Lifting Shadows Off A Dream

I used to dream a lot, but REM sleep has become somewhat of a commodity since adding small children to the mix at home. A casualty of parenthood. There were mornings when I knew I had dreamt, but couldn't recall the details. And then there was this past weekend. Three dreams, vivid and still in memory.

Dream #1. The 'Baby Missing / Castle' Mystery.
I had been called to a wealthy family's immense castle home to investigate the disappearance of their baby. My team consisted of myself, Khrystyne Haje (the redhead actress from "Head Of The Class) and T.B. Player/Ethan Embry (the actor who played bass for The Wonders in "That Thing You Do!" - he'll always be T.B. Player to me, because that's how he was credited in the movie). They weren't playing investigators, though. They were themselves. Because actors are who you want investigating missing child cases, right?

After speaking to the parents, especially the mother, I became suspicious. Something about her behavior didn't seem right. The team split up to search the castle for evidence. I was standing in a corridor when I felt air blowing on my ankles. There was a long, ornate bench seat against the wall. I pulled it away from the wall and discovered the wall didn't go all the way to the floor. There was a crawl space.

I crawled probably the length of a football field before I saw light and spotted another crawl space intersecting the one I was in. When I reached the light, I saw that there was an old iron rung ladder going up a small shaft. I forced the grate up, poked my head out and found myself in the grounds outside the castle, T.B. in the distance. I called him over and told him about the crawl space. We descended the ladder, made our way through the other crawl space and found another shaft. There was fresh dirt on the floor and on the rungs of the ladder. The grate offered no resistance and we emerged into a small courtyard with nothing but high, windowless castle walls on all sides.

On the ground, was a long row of small gravestones dating back centuries. All had the family name and all had died as infants. There was a freshly dug empty grave at the end of the row. T.B. said, "Think we're too late?" I contemplated for a moment, then said, "No. Not yet."

Then the alarm clock went off and woke me up. I was confident we'd find the baby alive, though. My guess was that this family had some weird sacrificial tradition and the mom knew about it, but couldn't bear to let it happen.

Maybe there's a better reason why I haven't been dreaming much!

The other two dreams were much shorter and far less interesting, but...

Dream #2. The Dream Theater concert.
I was in my old stomping grounds of DeWitt, N.Y., and I had tickets to see the band Dream Theater perform in a tiny club that used to be called The Lost Horizon. I left my hotel at 10pm for the 10:30 show, got to the venue at 10:18, found a parking space and discovered I had left my tickets back at the hotel. So, I sped off, back to the hotel to get the tickets and back to the venue. Record time! Back at 10:45! Opened my wallet... Where are the tickets?? I picked them up, didn't I? Where did I put them? Grrrr! Baaaaack to the hotel. I ransacked my room looking for the tickets. It's 11:15! I'm missing the show! Only after sufficiently up-ending everything not bolted down did I realize my error. Will call.

I got to the show at 11:50. The will call window was closed. Defeated once again, I sulked over to the door to try to beg the bouncer to get someone to let me get my tickets. Before I could even mouth a word, he opened the door and told me to come right in. Puzzled, I said, "But, I don't have my tickets." He pointed to the VIP badge dangling from my neck and said, "All access. You don't need a ticket."

Crap. I've missed 90 minutes already and for nothing. Then the bouncer tells me, "They just started. Still on the first song."

Dream #3. Seven-thirty something.
I was napping on a loveseat in my dream study, cherry bookshelves packed with hard covers, a massive desk... My eyes opened slowly and gazed at the digital clock on my desk. It was 7:36pm. I zoned out for a moment, then noticed the clock changed... to 7:34. ??? I was still too tired to really move, so I just stared at the clock and watched as the time bounced around between 7:30 and 7:38. I tried to make sense of it in my brain. A malfunction. Must be.

Then, I was startled by a British man I know only from an internet forum. His face appeared suddenly, just above me and upside down from my perspective. He grabbed the sides of my face and shook me. He said, in a ridiculously thick accent, "Wake up, mate! If you want to know what's going on, you've got to--"

At that moment, my daughter showed up in the doorway of the bedroom, crying (code for: Help! I have to pee, but I'm too tired to pull my undies down!"). I'll never know what the deal was with the clock.

Dreams 2 and 3 were back-to-back, so I find it interesting that both had such specific times in them. Not sure what any of that indicates, but I don't really care. I'm getting better quality rest and, once again, in-flight movies.