A Dream House

Halfway through high school we moved into a large old house that utterly captured my imagination.  It had beautiful woodwork throughout, a grand staircase, some stained glass windows, and a massive attic that could have accommodated a number of rooms if so divided.  I say it “captured my imagination” because I’ve had recurring dreams about moving into a large old house and exploring it since that time.

In fact, I had just such a dream last night.  We were moving back to the town I grew up in and found a large old house near the town square.  Like the house mentioned above it had two stories with a large attic.  The porch was wide and long with pillars supporting its roof.  Inside the front door was a massive foyer that was almost three stories tall.  In most dreams like this over the years  it has been my parents buying the house, but in this one it was me and my children exploring it with my parents in tow.

As they explored the house I went around back and found a large yard with huge mature trees and beautiful landscaping that was contiguous with a town park on the one side and a parking lot on the other.  I remember thinking how very cool it was that there was no real separation between the park and my yard which gave the illusion of a magnificent green expanse that was all my own.  While I was taking this all in some movement above me caught my eye and I looked up to discover there was a glass-enclosed bridge connecting the attic to a large building at the back of the property on the alley.  My Dad was stepping into the tunnel-bridge to follow my kids and they were waving for me to come up to see it with them.

The building on the alley turned out to be an old movie theater that had been repurposed and still had evidence of a ticket booth incorporated into the back corner.  The large window had a small round hole at the bottom where the money and tickets would be exchanged and there was a covered walkway that led from the booth along the building to a side entrance.  There were some designs and stylized letters on the brick along the walkway but the paint was faded and pealing so they could no longer be deciphered.  In a point of detail from the dream I noticed that insulating foam had been sprayed into some of the bigger gaps between the bricks that had shifted with age.  

Inside the building were old style architectural elements and a massive main room that used to be the theater proper with towering side walls covered by bookshelves that reached to the full height of the room.  Persian rugs covered the wide floor boards and old-fashioned chairs and sofas with rounded backs and armrests were situated around the room, some facing the stage and others facing each other.

I heard Anya’s voice coming from somewhere in the back and found her in a large tiled bathroom with an old wooden door that opened to the back alleyway.  I swung it open to discover there was a wooden deck with a  large dumpster sitting at the end of it at the corner of the building filled with junk and rainwater.  Anya, Elias, and I walked to the end of the deck where it was even with the top of the dumpster.  I noticed something disturbing floating on the far side of the dumpster amongst the trash.  It appeared to be wrapped in clear plastic which I noticed extended to our side of the dumpster.  Out of curiosity I pushed down on the part closest to me with my foot which resulted in the opposite side coming up out of the water to reveal a pale face.  I realized it was a dead body that had been dumped in the dumpster.  I made a mental note to call the local police to report it while nonchalantly shewing my kids back into the building.  “Nothing to see here, kids.”

No one was harmed in the making of this dream and I wish all but the last part were true.

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