A Most Peculiar Dream

Let me preface this by saying that I rarely remember my dreams these days, but this one ended in a most vivid and frightening fashion. I’ve recorded it here primarily for my own use.

I was in a building, teeming with children. I had the impression that it was some sort of summer youth program sponsored by the owners of the building. I had come to check it out and possibly to volunteer there.

I arrived by walking down the hill from my house to a secluded, park-like area which clearly doesn’t exist in downtown Tacoma. It was a sunny day, with fluffy white clouds. I had the impression that I was unemployed or on leave.

The building itself was brick, a sprawling structure that had obviously been re-purposed from its original use. It was open and airy inside, though on the outside it looked like one of those old schools or institutional buildings of the design so popular in this country in the early part of the 1900s.

The children ranged in ages from grade school through high school, though the older ones appeared to be counselors or such, running herd on groups of the younger kids. It was boisterous and noisy, almost as if I had arrived just as everybody was going from one class or activity to another.

My daughter Victoria was there with a group of other twenty-somethings. They were seated, some on the floor some on wingback chairs, around a low table in front of a very large unlit fireplace. She appeared to be giving a report to the group and she was sinking back into her chair lower and lower as she gave it. One of the others called her on it, and she laughed and sat back up straight and cracked some joke I couldn’t hear.

As the place slowly cleared out, I wandered into a small gift shop. It was closed, but I remember looking at sky-blue t-shirts through a glass counter.

I found a quiet room where people were reading on chairs and couches, and there I ran into the men responsible for running the place. Two were younger – maybe in their early 30s – while the older gentleman was bald and had a long grey beard. They appeared to have met by chance in a curtained doorway. I think it led to a corridor with offices. They were conversing about the facility, and I had the impression that the older gentleman was a visitor. I waited for them to finish their conversation.

The three men were all wearing religious habits, but I am unfamiliar with the type. There was a white cotton (ish) tunic, belted with a black leather belt. Over this was a gray woolen scapular. The scapular was kind of odd. It almost looked like it was felted and very thick, with no discernable hem. It wasn’t rough-looking at all, either, although the cloth had a definite texture. In colour it was a cool, almost slate grey.

One of the younger gentlemen sent me to find “Sandra”, who was apparently the person in charge of wrangling the volunteers. I found her outside in a wide grassy area between the main building and some brick outbuildings. These were variously used for activity spaces and storage.

She was tall, somewhat wider than average, and had short but stylish blonde hair. She was wearing a white windbreaker, and she was clearly in charge.

She and any number of other people were carrying cases of water bottles from one of the outbuildings to a growing stack in a copse of trees near the front of the main building. I joined their efforts, but was told to stay with a group and not go out on my own.

At some point in this procedure, the whole area was overrun with kids and their counselors again. Apparently it was time to change classes again.

As this petered off, I was distracted by a group of young boys who had gotten into a scuffle. I broke them up and continued heading back to the outbuilding, when I suddenly realized that the distraction had separated me from the other water-carriers.

And then, I saw a wildcat galloping down the grass field towards me. He looked rather like a giant tabby. He was charging at me in a long, arcing path moving at ludicrous speed. I had just the time to panic and turn my back as he pounced and I felt his teeth on my neck… and I woke up in panic.

I have been unable this morning to find which Order the religious might have belonged to.