Visions in the Dark

This is the first of three dreams I had on September 21st, 2009.


Dream starts off with me walking along a country road just outside of my home town of London, Ontario. It is pitch black night and I cannot see anything yet in the dream I am familliar with the area and can find my way in the dark. About half a mile from the city limits is a no-kill cat shelter which sets out live traps to capture stray cats along the highway. It is to these traps that I am heading because in the dream I saw one of them with a cat in it during the daytime and I am going to rescue the cat. It is a Saturday and because the shelter is closed on the weekends the cat will have to stay in the trap until Monday - which I think is cruel and I already have a cat at home so I am confident, and more than happy, to have another cat. And because the traps are so close to the edge of the city, where I live, I can walk to them in a short amount of time. Because it is not too cold of a night I set out wearing only my pajamas and running shoes.

When I get to the no-kill shelter (which sits on a small incline next to the hightway) there is a single porch light on the outside which offers a little illumination but otherwise I spend a lot of time having to feel around with my hands because it is so dark. I eventually find the trap I am looking for and rescue the cat. I put the cat into my sleeved t-shirt and tuck it into my pajama bottoms so the cat will not fall out. (I have a cat carrier at home and I do not know why I did not bring it with me). The cat is fairly complacent as it does not fight or scratch me and only wants to stick its head out of the t-shirt neck hole to breathe or look around. I start walking back towards the city but I soon here a car coming and I scramble up the ridge and hide by laying down in a ditch at the top of the ridge. I am afraid that if someone saw me outside along the country road at night that they would call the police and I would get in trouble.

The car passes and I continue on my way again. I come across another of the live traps near an overpass and realize that there is another cat in it. I rescue the cat and put it in my shirt and start on my way. Again I can hear a car coming and I hind under the overpass to avoid being seen, though I am eager to get home becuase it has become ackward to carry two cats in my shirt, not because they are fighting me or themselves, but because they both want to stick their heads out of the shirt hole and there is only space for my own neck and one of the cats. I am worried that the cat stuck at the bottom of the shirt will be hurt by the other cat ontop or will suffocate. I hurry on my way and reach the city limits in no time. Unlike in real life, the city urbanized immediately past the city limits sign and there is a small park that covers one block, a gas station and convienience store on the next block, followed by town houses and three storey apartment buildings. After some houses on the fourth block are some more three storet apartments on the fifth block and it is there that I live.

Unfortunately outside one of the houses on the fourth block are two guard dogs who live in cages that they can escape from when intruders are present - or to pester people walking along the sidewalk. The dogs, one large and on puppy pitbulls, start chasing me because they can smell the cats, which start to freak out inside my shirt, and I have to run. It starts raining quite hard. I am forced to run past my apartment and too a friend's place because I know they will be home and awake at this time of night and will be able to let me in quickly. It turns out that she is standing on the sidewalk outside of her apartment, in the rain. She quickly lets me inside. I don't know the young woman in real life but in the dream we are good friends. In her apartment I get to see the cats for the first time since being out of the dark and I discover that the bigger one is completely black with yellow eyes like my cat at home while the other is a a smaller, thinner spotted calico with brown eyes. I wait for a while to make sure the dogs are gone then head home. Some how I have acquired another cat which I have to hold in my arms because there is no more room in my shirt.

At my apartment I discover that the third cat is another yellow eyed black cat and for some reason I believe that the two black cats I found are related to my cat (Zrinyi) and they are all brothers and sisters. I find some extra food dishes, put them out and fill them with food. I also find another bin to put some extra cat litter in and put that out also. To my surprise the four cats get along very well, even with Zrinyi, who has never been fond of other cats before. I leave my apartment and head back towards my friend's place. It is still raining but it has slowed down and become softer and I am still in my wet pajamas but it doesn't bother me. The sun begins the rise and the sky lightens a little.

I walk past a small strip mall and in the parking lot I see the spotted calico cat I found before in the parking lot, but instead of having two brown eyes it seems to have one single green eye in the middle of it's face. Even though it looks like a cyclops I know it is the same cat as before and I wonder who the heck it got out of my apartment. When I first approatch it the cat runs away but all I have to do is crouch down and use soft words to coax it back to me. When I pick it up the cat blinks and its single green eye disappears and the two brown eyes return. I am perplexed for a bit but hurry home because I fear the other cats have escaped like this one did. Thankfully they have not and I put the spotted calico down and it goes over to one of the food dishes and begins munching away happily. I find the three black cats curled up on my bed contentedly sleeping together which adds further credence to my believe that they are all related.

Even though it is still raining and not completely daylight yet I set back out with the intent to check the live cat traps again because for some reason I believe that I will find more cats there. This time I take the cat carrier with me but I am still in my pajamas. I try to sneak quickly past the houses with the pitbulls but no-joy. I can hear police car sirens in the backround as the little dog merely barks at me but the bigger on bites me on the hand. I run a bit and the dogs eventually turn back towards their home. It stops raining when I am at the intersection of the convienence store and the small park when I look down to my left and see two police cars parked down the street. I get spooked and turn back but hesitate because I don't want to run into the dogs again. I consider for a moment what to say to the police if they stop me before starting towards the country side again.

