Today was a “spa” day, that special day that only comes around three or four times each year when I go for a fancy haircut and treat myself to a soothing pedicure. Spa days are all about comfort and relaxation. As I walked home on this lovely morning, however, strangely I was agitated and felt more than a little bit on edge. Slowly, I began to recall glimpses of my dreams from the previous night.
***
I do not often dream about my dead, or, if I do so, generally don’t recall them. Last night I hit the jackpot.
It began with a dream about Lee. She did not appear in person in my dream. Rather, in this dream I had been back in town for about one month but had not yet called to let her know of my return. I wasn’t going to lie to Lee, of course, but I was puzzled because I had no explanation for this serious dereliction. Indeed, as I puzzled, I suddenly realized that I also hadn’t called her while I had been away out of town. While nothing happened that I could recall which could have prevented me from calling Lee, the fact I had no explanation for these omissions left me feeling quite anxious.
***
Next, I was back in the kitchen of my apartment (purely a “dream” apartment). I recall being a much younger man in this dream.
And standing there in the kitchen was my dad, tan and shirtless as he often appeared during the warm weather months. I was not shocked to see my dad. Naturally, I was glad to see him. He mentioned to me that Aunt Eleanor –my favorite aunt—was arriving in town for a quick visit. I was surprised to hear this news because my aunt had been dead almost as long as my father. Even so, the mere prospect of seeing both beloved figures together once more warmed my heart. I felt happy and looked forward to seeing Aunt Eleanor.
Dad was in the process of preparing a meal. I saw a large pan that was chock full of spareribs. I picked up one of the ribs and began chewing it but then noticed my father giving me a quizzical sideways glance. I reassured him not to worry because the ribs were cooked, while in truth, I wasn’t at all certain this was the case. In my dream, I inferred, based solely on the enormous amount of meat sitting in the pan, that my dad was preparing a large barbecue to honor my aunt’s visit. I wondered who else might be joining us for dinner.
***
Unfortunately, I never got to find out this information because suddenly my dream had shifted back to Lee. I was standing on a long, flat platform, very much like a train platform, except in my dream I knew I was not standing on a train platform.
I wanted to call Lee. However, when I removed the new mobile phone from my pants pocket, the unfamiliar device was so technically imposing that I had no idea how to operate its telephone feature. Worse, a loud and annoying animated game, one that I was neither familiar with nor able to remove, was playing repeatedly on a loop on the device’s display. Consequently, as much as I wanted to hear Lee’s voice, I could not make a call to her.
***
Back in reality and later the same day, I would experience an eerily similar technical problem while trying to connect to Robyn by telephone. I thought, how our worlds collide!
