Saturday, November 10, 2007

Elephant in the Lake

Last night I dreamed a rather complicated and convolunted story that may not make complete sense here (it sure didn't last night). I was playing a character in this dream: a man who had a best friend. These two friends had possibly the most tragic lives of anyone outside of a Victorian melodrama. My character had a lovely wife, who eventually died. His best friend, however, had a much more tragic existence. He also had a lovely wife, with a lovely child. The child died early in the dream. This couple had also bought and restored a vintage hotel that was located on the shores of a large, picturesque lake (something like a fjord). At some point in the dream, my character visited the hotel in its finished state. My friends had apparently dredged out of the fjord a cement elephant that had originally belonged to the hotel, reinstalled it in the courtyard, and painted it blue. Other parts of the vintage hotel had also been restored, including a cave tour (apparently the hotel was built on an outcropping of limestone, which lends itself well to cave formation). In the cave, inexplicably, was the advancing edge of a glacier. My friend's wife blithely climbed up to touch it, showing me how easy it was, but I remained reluctant. It seemed to be tempting fate to touch a glacier.

At some point in the dream, I visited my friend on a wine-making commune, where he and his family were staying and working. I got a tour of the winery, the vineyards, and this blissful meadow, where (I swear this is true) children were frolicking in the flowers. There were some heartbreakingly beautiful blue flowers in the meadow and I remember thinking that it was all too good to be true.

Sure enough, I later heard that my friend and his child had died of cholera (??), leaving his wife alone at the resort hotel. I immediately went to visit her (my wife was also dead by this time). On my visit, it became clear that she was planning to kill herself, as she had nothing left to live for. She passed on to me her dead husband's identity, though, providing me a way to start over (from what, I'm not sure). She gave me his ID card, and told me that I could take over the hotel and give myself a fresh start. I was sad that she was going to die, but I understood her position. After all, I had lost my family too.

6 comments:

m said...

i don't think i've ever dreamed in character. i remember talking to a friend of my mine who is super artsy and she would always dream in various characters. she would be a male, a female, a child, an animal... sometimes switching characters mid dream. and that always amazed me.

strovska said...

wow! that's like a depressing foreign movie from some obscure country like macedonia. i really want to hear about the other improbable details.

Thee Hidden One said...

I wonder if you feel like you are losing anything in your life? I think I would need more details to say more.

CëRïSë said...

Ha--depressing foreign movie: brilliant. Was there a sense of impending doom throughout the dream (you REALLY knew it was too good to be true)? Maybe you're subconsciously aware that your idyllic life in beautiful Branson will someday have to draw to a close.

Leah said...

If the dream was about my idyllic life in Branson, it would have been a three ring circus, girls-gone-wild kind of dream.

Looking back, it's one of the most detailed and bizarre dreams I've had in a long time.

Leah said...

Oh, Strovska. Here is another ludicrous detail: The hotel had a beautiful wrap-around deck that overlooked the lake. The railing of the deck was apparently supposed to have a rounded metal exterior, sort of like half of a large copper pipe. But my friend's wife had decided to substitute down comforters, and had attached a row of them to the railing. They would billow and wave in the lake breezes. I remember wondering if they got nasty when it rained.