Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Having my parents over for Christmas

I dreamed that we invited my parents to come to our house for Christmas, and they showed up really, really early. Like this month. We were not even prepared and didn't expect them to be here yet. In fact, when I answered the door I wasn't even dressed--I just had a sheet wrapped around me. I scrambled around trying to find clothes and ended up wearing an odd assortment of bras, aprons, and sundresses, and then let in my family. There were a ton of people. All of my siblings and in-laws and nieces and nephews and people I didn't even recognize were there, including several babies, and I wasn't sure where I was going to put them all or how I was going to afford to feed them.

We decided we should set up some extra card tables. I remembered that there were some card tables in the garage, so I went out to get them. I went down the hallway to the girls' room and went out the door, and there was another bedroom that I didn't know about it! It had a crib and a nice bed with a quilt, and I thought I could put some of the extra people in there. Then I went through the next door and I was in another room. This one was huge with lots of giant TVs on the wall, and they were all turned on. I thought to myself, "Well, now I know why the electric bill is always so high!" The room was decorated for Christmas, with several Christmas trees, and tables decorated with tree-shaped glass candy dishes, and red tablecloths and doilies, and large pillar candles. I grabbed as much stuff as I could to take back with me.

When I was back in the hall, an old man met me and told me not to go out to the garage. I don't know who he was or why I couldn't go there, but I shrugged my shoulders and headed back to the livingroom.

After we got everything set up, I asked my parents if they wanted a tour of the house. Mom said no, but Dad said sure. So I showed him around and discovered that our house was even bigger than I had realized. We had a big library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and thirty leather armchairs, and a planetarium, and a great marble hallway that led to the front door. Outside, I showed him the stables and the servant's quarters and the big stone front gate.

But once we were in town, I realized that everyone else in town lived in these horrible slums. There was this awful apartment complex with drippy, black walls, and naked and dirty children lived in it with sad eyes. I felt terrible that I lived in such a mansion while they lived in poverty. Then someone told me that I owned the apartments, too, and that I was a slum lord. I felt awful about it. Then I woke up.

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