Red Bird, Dead Ground

I was in a field, but it was also just outside a low building. There was a professor there (Rhys Ifans), and we were talking. I think my family might have been there as well, but I am not sure. In the middle distance there was a ditch. Everything was in shades of pale yellow and brown - like dried ditch grass in the fall.

A small bird/butterfly settled on the back of my shoulder. It spread large red rings across my back. It was a rich, bright red. I remember thinking that this was rare and special. The little bird climbed along my arm and settled in the palm of my hand, fanning its large red wings gently. The bird's body was very small, like a hummingbird's almost, except it had a large hooked beak that was white and black. I was admiring the bird's feathers, which were red but also flashed orange and sometimes had a pattern on them, sometimes they were just tipped in another shade of the same spectrum.

The bird flew away, but returned repeatedly as I walked about. The professor saw this and asked if he could have the bird, because they were very rare and he had thought they had left the area all together. The bird settled on my back, wings outstretched like it was trying to flatten itself against my back. The professor did not ask again, and I did not give him the bird.

This sequence repeated itself - the bird would alight on my shoulder and fan its wings, crawl along my neck or back and settle into the crook of my neck or perch on my shoulder, then perch on my shoulder, or crawl along my arm to my hand, where I would let it sit in my palm and look at me. At one point it was pecking at my palm as if to to look to food.

***

Just on from this dried yellow field there were slot machines set in rows under the pale sun. To the right of them was a series of black, gothic, dead plants in black and white. There was a black iron fence, encrusted with dead flower vines. It was like an Edward Gorey setting, or something from the Addams Family.  There was a girl there, in a black dress, with black hair, and she was depressed and angry. People she'd known had died and were buried and it was her fault and she couldn't fix it. I told her that she could if she was willing to talk to the dead. She walked over to the cornfields and started talking to them, saying she was sorry. From the grey and black stalks, a bright green and gold tendril grew up and out of the ground, shining. The girl started crying, and apologized, and a brilliant green vine erupted from the field.  I put my hand on the dead, gray ground, and said, "You see? She is sorry - Can you feel it?" The ground rolled under me like a wave, and the moss turned green and a nearby plant started sprouting light purple flowers. There was a great sense of joyful reconciliation as the earth sprang to life under my hands, and the girl in the black dress was laughing and crying as people appeared around her, hugging her.

***


There was a middle bit to this dream - which involved much more action. I want to say there was a need to escape or solve something, but I cannot remember it.

Neck boils & Doctor Who

Pretty straightforward to start:

I was in a room with slanted walls - like a futuristic apartment I guess. I had boils on my neck - on the back. When I looked at my shoulder, somehow I could see my neck and saw that there was this giant boil/ strange sore there that resembled a wilted red rose in color. It was swollen and growing out of the side of my neck, and I was panicking.


Then the dream went crazy:

Doctor Who (Matt Smith) and Amy Pond were suddenly there. All I wanted to do was get to a doctor to have my neck looked at, but I kept getting dragged into peripheral adventures. At one point Amy had put copies of herself into a giant wind-up doll, a robot, and a battle tank - all so she could fight an evil version of herself. It made no sense.

Then there was a river with goats jumping up the sides of buildings. An old gypsy clan joined them, jumping up the buildings, then jumping into the water in some sort of ceremony.

There was an elephant?

And none of the surfaces felt even - everything was either uphill or downhill or sideways. Nothing was level.

I kept noticing my neck boils/sores were still there, and I was still worried. But every time I tried to find a doctor, the Doctor kept sort of pulling back into the nonsense narrative. There were more toys, and firefights, and circus-y mumbo jumbo. I really don't remember.


****


I woke up annoyed.

I've been dealing with a rash on the back of my neck for a couple of weeks now. I have medicine, but it doesn't seem to be doing much. I think that my frustration at having a rash on a part of me that I can't see, but only feel, is why in my dream my subconscious made it much uglier and scarier looking than it is. It's a manifestation of my worry. Gross.

Adams

This was a puzzling dream, remembered in bits:

I was in a poor-looking warehouse - small, full of shelves. It was a refrigerator unit, and I kept wanting to grab all the cupcakes. They were homemade by the woman who owned the restaurant nearby. But every sample I took the cupcake was cold and a little stale. So I kept going back. There were boxes of food and supplies. It was all dimly lit, and there were stairs and door everywhere. There were also people, but I didn't recognize any of them. They were friendly, though they looked poor. They had a little girl with them who I agreed to babysit, along with my nephew.

****


Then we were at a hotel. In the lobby, though I had a few rooms reserved. I was sitting at a table with the character Adam (from the HBO series "Girls") and we were talking about absolutely nothing. I remember wondering why I was sitting with him when I didn't really like him. Then, another guy I knew in high school showed up, who is also called Adam, and he was mildly jealous that I was drinking coffee with this new Adam. So they started trying to make me laugh - except neither of them knew anything about me, and thus I was not laughing. I kept asking myself why I was sitting there with these two guys, when their affection for me was clearly above the level of affection I had for them. They then went off to argue about me, and I stayed there.

At one point, I checked on my nephew and the little girl. She had glowing blond hair - she was absolutely beautiful. "Do you know what kissing is?" She asked my nephew while they were stacking toys. "Yes," my nephew replied, and they gave each other a quick kiss.  They then seemed to grow much older in front of me, and she asked him if he knew what French kissing was. They then kissed more passionately, and when they stopped they were little kids again, watching television. I told them it was time for bed, and they fell asleep under the covers. It was really adorable how perfect they both looked.

When it was time for us to go, the concierge came to me and said the two Adams were arguing about who could throw a coat over a puddle for me to walk across. I rolled my eyes and tried to leave.

****

I was in a car, on a highway. The highway turned into dark country road, and then to a dirt road. I realized I was lost when I hit this farm. The farmers had an enormous boar and some wolves as pets. I turned around and started driving back. That was when I realized I left the children in the hotel room, and panicked.  I saw in my mind's eye the map of the area, and where I needed to go. I peeled away.

****

I don't know how this dream ended. I think I got the children back to where they needed to go. I think the HBO Adam eventually "bettered" high school Adam.  It was odd that my subconscious put them in the dream - I had a prickly/friendly relationship with HS Adam, and I don't like the Adam character from HBO very much either. But it is interesting that they both had the same name.