An afternoon dream shared with the text editor

I just remembered that I had dreamed earlier this afternoon. I’m out walking now, and I see the most adorable family of baby goats. The father and mother have just spotted me and are enacting herding protocols. No matter. I’ve passed them now. I have to get this dream into the Dictaphone before it fades completely. 

 

I dreamed I had met a new neighbor lady to the north of me. Our properties were joined by a very long walking path with a steep canyon on one side that looked to have been the product of human excavation. It was several hundred feet deep.  

 

I believe the neighbor lady was married. She had several kids of various ages, ranging from five or six up to the 20s. She was very affable and our conversations were easy. 

 

First she walked me home, possibly with her husband or father-in-law in tow. I started to tear up a little as I told her my story and about Sharon. She gave me a nice hug and started off towards her house.

I followed her a ways and then stopped. She turned around as if to beckon me to catch up. I noticed a row of cabins that looked to have been recently constructed along the pathway opposite excavation trench. Despite their freshly stained wood and new appearance, there was something spooky about that area.

“I have had many dreams about this exact location,” I told the lady. “There has always been a spooky old house in this spot.”

“I know,” she said, and she pointed to the exact spot that had been occupied by a haunted house in my dreams. “I have been dreaming about it, too.” 

 

The house I am speaking of has been the subject of a few of my dreams. It is a three-story mansion with an underground labyrinth of damp slimy mine shafts. It always represents the monstrous responsibility of home ownership and the results of neglect. I was glad to share its burden with her.

We encountered many animals, families of animals and children happily skipping down the path as we ascended the hill to her house. I said hello to an alligator lizard that was at least a foot and a half long. I chased a misguided calf, herding it to rejoin its mama, to prevent it from wandering too close to the ditch.

“It must be an awful responsibility for you to take care of these animals and children,” I told her.

“Yes it is. Thank you for acknowledging it," she said. "A lot of it is just keeping them out of that damn ditch."

We got to her house and she asked me in for a bit. I kept expecting her husband to arrive, but he never did. There was a steady procession of children and adult offspring, which she greeted and dispatched to their various obligations.

We were alone for a few minutes, and I felt I should probably be going. She kept engaging me with conversation, and eventually gave me a big hug.

It was one of those hugs that you don’t want to end. I kept drawing away out of guilt, but she kept pulling me back in. I accidentally patted her butt several times, causing it to jiggle, and apologized immediately. She laughed, and we eventually disentangled.

 She sat down in a chair, and within minutes she was fast asleep. Now would be a good time to make my exit, I thought. I tiptoed past her and managed to make it to the front door without awakening her.

Those are all the details I remember. A lot of it is not in proper sequence. It seems there were at least two or three trips up and down the hill, but I can’t seem to string them together properly.