Visions in the Dark

This is the first of two dreams that I had on April 29th, 2010.


It starts off with me in the dream as I appear in real life trying to renovate a section of a strip mall into a grocery store. It's like the future or something because resources are scarce and everyone lives in abject poverty. I want to say it almost like a post-apocalyptic world just with extreme poverty rather than world wide devastation. In this world there are no major services available and trying to open a grocery store is considered ludicris because of the scarcity of resources.

The building I want to work in is old and because of the abstract layout of the building, the floorplan of my grocery store is triangular in shape, with the front doors being at one of the triangle's tips (making it very narrow). I am ordered by the building's landlord to complete my renovations without removing or altering a set of public bathrooms right at the entrance. I am told that no one will want to shop at my grocery store because of the akward narrow entrance in which customers will have to pass public bathroom on the way in.

After renovations are finally complete I then have trouble trying to stock the store with foodstuffs because food is scarce. Yet somehow I am not only able to fill my shelves with food, I even have a refrigerated section where I can stock thinks like milk and butter - which the populace hasn't had available to them since the major catastrophy that led to the world resource shortage. I am also able to install a coffee kiosk to help attract customers and offer a free cup of to any customer making a purchase. There is a small part here about a conflict with an emplyee who keeps leaving stock carts full of foodstuff in the middle of the store without putting them on the shelves.

Despite many criticms of my project the opening of the grocery store is a success and my next problem is keeping foodstuffs in stock for customers since so many people keep coming everyday to buy food. I am quickly becoming rich and I am able to hire other people to do all the work for me while I revel in the success of my business. I now spend my time greeting and socializing with customers rather than working the till or stocking. I am soon wealthy enough to expand the store so that it includes a section selling clothing and housewares and stuff.

I am standing in one of the new aisles inspecting its setup. The shelf is full of pencils and notpads and other stationary. An employee nearby is stocking tall and narrow opalescent coloured vases and fake plants. I go over to inspect his work when he is done and find myself attracted to one of the vases. They are stacked inside one another and when I pull the top one out, its outer lip expands and becomes wider by itself - reminisent of a flower suddenly blooming - like the plastic it is made of automatically collapses when stacked so as to save storage space. I was unaware that such technology existed and I am entralled with stacking and unstacking the vases, content to watch them bloom and collapse in size for hours on end.