"Look Him Up"

Dreams are not something that I like writing about. Every time I have put a dream to paper it turns into something other than the dream itself. Perhaps the subconscious at work. I have been dream deficient for the last several years; at least that I can recall. Recently my sleep habits have improved and the dreams have reappeared. I use the word "reappeared" literally; there is one dream that has been reoccurring. I first dreamt this scenario about five years ago. And now, several times in the last two months.

The first time this particular dream crept into my slumber I assumed I had been watching too much Law & Order and CSI. Now, it might be too much Ghost Whisperer or Medium. There is a belief that if you talk about and analyze a recurring dream, you will resolve the sub-conscious thoughts that produce the dream; and hence, the dream ceases. Therefore, I am going to share.

I am invited into a cozy kitchen. It is warm and colorful, but ever so small. Seated at the table are Mother, Father and brother Bob; all of whom died within a ten year period. My first reaction is that I have been called there because it is my "time." They are quick to dispose of that belief. "No", my Father says, "but there is someone very close to us that is presumed dead and is not." I am never actually told the name of the person "close to us."

"They haven't crossed over," I ask? "No, they haven't died. They are in the witness protection program and living in Georgia." Really? Georgia? "But, he will die soon."

I wasn't at the funeral. Perhaps that is why I dream that this relative (actually there are two possibilities) is still alive. My brother continues in the dream, "we have been looking for him since we got here and no one could tell us where he was; we thought perhaps he didn't make it here." Mother chimes in, "I finally went to the front desk and demanded to know where he was and they told me he wasn't due to check in yet."

Leave it to my mother to seek out someone "in charge" and "demand" answers. My father smiles with that familiar grin that always resulted from mother's aggressiveness. Bob rolls his eyes. "It's probably safe to seek him out now. The 'mobsters' are mostly dead now." If it was safe, wouldn't he seek us, the living relatives, out?

We all shrug our shoulders. "Look him up" my brother says. And they hug me and leave me sitting at that kitchen table.

Look him up? Which "him" am I looking up? Georgia? Really? Don't you think "they" need to give me a little more information? Perhaps this evening.