This lunch break is brought to you by: Lori’s overactive imagination.
I have weird dreams. All the time. I know everyone dreams a lot, every night, but not everyone remembers their dreams. I don’t remember all of mine, but I always remember at least one every night. And it’s always in great detail. So much so that I have a hard time remembering whether things were dreams or reality….they’re not always so weird that they couldn’t be true. They’ve also left me with quite the active deja-vu.
Last night’s dream has stuck with me….even now, I can remember even some of the smallest details. Lets say, for example, the china patterns on the plates, or the brand name of the garbage in the yard….the little things I looked passed in the dream I see clearly now. Maybe it’ll make more sense if I just explain it all.
It was a dull, rainy day. Chris and I were walking to visit my grandmothers, who lived together in a small, rundown-looking cottage in a residential area. Not a busy area, but there were some other houses close by. My dream never mentioned just WHY my Nana & Grammy were living together in this house, just that they were indeed living there.
It was a cute little house, but very overgrown and dirty. The windows were smudged inside and out with dirt. Vines and weeds had grown up all sides of the house, so that you could barely tell it was a log cabin-type of home. There was an orange, ornamental pattern that lined the top of the house, just before the roof, and yellowed curtains in the square framed windows. The left side of the house was totally encompassed in bushes. I couldn’t see past the front door (which was closer to the left side of the home). On the right side of the house was a small sunroom. Maybe 10’x15′ in size. It had a circular window that faced the street, and another matching one on east side. There was a bench in front of the house between the front door and the sun room. A large, bare tree sat in the middle of the front yard, almost covering the front of the house (had it been in bloom).
Chris and I walked up the front path (lined with small, but out of control bushes) around to the side of the house. We didn’t bother using the front door. Chris seemed nervous about the whole thing. At the side of the house grew more large bushes. Mostly green, but looking rusty in patches. A small, black metal fence lined the yard. The entire back yard was littered in trash. Old gas cans, WD40 containers, even an old, rusted, obviously broken lawn mower. Scattered between all the garbage, were old, rusty car parts, decomposing food & a rusted out swing set.
We pushed our way through the side gate and through the trash in the back yard and made our way into the sunroom. Both Grammy & Nana were sitting there. As soon as I opened the door into the sun room I was automatically forced backwards by some unseen force. I knew immediately that the house was haunted and that my Grandmothers were being trapped there. I was suddenly the center of attention to these spirits and they knew I could hear them. They all began yelling at me and trying to get my attention. No one else seemed to notice them at all. My cousin David was there. He was helping Grammy get dressed so we could all go out on a walk…we needed to get them out of the house. He even helped her put on make up…it looked terrible..but it WAS her favourite colour…purple.
Nana was desperately trying to push her wheelchair through the very small kitchen off the back of the sunroom….I could see the spirits around her pushing her back & away from the front room, but no one else could. Nana blamed her stubborn chair. When she finally made it into the kitchen she placed more dirty dishes on top of the every-growing pile of plates on the counter. Pale yellow plates with an orange/brown floral pattern around the outside. Even though they were used they still sparkled brightly on the counter top. She couldn’t turn around in the kitchen (in her wheel chair) so she backed out slowly and came back to meet us in the sun room.
I never got to go through-out the rest of the house, but something told me I didn’t want to…actually not so much some”thing” but someone. The spirits were angry that I was there and didn’t want me to take my Grandmothers away from them. But I did. As fast as I possibly could. Chris grabbed Nana’s wheel chair and I grabbed Grammy’s hand, and as calmly as we could (so not to freak them out) we left the house. As soon as we stepped outside the big tree in the back yard started to bloom with bright pink flowers. The grass grew over the trash and soon the backyard was a vibrant green. Grammy gasped in amazement. We followed the path to the front of the house, and the large, bare tree in the front yard bloomed as well.
We walked away from that house…far, far away. Neither Grammy or Nana complained about the distance. The further we walked the quieter the spirits became. They weren’t yelling at me anymore, but some were still whispering. They were either so loud I couldn’t make them out, or whispering too quietly. I felt very sad for them. They didn’t want to harm Nana or Grammy, but they really were upset that we took them. We didn’t stop walking until we got back to my parents house….which was very far away. There was no concept of time, but I know we walked far.
Once at my parents house, we kissed them goodbye and I grabbed Chris’ hand and we walked away.
I woke up when we reached the end of the street.
The thing that stuck with me the most was the house itself. It was so real.
So much so in fact, that I sketched it out….maybe one day I’ll see it for myself…for real. Then again, maybe not. There was nothing surreal about it. It all seemed very normal…even the spirits didn’t freak me out. They just worried me because they wouldn’t calm down enough to let me listen.
Needless to say, I woke up extremely tired this morning. This dream absolutely exhausted me. I felt completely drained.
The front of the house
Side view of the house
~Lori Hobin~ 