Dream entry #3

A few nights ago, I was struck with terrible insomnia, and none of my usual tricks were working. I did the weighted eye pillow, the white noise on the bedroom radio, meditation music on my headphones, turned up the air conditioner to cool the room, and nothing was working. Around 1 a.m. I gave up and took a pill my doctor gave me for these emergencies. What resulted was one of the most surreal dreams I’ve ever had.

I was in my parents’ house in my brother’s old room, typing on my laptop. I was writing the most tender, amazing, original romance novel ever, and I couldn’t have been happier with myself. Then the computer died. It gave a quick error message and the screen went black. I looked around the room feeling dazed, and I noticed a reflection in my brother’s mirror.

Outside, in the yard across the street from my parents’ house, the father was spanking his young son for not building the Lego space station he wanted for Christmas. I was sad for the kid because I know how it feels to want something for Christmas and then not be certain what you want to do with it. And the space station was so huge and elaborate, I couldn’t imagine how the kid would ever finish.

Then I heard a noise coming from the street, and I turned back around to look out the window instead of at the reflection. Elephants were marching down the street because the circus was coming to town. Acrobats were leaning off the elephants’ heads in contortionist poses as they came stomping down the hill, clowns walking along beside them in their silly shoes and tiny hats.

I rushed down the stairs to look out the front door to see the elephants, but when I got there, there were no elephants. My dad came behind me on the stairs and asked if I was OK. I sat down on the steps with him and said, “I think I just had a dream that there were elephants on our street.” He said, yes, it was a dream, there were no elephants, and he chuckled at the silly idea.

And then I woke up from the dream really, lying in my bed with the air conditioner blasting and the white noise humming, and I was back to insomnia, sans elephant.