Strange Dreams

Little One was up every 90 minutes last night with coughing fits.  As a result, so was I, even though I was sleeping on the living room couch (planned on getting up at 6 am for a brisk walk).  Every time I would doze back off, I would have weird, sporadic, wildly unrelated dreams segue-ing into one another.

We tend to forget most of our dreams by the time we’re out of the shower.  I’m no exception.  But I want to set down in the record some of these unusual, vivid items, since I don’t recall ever dreaming about them before:

1. I had an incredible skill as a tightrope artist, and decided to chuck it all and make a living at it.  Over the crowded streets of some sweltering Asian city, over canals of brown water, I strung my wire and began my barefoot balanced strolls.  The unexpected ease of it was quite pleasant, I must say.  Like a dream where you can fly.

2. Me and some stranger found ourselves in front of a plaque, embedded in the earth, extolling the virtues of a great Buddhist saint many centuries ago.  We argued about the historical figure but soon realized we were actually in agreement in admiration of him.  Then a turn for the weird – a stack of coffins lay against a stone wall beyond the plaque, and I crawled into one and decided to make it my home.  But when I pulled the cover closed, intense claustrophobia washed over me –

(cough, cough – Little One)

3. Aboard an abandoned ocean liner – abandoned except for some partyin’ twentysomethings straight out of an iPhone commercial.  We were all hanging about a pool filled with water, but the tiles and concrete showed signs of crusty wear, like it had rested on the bottom of the ocean for a month and was just raised.  They were drinking all the latest hip and trendy alcoholic drinks, but I kept getting more and more nervous that something bad was going to happen.  A feeling of dread overwhelmed me.  Then, I ran out on to the deck, climbed up on to some railed passageways, one beat ahead of general panic.  Was it the Titanic?  Was it Spielberg’s War of the Worlds?  Suddenly –

(cough, cough).

Ah, my sick Little One.  Saved me from my strange dreams.  How can I comfort you today!

(Though I wouldn’t mind another tightrope dream …)