that I’d keep him in mind if I needed my drain line powered through, but I had to be somewhere in 55 minutes. (55 minutes: so specific!) Two other older gentlemen were in the corner having a somewhat loud chat and making themselves at home. T. took the hint and said farewell, and so did one of the others, whom I didn’t recognize, but after they left, the third man stayed to talk for a minute.
“I hope I’m in good stead with you and your family,” he said, or something like that.
I realized it was David K. A much older David K., my not having seen him in more than 20 years now. His hair was now a carpet of white, but he still looked trim and sounded amusedly ironic.
“No, David, we’re fine,” I said. “I always enjoyed seeing you. It’s nice to see you again.”
“So we’re okay?” he asked. “You’re not upset with me or anything?”
“Well,” I said, “I wish you hadn’t killed yourself. But otherwise, we’re fine.”
And it’s true. Decades later, I still wish he hadn’t killed himself.
July 20th, 2021 at 10:57 am
Terrific dream, great detail. I love dreams – well, not always, I have lots of anxiety dreams, which seems weird, because other than politics and climate change and increasing societal violence, I’m not particularly anxious. Oh, wait. Anyway, yes indeed, terrific dream.
July 20th, 2021 at 12:42 pm
My default recurring dream always involves sorting through a stack of papers wherein I am speaking to myself saying, ‘no this isn’t the one’—- but with age and experience the whole thing has devolved to me saying to myself, ‘this is another one of those stupid dreams where you can’t find what you’re looking for, you might as well wake up and turn over‘. Then I do, laughing and laughing. My late spouse could give a 30 minute description of his dreams over breakfast, gobsmacked with the minutiae, I’d sit just taking it all in.
July 20th, 2021 at 12:50 pm
From my FB post: Yes, yes, ‘the Mail’ it’s such a controversial hook. But I liked the checks part, and the speaking to the dead part. I rarely talk to dead people, the third and fourth floors of my house are filled with deceased nuns, they whisper so. In prayer for eternity, they’ve left behind the need to converse – they do sometimes giggle though. NK
July 21st, 2021 at 5:49 am
This one hiit all the bases: Home, Death, Money, and the USPO
I my recurring dream, I’m in a strange city where I’ve found an interesting book store, but I don’t have time to look through it as much as I want.
August 16th, 2021 at 11:04 pm
I always waxed nostalgic about things that went out of style before I was born.