The Kestrel's Dreams

July 18, 2014

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I was in a house with a few other people, but I don't remember who they were. The house was falling apart because of a huge tornado that had come through and almost killed us. The stairs, which had been completely ripped out during the storm, leaving splintered boards in the wall, were replaced with a ladder (I blame this on a book I had one of my students read to me. It was about going up and down stairs and ladders haha). The hall that the stairs had led to, which ran along the wall, was made of extremely weak boards placed across the opening where the floor had been. It looked a little bit like the side of the bathhouse in Spirited Away. I needed to get to a door at the end of those boards, and so I climbed the ladder just fine, but when I took a step out onto the weak boards, they broke and I fell through the the ground below. I stopped to think, and while I was contemplating strategies, I saw the man who had set up the ladder go up and walk across the board while holding the hand-rail. I had an idea, and tried again; I got up the ladder and stood at the start of the boards. I held the hand-rail and put most of my wheight on it while stepping on the boards. I made sure to keep my hands on the rail all the time, supporting just enough of my weight so that the boards could hold the rest. I finally made it to the door, opened it, and was in a kitchen-like room with a white linoleum floor. To my right was a hallway with about four doors on each side. I turned to my left and suddenly there was this creepy-ass woman standing right there, staring at me. She had on an apron, handkerchief around her hair, and held a ladle in her left hand.

"U-uhm. Hello..." I stammered.
"Who are you?" She demanded.
"I'm ---'s friend...!" (I said the name of someone who was downstairs, who had told me to come up here, though I forget who it was. I remember that it was a guy, though)
The woman was suddenly all peachy. "Ohh, a friend of his? Why didn't you say so?" She led me to a door on the other side of the room, which led to a loft-type thing looking over the living room, where my friend stood. He waved up to me and said, "Mom, are you bothering her?"
The woman waved the ladle and denied it. "I'm going to show her my ---s" (she called them something, but I can't remember hat they were called)
My friend laughed and said to me, "Oh, you're in for a treat! She only shows them to people she likes!"
I was still a little creeped out by the woman, but followed her back into the linoleum room, and she led me to what looks like a fridge that was right next to the door I'd come in through before. When I got closer, I realized it was a series of cages of some sort, and out of it the woman took a handful of these little creatures; about half the size of a hedgehog, and covered in what looked like little rocks and sticks. They were like a pokemon! I played with one of them for a while, and wanted to keep it, but gave it back to the woman when she put them all back into the cages. Apparently, these were prize-winning what-ever-they-weres. She took them to shows and they won Best In Show every time. I felt honored to have gotten to play with them. The woman told me that on Pine Day (a holiday for my street apparently) I could carry one around with me all day as a treat.