Christmas house
I'm in a restaurant by myself, sitting in the waiting area.
I see a guy named Dillan that I'd gone to high school with,
only now he has red dreadlocks, a lot of piercings, and a big smile.
We get to talking and he invites me to join him downstairs
where he's having dinner with some other people.
We go down the stairs and sit at a rectangular wooden table.
It's dark in the room, which is dimly lit by candles along the middle of the table.
He says he's just broken up with Carley.
Ed K.(an old friend's older brother) joins us.
He has a beard, is wearing a top has, and sits to my right.
At the table with us is a Spanish family of four-
a quietly stern man with glasses and a moustache, who wears a cheap suit,
a bawdy, buxom brunette in a low cut black satin dress,
a boy about nine years old, and a sleeping baby.
We all talk for a while, then I leave to find the washroom.
On the way, I walk outside onto a patio.
At a single table near to a swinging white gate there sits a crazy older woman
wearing a fancy old fashioned grey dress with a bustle.
She's bone thin, with long, gaunt cheeks
and hollow, scattered eyes that shift all around constantly.
Her makeup is drag queen thick.
She begins to throw a tantrum about the temperature of her tea, and flings her teacup at me.
I grab a gauzy shawl that is lying in her lap,
flipping it upwards so that it billows over her, like a shroud.
I go back inside and rejoin the others.
I sip my wine, then look across the table at the Spanish woman, who is making odd faces.
Suddenly, she flips up her dress to reveal a giant silver vibrator
(five feet high and about a foot thick) that she's riding as if it's a small horse.
I'm somewhat shocked, but say calmly
"I have one like that, it's just smaller..."
She smiles and laughs, pulling another one from her purse and setting it on the table.
Its top curls around, like a fiddle-head.
Dillan looks embarrassed and asks if I want to leave, so we do.
We take the bus to the house he lives in, which is absolutely immense.
Hundreds of interesting people live there. We walk around the different floors,
(a number of escalators are set up between some of the floors)
looking in the different rooms, meeting some of the people that live there, etc.
In one area, there's a big movie screen underneath a round, stained glass mandella.
I sit down and watch a number of movies
(the three little pigs gone wrong, black and white silent movies, etc.)
At one point I pause it, then restart it to see if it's over.
'The End' is written in fancy gothic script.
We walk around some more.
In one room I find Gary, Luigi, Gregory, and Paul watching T.V.
Paul says that he came to meet me.
We go off with Dillan to meet the guy who holds the lease.
He's a happy, stocky, tattooed fellow with glasses and a nearly shorn head.
We get into numerous discussions about everything from the 80's to doing ecstasy.
I ask him about rent (which is cheap) and if they throw a lot of parties.
"I know what you mean" he says; meaning that they throw cover parties to pay rent.
We walk through a big, glassed in mud room, where a lot of people are coming in from outside,
where it's snowing big, soft flakes.
A few of the people have labret and septum piercings
that look amusing under the snow/frost on their faces.
Everyone's friendly and laughing; having a really good time.
Paul and I realize that we should be heading home.
Dillan says he'll take us down.
On the escalator, I struggle for lucidity,
thinking that it's weird for even a REALLY big house to have escalators.
Somehow, though, my mind concludes that the people that built the house
must have had problems walking.
I suggest painting the sides of the escalator to create an optical illusion.
(Paul says the specific word for this, but I can't remember now)
On the way out, we must pass all the Christmas trees in the house,
and take something from each one.
Everyone in the house has set up their own tree,
each decorated in a unique way, with different sorts of candy on or beneath it.
There's a bucket of lollypops, giant chocolate bars, cookies, gumdrops, etc.
My favorite is a small chocolate angel with a silver halo and a white chocolate dress, kneeling.
One tree has pale eggs beneath it, each containing an ornate paper mask.
Mine is black and very intricate, and I put it on as we're leaving.
We're invited to come back whenever we like.
We thank everyone and leave.
[the dream fades and I find myself thinking "so THIS is what it's like to wake up"]