Suddenly there is a lot of people in the streets as I walk past the small park. I am crossing one road when I city bus comes out of nowhere and nearly misses me. I see a large sign on the edge of the park with a bus schedual on it and go over to see if any buses go down the road where the cat traps are but because none do I start on my way again. I am at the last intersection before the countryside and can hear a car radio playing "We Will Rock You" by Queen and notice that a lot of people on the side walk are singing along. I am crossing the intersection when I see a moving van that has precariously stacked trailers, one on top of the other, seven high.

The dream ends there.

There is a punk or rock band doing an interview while walking through a dense field along a small, shallow creek. I am a camera operator trying to keep up with them as they walk and talk. I follow one of the spiky haired dudes into the creek and try to keep pace without getting my camera wet. As we trudge through the creek it slowly becomes wider and at one point (and quite suddenly) deeper. The band and other camera operators disappear as the sun starts to set and I am left to struggle out of the creek alone.

I see my family's old 1986 Westfalia sitting a distance away, near the edge of a dirt road. Still soaking wet I drop the camera and get into the vehicle, where I find myself with Dad, Mom, and brother Ryan. It is dark now and we seem to drive around aimlessly. I cannot see where we are going. Ryan is doing something to annoy me (but I can't remember what) and I feel angry. We pass small towns or buildings in the dark that are adorned with lots of bright lights and decorations). We are supposed to drop Ryan off somewhere (he is to meet up with his friend James, I think) but he disappears from (or exits) the van before we find the destination.

My parents drive past a few more small, brightly lit towns and then back into the dark country side. They suddenly turn off the van's headlights and drive in the dark. I can still feel (and vaguely see) the backseat that I am sitting on, but otherwise am completely surrounded by darkness. I can no longer see or hear Mom and Dad, but I assume they are still there because I can still feel the vibration of the van moving (though I can no longer hear the vehicle's engine as well).

The darkness surrounding me feels thick and heavy and I feel like I am being suffocated.

In the dream I appeared as I looked at about age 11 or 12. I was with my mom and dad and we were in our old 1986 Volkswagen Westfalia. We were driving down an urban street that was lined with old Victorian and Edwardian style buildings, as well as many trees. In the dream, this was supposed to be our hometown of London, Ontario, but the areas we travelled through looked nothing like any area of London that I recognize. I don't remember many of the buildings, but one stuck in my memory for some reason. It was a three story bulding made of dark grey bricks and a black tile roof. The front door was a dark red and there were vines growing up the entire front side. This building sat opposite of a three-way intersection and I recall noticing it the first time my parents and I drove past it because my dad had to make a left turn. Though it had a unique and vaguely farmiliar look in my dream, I cannot recognize it as anything I know in waking life.

My parents and I drove out into the country, though it did not look like the country surrounding my hometown (as I know it in waking life, anyway). We drove for a long time and came to a thicket of trees which seemed to have a picnic area in the middle. My dad drove the van towards the picnic tables but the westfalia got stuck in some mud that we had not noticed before. My parents got out of the van and walked towards the picnic tables and it was then that I noticed an old man in a blue uniform. He looked like a thin Captain Highliner. I walked amongst the trees while my parents talked to the captain. I found a little stream and noticed something moving in the water, but my mom called me back to the van before I could get a look at what it was. As we drove out of the grove (and almost got stuck in the mud again) I watched the old man walk towards the little stream with a blank expression on his face. He waded into the stream before the van turned onto the road and I could no longer see him.

We drove for miles again, past farmland and forests. I noticed that we travelled fairly far without seeing a single building. Soon though, my parents spotted group of white houses and they wanted to go check them out. Parking the westfalia behind one of the houses my mom and dad got out of the van and started snooping around. I was afraid of being caught doing something illegal so I stayed in the van. When my parents had not returned for a long time, I got out of the van and went to look for them. From the window of one of the white houses I could see someone looking at me and I was afraid that they were going to call the police on me for tresspassing. I started back to the van but I suddenly heard a group of people laughing and carrying on. Following the noise I came across my mom and dad and some strangers on the front balcony of one of the houses, opening champagne bottles and having some sort of celebration. The old man in the blue uniform was there as well. Apparently it was his house and he had just won it in a sweepstakes or something (and that is why everyone was celebrating?).

My parents had one glass of champagne before returning to the van and heading home. The trip home didn't seem nearly as long as the trip out there, and I don't recall seeing the picnic grove on the way back. When we returned to London, it again was the strange London with all of the Victorian and Edwardian building. When we came to the three-way interesection and my dad turned, I watched the vaguely farmiliar dark grey, three story bulding grow smaller and smaller in the rear view window. When we were some distance away I saw the dark red door swing open, but I woke up before I could see what was behind it.