Visions in the Dark

I am standing on a busy road near where my parent's live. The road rounds a hill and has metal barriers down one side. I am at the bottom of the incline looking at where the road crests the hill. It is either sunset or sunrise and the sky seems dim and is tinted pale violets and pinks. Traffic seems busy as usual and nothing really happens until a off-white coloured, two door hatchback comes over the hill too slowly and is rear ended by a dark blue four door sedan which comes over the hill too quickly and cannot stop in time to avoid the smaller white car.

There does not appear to be any passangers or drivers in either car and debris from both vehicles is scattered about the road. No passing vehicles make any attempt to stop and help as they just slow down and drive around the accident. Suddenly a giant blue metal hand grabs the guard rail on the far side of the road and Optimus Prime (in his original cartoon incarnation) climbs over the metal barrier and onto the road. He steps between the slow moving vehicles and starts picking up the debris from the wrecked cars. He says something about wanting to help clear traffic but I am not sure if he is talking to me or someone I cannot see. The scene is comical because Optimus is hindering traffic more than helping, because the cars on the road now have to swerve to avoid his giant metal legs as well as the debris from the accident, and he keeps trying to carry too much scrap metal at once and is dropping and scattering it all over the road again. I remember thinking that "Optimus is not as graceful as he used to be."

The sky turns a dark velvetly blue and answers my question about whether the sun was setting or rising. The street lights and car headlights come on but they are not the usual colours as all the artifical light is illuminated in bright primary or neon hues. Optimus himself is covered in red and blue lights while his eyes are round and bright white like the headlights on his chest. The headlights of passing vehicles on the road are all neon pinks, greens or yellows. The street lamps are flickering and changing colours to contrast or compliment the colours of the car's headlights as they drive by. The whole scene is technicolour and psychedelic and all the lights are flashing and strobbing like a dance club or a rave.

The dream starts off in a large grocery store. I am in the frozen food section looking for something and there are several people throughout the store who appear to be shoppers. I look over my should at one point and see a former friend of mine, Cathy, standing in the doorway to the supply room. I am not happy to see her and I am even more annoyed by the smug look she has on her face. Everyone who I thought at first were random shoppers, myself included, turn out to be prisoners who have to "work off their debt" to be free. Cathy is the one who has imprisoned us and forces us to work in the grocery store, and as of yet no one has ever worked off their debt or escaped.

I am stocking in the soup isle and I find a newborn, sleeping baby, wrapped in a white blanket, laying in a sale bin. I sense that she is related to me somehow and I so pick her up. Slave master, psycho control freak (as she is in real life) Cathy comes over to give me trouble because I am not working and I tell her that I have to call my sister-in-law to come and pick up the baby. Cathy tries to take the baby but I become confrontational and Cathy wisely backs down. For the first time in the dream she doesn't have that annoying smirk on her face because she realizes that I am not afraid of her and will do serious damage if she tries to mess with me. Cathy tells me that she can't have children at her store and I have thirty minutes to get rid of the baby. As the slave keeper walks away I yell "or what? You'll fire me?" but she does not know how to respond and disappears into her office. Several of the other prisoners seem happy to see someone stand up to the boss for once, though they meekly continue with their slave labor.

I leave the grocery store and enter into the large shopping center to which it is attached and beeline for a public phone to call my sister-in-law. She says that she and my brother will be there shortly and I tell them to meet me at the mall entrance. I have no intention of returning to the grocery store and plan on using my brother and sister-in-law as my escape route. When they finally arrive, my sister-in-law takes the baby and says that she is happy to have her daughter back and thanks me for taking care of her. I jump into their mini-van and tell my brother to floor it, but he just stares at me blankly and asks me if I have to get back to work. (*facepalm*) I call him an idiot and tell him to drive and when he protests my sister-in-law also gets on his case until finally he drives away from the mall.

I am both excited and apprehensive. I wonder how long it is before Cathy figures out I got away and hope to get as far away as I can before then. My brother drives along a road that follows the ocean. The sky is overcast and grey it is slightly foggy. We drive in silence for a long time before my sister-in-law asks how work was and I tell her about the perpetual slavery that the workers are forced to endure. My brother asks me something, but I forget what now, before suddenly swerving his mini-van off the road and into the ocean. The vehicle goes deep enough to fill halfway with water and get stuck in the sand, but not deep enough to sink and submerge the entire mini-van. My sister-in-law just gazes out the front window, cradling the baby, like nothing has happened. I feel extremely mortified that my brother is a complete moron, but cannot get a reason out of him when I demand to know why he has sabatoged my plan for escape. I know that now the mini-van has been disabled, I will eventually be found and sent back to work at the grocery store prison, and that makes me very frustrated and angry.

