Another Dream
Bill Long 11/24/05
I had this dream two nights ago, but hesitated to reduce it to writing initially because I was afraid of what it might "say" about me. I have gotten over those fears, so here goes.
Setting the Stage
I was with my (ex) wife on Portland's West side. She grew up in Beaverton before Beaverton was a pricey Portland suburb and before Nike, Inc. was even a glint in Bill Bowerman's or Phil Knight's eyes. After her mother remarried in the mid-1960s she moved into the area between Portland and Beaverton known as Cedar Hills. Her parents still live in that area as do her brothers.
We were walking through the Cedar Hills, probably having left her parents place in a fairly new subdivision in the area. They moved there in the early 1990s. As we were walking we passed a house which I recognized as her grandfather's home. Her grandfather (paternal) had died early in 1986, long before her parents moved into this neighborhood, so my history isn't "correct" in the dream. Nor was the geography, since her grandfather lived much closer into downtown Portland, about 3 miles away. Nor was the house style the same as the "50's-style" home of her grandfather and grandmother near the Portland zoo. The West Side house we passed was a late 1980s style, two story home, painted light blue. I don't know how I knew it was her grandfather's house; it just was.
We were walking, side by side, past her grandfather's home. He died earlier than her grandmother but there was no sense that she lived in the house or was part of the dream. When we lived in Portland before his death (1982-86), we would occasionally eat dinner with her grandparents, mostly at their favorite steak restaurant. Though his politics were quite different from my ex's, family ties cemented them together.
The Action
So we were walking past her grandfather's home. I couldn't determine whether it was day or evening in the dream. Or, more accurately, it appeared to be day when we first were passing the house but evening when we decided to go inside. We looked toward the house and saw two unusual things: there was no car in the driveway or garage, which was uncharacterisically open, and the front door was wide open. If indeed it was evening, her grandparents would invariably have been home.
We walked to the front door and went inside, I going in first. Then as we were both inside we heard some noise from the basement. We didn't recognize the voices but went to the stairs descending to the basement. I went down first, with her following. I got about halfway down the stairs and then leaned over so that I could see into one of the rooms on an angle from the stairs and I saw two men talking to each other who apparently were ransacking the house. There was no trace of my ex's grandfather. I wondered for a moment if he had suffered some foul play at their hands, but I was sort of frozen at the time, not knowing quite how to react.
I decided to beat a slow retreat, and so I went up the stairs, passing my ex as I went. She decided to stay on the stairs and then even descended a bit further on them so that she could get a good look at what was going on in the room. While she was looking into the room, one of the guys looked up and saw her. He said something to his friend and he looked at my ex also and they began to come at her. I, who was at the top of the stairs at the time, saw her begin to climb the stairs, and I knew that they were coming after her.
The Finale
I headed out the front door, with her not far behind. I thought for a minute that I ought to slow down and make sure she is with me as we tried to make our exit from the guys, but it seemed like it took her forever to catch up to me. The guys were just coming out of the front door as we reached the street. Without a word I decided that I had to begin to run. She started to run also, but she couldn't keep up with me. I ran as fast as I could, and didn't look back, though I think I was outstripping the guys as I went.
When I was about a block away, I began to relax, knowing that I had "gotten away." Before I could do anything else, I awoke.
1524
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