It Always Begins the Same Way...The Dream

It always begins the same way.  I'm talking to someone about a piece of furniture I would like.  It's someone I know, but I never see who it is for the person is in the shadows.  He or she, I can't even distinguish that, tell me to go to Gramp and Gram's house, for they will have what I am searching for.  I laugh and say "You're right!  I'll go see them."  Funny thing is I don't get into my car; not at all.  Instead, I grab my bike which is lying next to me and take off on it.  My old teal colored 5 speed bike my sister, Dawn had given to me for Christmas one year.  I loved that bike, but I digress.  I ride into Taylor, zip into my grandparents' driveway and place my bike by their front porch.  The front porch where I had spent many hours with Gramp and Gram, sitting there watching the cars go by.  So many times.

I trot into the house, making sure I rang the doorbell, cause it was always fun to turn it and hear the "Ding-dong" chime.  I know, little things amuse me.  Then in I go.  Now this is where it gets a little different.  Sometimes Gramp and Gram are sitting in the room in their usual chairs.  Gram's was a wooden rocker and Gramp had a beat up comfy chair.  Other times Gramp would be in the living room, laying on the sofa with it red blanket on it "to keep it clean" and Gram would be sitting in her rocker in the main room, I guess you would call it.  Then there are times when Gramp and Gram are in the kitchen and I would watch Gramp go through his routine of drinking coffee. Gram would pour it into his cup and place it on the saucer; then Gramp would put whatever into it, take the cup and pour some of the coffee into the saucer.  He would blow on it and drink it from the saucer.  It was always fascinating to watch this.  Meanwhile, Gram was hustling about the kitchen checking on her dinner.  That would change too.  Sometimes it was pork chops, potatoes, and a vegetable.  Other times, it was fried chicken, potatoes and gravy.  Once in a while, it's spaghetti and these huge meatballs.  And always at the end, there was pie, apple, cherry, strawberry rhubarb, raspberry, or blackberry.  I can always smell and taste the meals.

They would talk with me, and I would ask them about whatever I am looking for.  The answer is always the same.  "Go upstairs Vonnie, and check in the attic, I bet we've got something".  I would get up and go up the stairs. Now, I think you have realized just how vivid it always is.  I can see every detail, every plant Gram had in the dining room and kitchen.  I can smell the ordours of the house.  I hear the coocoo clock, my grandparents voices.  I look into Gram's old bedroom and look at the trees and house next door.  I stop and glance down the small hall at gramp's bedroom.  There next to me is the bathroom, with its 'claw foot bathtub.  All famimliar and known.  Now comes the part that is different.  At the head of the stairs and to my right is a door.  The door to the attic.  Okay, so what's strange about it.  For the life of me, I don't remember it being there.  Nothing.  I have no idea if it was really there.  But in these dreams it always is.

I go to the door, open it and turn on a light.  Inside is a huge room, filled with furniture of all sorts, bedding, books, bric- brac, lamps, bedroom suites, I mean really it is like an antique store and a furniture stare.  Here's another difference though.  Sometimes it's like a maze I have to walk through with only a couple of lights on and it is filled with all sorts of things.  Other times, there are windows with the sun shining brightly lighting up the whole room.  It is airy and filled with colours. When it is the maze I find all sorts of goodies to look at and enjoy.  Books, including comic books which I promptly sit down and enjoy.  The weird thing is I see they are Superman comic books and the panels of the story are so very familiar.  When It is books, I gather the ones I love and bring them with me.  Funny thing I never remember the titles, but I can see the comics...crazy. Anyway whether maze of show floor, I always find what I am looking for.  But it takes time.  .  I am always thrilled with finding it.  Once it was a bedroom set.  Another time a living room suite and a desk, and always bookcases.

Funny thing is,  when I find what I want, my aunt appears and says, "Vonnie, did you find it",,, I answer her always with a "Yes"...She smiles at me, and tells me to "come on then, let's get it loaded".  Then it ends.  I never see Gramp and Gram again.  My aunt had disappeared as fast as she appeared.  I open my eyes, and find myself wondering where exactly I am.  Then memory returns just as swiftly as the dream left.

I find myself wondering why it's always the same dream, but different items are wanted.  I always find it and have books with me as well.  It always ends the same way.  I find it.  Why Gramp and Gram?  Why my aunt?  Always, their house in Taylor.  Strange huh?  Always the same dream....It always begins the same way....