I cannot remember the beginning of this dream but there was quite a bit about wandering around outside in a semi-arid setting. I was travelling with three women I do not know in what looked like a camp ground. Despite the dry arid atmosphere, there were many thick, dark green coniferous trees about - enough almost to classify the area as a forest in my opinion. I do not recall much detail about the appearance of the three women except the two were slightly younger than I (and one was wearing a pink, wool sweater) and the oldest woman was about middle aged and had short dark brown hair. The four of us walked for a while, seemingly lost in the desert forest the three women conversed with each other, but I lagged behind and was content to just enjoy the setting, though as we walked a growing apprehension developed in my mind and I found myself wanting to be in the company of my parents because I suddenly felt very vunerable and child-like.

I had not noticed that she had gone, but the oldest woman of the group suddenly turned a corner, driving a red four door car that looked like a Glendale from the Grand Theft Auto videogame series. I never got her actual name in the dream, but from this point on I refer to the oldest woman of the group as Glenda. I never learn the names of the other two women. Glenda tells us to get in and I make myself confortable in the rear rightside passenger seat. The young woman in the pink, hand-knit sweater sits in the left side and I notice at this point that she has shoulder length blond hair. I think that she looks like Cagalli Yula Athha from the Gundam Seed anime series.

The three women continue to talk amongst themselves but I roll down my window and am content to just stare outside, wondering where my parents are. Glenda drives along a lone dirt road out of the desert forest, heading east, and we travel for a long time with nothing in sight. Soon however there is a wooden ramp a head of us and though it appears that we could drive around it, Glenda is determined to jump the ramp. She floors the accelerator and we speed towards the jump, and I feel that this is a very bad idea. I cling to the Cagalli look-alike and she does the same to me. Everyone in the car is afraid of the worst happening and I cannot talk Glenda out of stopping the car or just driving around the ramp. The red four-door car is heavy and though it hits the wooden ramp at a fair speed and level angle, the vehicle inexplicably flips in mid air, crashes on the roof and slides upside down for a short distance.

The four of us are able to crawl out of the wreck, and though we are dazed, no one is seriously injured. Glenda is quick to rally the other two girls into following her again by saying something like "the Arizona border isn't far now," or something, but I am not interested in joining them. While they continue along the dirt road heading east, I notice something in the southernly direction that looks like a group of small buildings or tents. It is hazy because of the heat and I cannot tell if what I am looking at is real or an optical illusion, but I start walking in that direction anyway. It is very hot and I take off my overshirt and wrap it around my head as I walk.

As I get closer to my destination I can see that it is some sort of outdoor event taking place infront of a large gothic styled building which I think at first much be a medieval church or something. There are stone pillars through the square, as well as consession stands and booths selling various consumer goods. There are many people casually browsing the things for sale or sitting on the many marble benchs scattered about. I am aching from the car crash and walk to the center of the bustle so see if I can find anyone I know. I look over my right shoulder and through the throng of people and booths I can see a Texaco gas station and feel drawn towards it. As I try to make my way there, my dad walks by infront of me and heads over to a coffee stand nearby. He did not notice me as he walked by and does not respond when I call out to him. I am sore and feeling needy and want sympathy because I was in an accident, but my dad completely ignores me as if I am not even there. He orders to hot drinks and walks toward a picnic table in the far end of the square, where my mom is sitting. I unwrap the overshirt from my head and follow my dad over to the table and try to get my parents attention, but again they do not respond. My anxiety increases and I desperately try yelling at them again they do not respond. What adds to my frustration is that I do not know if they cannot actually hear me, or if they are willfully ignoring my pleas for attention.

I briefly become lucid as I acknowledge that this is how it feels my parents treat me in real life, but I do not gain control of the dream because I feel rejected and psychologically exhausted.

Though I know they will still ignore me if I return to their company, I still desperately crave attention and affection from my parents - but it hurts too much to feel non-existant, so I head over to the large gothic style building and see if I can find a pillar or wall to hide behind. As I get closer to the building I notice that one of the huge wooden doors is slightly ajar. I make sure no one is looking and slip through the opening. While it looks like a midieval church on the outside, the interior looks much more like an elaborate palace. Lush carpets line the expansive halls; gold and jewels are woven into every decoration and peice of art; massive crystal chandeliers hang from the ceilings. I stand in awe for a moment, drinking in the magnificent excess of extravagance, until I hear footfalls coming from an adjacent room or hall near the entrance. Because the sound seems to be coming from behind me, I run away from the front doors and deeper into the mansion.

