Dream Bus
Do dreams affect our sleep quality? I’ve been given the impression that they are two separate things. But I can’t be sure. Sometimes I get really vivid dreams, or dreams that stick with me long after I wake up. I’m not sure why some dreams are more easily remembered than others. My theory is that the dreams I remember are the ones where my brain is trying to send me a message or sign of some sort. I just assume the ones I don’t remember are because they are either too scary for my brain to handle, or they just weren’t that important to use up what little mental bandwidth I have left.
The dream I had last night was especially bizarre, though I guess if I were to benchmark it against some of the ones I’ve had in the past, it isn’t really all that special. I wonder though, if it’s my unconscious brain telling me to do something. Anyways, on the dream itself.
Like many of my dreams, this one took place in a slice of life setting; I was at home preparing breakfast or lunch, when I hear a loud noise from outside. I open the window curtain and see a giant tour bus that has parked outside the walkway beside my house. Knowing that there really isn’t much to see or do in our quiet suburb, I assume that they are here to check out the park, as mundane as it seems to me. Sometimes we take the things we are used to for granted, you know? Being the curmudgeonly old man at heart that I am, I grumble about lame tourists making noise and ruining the peace, shortly before I get back to chopping veggies. After some indeterminable amount of time, I take the garbage out. As I walk back into the house, I get distracted by my parents asking me something. I forgot that I left the door wide open, so I look back to try and close it. When I look at the screen door, I notice that it’s been opened, and there is a stranger in a yellow jacket and black hat trying to get into our house.
Unfortunately for me, I am not fast enough to close it on him, and he tries to keep the door open. I have to physically push him away from the door, but he tries to stick his head in, which I subsequently also push through the door before finally closing the door. My immediate response was “what the fuck is going on?!” As I lock the door, I can still see him peering through the door and notice there’s a noticeable horde approaching our doorway. It looks as though they are all pouring out from the tour bus. At this point I still have no idea who these people are or what they want, so I do something that, thinking back on it, defies all worldly logic. I open the door!
I look at the strange man who just moments ago was shoved out of my homes threshold, and he looks back at me moon-faced. I ask him what he’s doing here, but he doesn’t quite seem to understand me. Not that odd given that he clearly looks like he’s from out of town. It’s at this point that an old high school friend of mine comes up from behind and greets me. To give some context, I haven’t physically seen this friend in over a decade, but I know he moved to Japan to teach English. Once the initial shock has subsided, I decide to ask him what’s going on and hope I can get a handle on the situation.
He tells me that the tour bus is taking a large group of Japanese tourists around our city, and it just so happens that the park behind our house is famous (who knew?). I ask him how that translates into a strange Japanese man trying to climb into my home, and he says that they probably though our house was some sort of heritage building and that it was supposed to be some sort of “display” of what houses from the 1970’s were like. Not entirely wrong, since there were no major renovations to our house since that time.
Oddly enough, as I am catching up with my friend and we are discussing how strange the whole situation is, I noticed that not only did the strange man manage to worm his way into our house, but a number of other tourists are now roaming around inside. Flabbergasted by this whole ordeal, I look around and count at least 15 strange tourists inside my house, one of which is turning on my tap and filling up one of our cups to drink water from. I immediately yell at them to get out of my house, and tell them that this is private property, not part of some tour or some exhibit. This only seems to work on some of them, which I attribute to the language barrier.
After a few minutes of this corralling, I notice more are getting in, so I half give up and decide to instead take time to reconnect with my long lost friend. It’s unfortunate that right as we are about to talk, my alarm goes off and I am immediately awakened. I’m not sure where that dream would have led, but I do feel like there was a reason I had this dream. Perhaps it was telling me that I need to do a better job reconnecting with people. It is something I feel I lack in, and I should really put more effort it. But like most dreamers, unless I get a message or lesson in a dream, I won’t act on it.