Lost downtown and a suspicion of murder

Man, I had another long exhaustive dream with no proper ending again today... thereís something about the dreams you have after youíve awoken once and gone back to sleep that makes them really vivid.

It started off with me staying in my best friendís apartment, she was out of town and I was cat sitting or something. The apartment had a long steep outside staircase that led up to the front door and I was going up towards the door in and a man began climbing the staircase. It was very narrow and I kept asking him what he wanted but he just kept staring at me with sort of a glazed look so when he got close enough I just sort of kicked him in the forehead and he tumbled back down the stairs. But he got up unfazed, and started climbing again. So I kicked him down again, I think this happened three times before I could find the right key to get in the door and lock it behind me. I complained to the police about him, and apparently he was in some sort of shock because he blamed someone who lived at that apartment for his wifeís death. When my friend came home, I told her about it and she said he was talking about her mother who used to live there but that he was mistaken and the womanís death had nothing to do with her, the man was just delusional. We were in the apartment, which had grown to gigantic proportions inside, and suddenly her whole family was there and lots of cats, though not the actual family I know, it was mostly women and everyone was worried about the guy next door, but we had the place locked up and knew he couldnít get in...

Then the dream shifted and I was driving to work downtown in a white convertible (I donít like convertibles so that was kind of alarming). My husband was also going to work at the same place, the old main offices of Foleyís Department Stores and he arrived in a separate car. We both parked in the garage and I was worried that I had parked in a reserved spot because they were numbered and that my car would be towed. The top had been closed to the convertible, but it wasnít closed correctly, I kept checking it and couldnít figure out how to latch it securely.

I was dressed in my blue & navy security uniform I used to wear for another company, even though I never worked uniformed security for Foleyís and only worked in office jobs at the downtown location. I wondered why I was dressed that way, but I didnít have any of my ìbrassî on, just the top and pants and a Sam Browne belt with an old fashioned big, heavy Motorola police radio, that I somehow had kept from the previous job. The uniformed security people that actually worked at the store (there are none actually, theyíre all plainclothes) were walking around, disturbed that they were picking up a radio signal. I took the radio and put it in my car, because I knew I wasnít supposed to have it, but eventually they tracked it back to my car with some sort of homing device and the woman that was in charge found it beneath a jacket on the floor in my back seat. I acted surprised, but she picked it up and there was some sort of cell phone display on the front and she showed it to me and said ìyup, this is what we were looking forî.

My husband had already gone into the store to work, so, deciding my car was safe, I walked out of the garage but realized as soon as I did that I had walked out the wrong direction, away from the store. (The downtown Foleyís garage actually does have three exits in different directions) I began to panic and started walking faster and realized I was soon lost and very far away from the store. The neighborhoods became more and more dangerous, and here I was in basically a Houston Police uniform walking around with a bunch of really poor people and gang members. I was walking through dark alleyways between buildings, but I just kept on walking and no one really messed with me, I guess they thought I was insane or something being there by myself. I started seeing things as I was walking that I didnít know existed and I tried to make mental notes to tell my husband. I walked past an old above ground cemetery with ancient tombstones and angels made of a bronze colored metal that were really beautiful. I came upon a beautiful water wall that was a city block long. We have one here in town but itís in a different part of the city. I wandered into museums with ancient statues and dinosaur relics.

Finally I realized I was way too far away from my car and needed to find it so I could drive back. Somehow I did find it, in an outdoor parking lot, and now I suddenly had a teenaged girl with me, who was my daughter, and a dog, a Golden Retriever. I remember thinking I had to protect the girl and keep her behind me, and we started trying to drive back to the department store. Downtown Houston had taken on immense proportions, and I was completely disoriented. I was driving and trying to pick out a street sign that sounded familiar, but none of them did and I feared I was actually driving away from the center of town. I finally happened upon a street that seemed familiar, but I didnít know which way to turn. I kept scanning the buildings, trying to find one I recognized to orient myself, but every time I thought I saw Foleyís, Iíd get closer and the building would have a different name on the side.

Then me , the girl, the dog and a young man, he reminded me of the son on Angel, were on foot again. Walking inside big office buildings, trying to find our way, with me somehow concerned only for the girlís safety now. We would be walking at what we thought was street level and suddenly find ourselves in the middle of a huge building, far above the ground, with red neon lights illuminating everything. Iíd stop and ask people who seemed to work there how to get back to the street, that I was terribly lost, but no one answered my questions. Then we were at some sort of opening in a wall, not a window, but some sort of mechanical thing, and the girl had leaned over to look inside and fallen in. She was so thin that she fell between the cracks and deep inside of the contraption. The boy helped me move things out of the way until we finally found her, she had become very tiny and flattened like in a cartoon, but somehow we knew she was still alive and would be all right. The boy said she had peed on herself from the trauma and fright and that she was in shock and I would need to carry her the rest of the way, which I somehow did. The dream dissolved with no resolution at about that point, with our little group still wandering lost downtown, with me carrying the girl on my back and no real end to our journey insight. I remember wishing I had the radio with me to call for help, but I just had the empty holster for it on my belt.

Posted by Morticia at February 05, 2003 05:52 PM | TrackBack