There seems to be some sort of party going on as in each room I pass I can hear people laughing and having fun, though the doors are closed and I cannot see anyone. I turn down one hall and almost trip over a stack of gifts wrapped in colourful papers and ribbons. Down another hall I find a long legless table with row upon row of crystaline bowls filled with either chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Because the hall is not air-conditioned, most of the ice cream is melting, and because the table has no legs and is effectively sitting on the floor, much of the melting ice cream is soaking into the lush red carpet. I walk through a set of doors beyond the legless table and find myself in watch appears to be a dinning hall. The place is set up as if to recieve and dine many guests, but I do not see anyone around. I can hear commotion from an adjacent room and hear a woman say something about "having the place ready for the afternoon guests." I quickly run through the room to a narrow hall on the other side. As I make my deeper into the mansion, a feeling of apprehension develops inside of me and I feel as if I am not suppost to be there.

I enter into a hall with a stairs to the left, a large open kitchen infront of me and a set of double doors to my right. There are cooks in white aprons, waiters in red jackets, and maids in black dresses all rushing around trying to get their jobs done. People do look in my direction, but no one stops what they are doing to say anything about the interloper. I stand in the middle of the hall and notice someone coming down the stairs in the corner of my left eye. A waiter with short black hair is slowing making his way down the stairs and he is holding something I cannot see in his left hand. He makes a funny face and then smiles at me, clearly trying to make me laugh. I do laugh, but try to stifle it with my hand and it is then that I notice that I am wearing a red waiter jacket like the man on the stairs. I am still afraid that I am going to get in trouble because I am not suppost to be there, but being near the man on the stairs seems to make me feel a bit calmer for some reason. Another waiter appears from behind me, carrying a silver tray full of silver dishes, walks past us and mutters to the waiter on the stairs to "leave the new girl alone," or something. The man on the stairs just gives him annoyed look. An aging woman with a scowl for a facial expression, wearing a long black Victorian-era dress and her gray hair up in a bun, appears in the kitchen entrance way and I only get to make brief eye-contact with her when the dream ends.


I think I can sum this dream up quite easy: anxiety about relations with my parents and anger about the emotional neglect I experienced in childhood.

I cannot remember now how the dream started but at some point I was with my friend Becky and we were taking a road trip in in her car to a large shopping center across the border, (even though in waking life she does not actually own a vehicle). We arrived at our destination and went inside to do whatever and when our hands were full, we returned to Becky's car. We found that a small green car had smashed into the right side of her vehicle, leaving a large dent and traces of green paint. The green car was parked behind Becky's with the driver no where in sight.

After some angry shouting over the damage of the car, I suggested to my friend that we take photos of the damage with her digital camera (another thing she does not actually possess in waking life) but for some reason Becky was reluctant to do so. She did not want to create a scene and was content to just leave it but I was insistant on taking pictures for insurance reasons, just in case. She eventually agreed but I could not figure out how to activate the time stamp on the camera, which I was convinced existed at the time, and became frustrated. Becky then suggested we go back inside the mall and finish our shopping because the damage was already done and there was no point crying over spilt milk. I agreed, put the camera in my purse and we returned to our shopping spree.

When we again returned to put away all we had bought we found that Becky's car had again been smashed and the damage was to much this time to ignore. The green car was no where in sight. Becky and I were infuriated about the situation and I was fuming that I had decided not to use the digital camera before to get the green car's license plate. I proceeded to take photos of the damage while Becky called for a tow truck.

As I was just finishing up documenting of the damage I saw the green car on the other side of the parking lot, smahed into a wall. I ran over and was thrilled to see two people who I hoped to be the owners. I was right but the owners, a young man and a young woman, tried to argue with me about the damage to Becky's car and would not let me take their photos. The young woman said that the young man had been driving, but it was difficult for him to use the breaks because he was wearing spiked baseball shoes, as if that was a ligitimate excuse for their destructive and dangerous driving!

I became infuriated when I heard that excuse and yelled that perhaps the young man should wear regular shoes until he reached his destination or wait to wear spiked shoes until he was actually playing baseball, to which the young woman just scoffed. I demanded that we exchange contact information for the insurance reasons and they thankfully agreed to that. When I finally returned to Becky and her car, the tow truck was there and ready to go and the dream ended there.


I had a short dream after this one that took place in the gymnasium of my public school, but other than the location I cannot remember anything else about that dream.