The new catastrophe dream.
I had another catastrophe dream. The one I had this morning was different that the others.
In the previous dreams, people are scrambling around getting ready for the impending catastrophe. I am with them, helping the preparations and then the catastrophe hits in the blink of an eye. This morning there was no ‘prep time.’ In fact, there may have only been the aftermath as I don’t quite remember the catastrophe or what it was. I just know it was apocalyptic in that the world after was completely different. The population had become nomads, moving from empty house to empty house trying to stake a claim in order to rebuild. This fell right in line with the previous dreams of this type that I’ve had.
In this dream, like the others, I was surrounded by people. In the earlier dreams though, I have never known any of them. They were nameless ‘extras’ who were populating the dream. They were around before the catastrophe. They were around after, but I didn’t know any of them and none of them looked familiar.
This morning I had my family. Mom, Dad and my brother. We were together, moving together from place to place, through the wreckage of a suburban city. In the dream people fought for old abandoned houses. I say ‘fought’ but it was more like, just rush to claim a space of your own. Once someone had claimed a space, it was theirs to keep and the others respected that. It all felt very temporary though. It felt as if at any moment you’d be scrambling to pack up your belongings and move on. I assume as a result of the ‘catastrophe’ though I don’t know exactly what that was.
My family had found a house. It was small, I think maybe one bedroom even. A living room, bathroom and kitchen all very close to each other. We were happy to have found this spot and we were actually unpacking the small things we’d been carrying with us and putting them in cupboards and drawers.
The thing about the ‘world’ that this dream took place in was that even though you had your own space, there were always people around. Walking past windows, doors, etc.. Almost like visible white noise. These were the nameless/faceless people as in my earlier dreams.
I had just finished putting away something when I turned and there you were, standing in the doorway. Our eyes met instantly and you gave me that look. The small mouthed, wrinkled brow, ‘If I didn’t like you so much I’d punch you, but I’m probably going to punch you anyway,’ look. I was so happy to see you standing there. Black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, hair down.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
A small white animal ran past my legs, but I didn’t look down, I kept my eyes on you.
You relaxed the ‘look’ and I almost wished it right back, but a smile replaced it.
“Can I get some water?” you asked.
“Water?” I replied, “Yes. Yes, of course.”
I turned to the cabinet and opened it, several glasses stood in lines. I reached for one, a tall frosted glass. As my finger closed around it I felt you step up behind me.
“No.” you said softly. “The pretty blue one.”
I smiled, releasing the frosted glass and grasping the pretty blue one next to it.
Then I woke up.
I’m well aware it was just a dream. I’m well aware it was another catastrophe dream. I’m well aware it will never happen. But it was the nicest catastrophe dream I’ve had.