Willow Tree

Strange Dreams

Last night I had the strangest dream, a nightmare really. In the dream I had a package of pasta, the swirly kind. But somehow, though at first I denied it, I discovered they were infested with bugs.

I brought the plastic bag out to the yard and stomped on it with both feet hoping to kill all the insects within, only, owing to the nature of the bag, instead of smashing the bugs the bag burst open and the bugs spewed out---very much alive; large, pitch black on their underside, on their top half, a blaring, fiery red. They made a loud and fearful clicking sound; it wasn't hard to know where they were.

The bugs fled everywhere; I knew it was hopeless to catch them all, but I started on a campaign to eradicate them from everywhere.

At that point I realized that they were in fact everywhere; they were in flower pots on porch railings, they were in food supplies, they were in the walls of the houses and under the floorboards. They were in people's hair.

But, and this was the denouement of the dream, what truly horrified me was the acceptance of their presence; I sat with one woman beside a porch railing, a flower box next to her, obviously swarming with the creatures trying to convince her that we needed to work together to rid ourselves of this infestation and she only smiled at me and said "Oh, they aren't so bad really. I am beginning to enjoy their sound." And I knew that these insects had infested her--not just her hair, but were actually inside of her, and inside of many people, and that I there wasn't a way to free ourselves of their presence, and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness prevaded me.

That is when I woke up heart pounding, a bit sweaty, wondering what it all meant.

Probably nothing I realize that, but still it left me shaky and perplexed.

Posted by Rachel Ann at November 4, 2004 06:36 AM