This is a slightly different type of post than I would usually make, but I felt like putting it down, even if only so that I remember it years down the line. 

I don’t usually dream. Or rather, I most likely DO dream, but very rarely remember what I dream about. Most times I just wake up completely unaware of whatever thoughts have filtered across my subconscious during the night – probably just as well since I think it’s more restful that way. (and no, I’m not counting that one morning I woke up after dreaming all night of fighting off zombies – I really shouldn’t have played “Left 4 Dead” into the wee hours of the morning that time…)

This morning though, I woke up promptly at 8AM, wide awake and completely aware of a dream that I had just experienced. It wasn’t scary, though it startled me at one point, but what surprised me was just how vivid my memory of it was. As I lay in bed I realised though that my memory of the dream was already fading and so I got and sat down in front of my laptop and started typing out everything below. I’m glad I did because I could literally feel the details of the dream getting foggier as I typed, but I think I got everything.

**************************************************
I don’t know how we got there, but S and I were in a forest, it must have been in the autumn as there were trees with golden leaves everywhere – beautiful crisp fall season. I have no idea what country it was. We suddenly came upon an old wooden house, decrepit, in the gradual stages of falling down because of neglect. No one had obviously lived there for ages. Together we walked into the yard area, where I stopped and commented something like “I’ve never seen a place that looked more like a haunted house”. I had my little yellow xacti camera and stayed outside taking pictures while S decided to go inside. I joined her after a few moments and as she went to look around upstairs I continued to take pictures downstairs.

The overall atmosphere inside wasn’t too dark as the house was so run down that sunlight filtered through the holes in the roof. Suddenly, I nearly jumped out of my skin because I noticed movement in the shadows several feet ahead of me. A short man, wearing grungy clothes, face all scrunched up in a fierce scowl, stepped out of the dark and had started slowy shuffling towards me. The odd thing was he didn’t seem to be looking at me. His gaze was focused off in the distance, as if he was looking right through me and not paying any attention to me at all.

I was nonetheless freaked out and started yelling for S, telling her to get downstairs because there I didn’t know if there were more people upstairs that we weren’t aware of. I heard her start to come down while I began backing away, not wanting to get too close to the guy. I walked backwards, never taking my eyes off of him but he never once looked at me. As I backed out the gate, I turned off to the side, still walking backwards and the man kept going in a straight line past me.

He reached an old tree and started climbing up it. It was an old tree, and unlike most of the others in that it didn’t have any golden leaves, making it easy to follow his progress. When he reached the crook of the branches he paused, looking ahead of him into the forest. After a moment, he retrieved an old wooden bucket from somewhere up there and dipped it into the hollows of the branches the same way one would dunk a cup into a sink to scoop up water. After pulling it back up, he carefully made his way down the tree and proceeded to pour out the liquid onto the ground. Instead of just the bucketful of water that one would expect, the amount of liquid he was pouring out never stopped, and in moments he had poured enough water to form a small river that snaked off past the clearing and further into the forest. It was still a peaceful late sunny afternoon day by the way.

When he finished pouring, he stepped back into the house gates and for a moment was out of view. Not wanting to lose sight of him, I started to take a step forward but immediately stopped as I saw the hull of a small boat coming out the gate. The boat wasn’t too big, about as large around as a raft but about as deep as a rowboat. The boat was pushed into the stream/small river that had just been created from the contents of the bucket and the little man stepped onboard as it started to move downstream.

At this point S also came out the gate, eyes wide and questioning as she noticed the man on his boat floating away. I briefly explained what had happened and together we started to follow the boat, running along the stream and trying to keep the boat in sight. After a few moments though, we had to stop as something (I think rocks and fallen trees) blocked our path and we couldn’t go ahead any further.

I suddenly remembered that I had my camera and, telling S to wait, tried to get closer to the edge of the river by jumping from stone to stone. I powered on my camera and started filming even though the man and boat were already pulling away. I was close enough to see that the boat was passing a little dock of some sort. There were several young men (late teens/early twenties) lounging around on it and were obviously startled and taken aback when the man on the boat passed by. He passed them and faded off into the distance.

I carefully made my way back to S and together we thoughtfully headed back to… what I think was the old house again. Though now my memory of the next place we found ourselves at was of a nicer, much less decrepit structure. It was a brightly lit room, I think on the second floor. S left the room to look around and I started fiddling with my camera to take more pictures when suddenly another person walked in. A woman this time, possibly partly Asian but more western looking in terms of facial features and also dark blond in a Shibuya girl kind of way, she seemed familiar though I couldn’t place her. Looking pensive, she gazed at me and moved towards the open window in the room. And I woke up.
**************************************************

And that’s that! I actually crawled back into bed after typing it out and dozed off for another hour or so and I know that had I not written it down I would have forgotten everything by now. Since this is pretty rare for me, to actually remember a dream, I thought I’d put it up 🙂