Dreaming 101: Gloria and Robert

Among the yet-uncounted overlappings that Gloria and Robert held in common were vivid dreams.  Not that they occurred each night yet were present often enough and for enough years that each of them was never unaware that what they dreamed was as specific and detailed as a topographical map.  Instead of elevations and land forms,  they were shown the contents of drawers down to the shortest pencil stub.  Ink colors on the 80-percent-used book of matches from a once favored club in San Francisco were bright and true, the phone number with word prefix legible.  In dreaming conversations secrets were revealed in a way that didn’t alarm or even surprise but explained the why of what had been a mystery.  As participants and on-lookers, each was aware of the fabric print and weave, the cut and fit of a garment, along with the radiating warmth of the companion who wore it.  They had not spoken of this simply because they had not yet gotten around to it, or perhaps because they already knew.

In the past Gloria kept a dream journal, as did Robert, where they recorded as fast as they could write the details of each forest and pond, suitcase and hotel front desk, take-out food order and bird’s-eye view of an Asian river, every word spoken or thought.  Each hoped preserving the minutae of these unconscious excursions, however baffling they were as first experienced,  would grow the collection of tools needed during waking hours.  They wished to know themselves.  Even more, they wished to see behind the veil.  In their once distant and separated lives, they both half-suspected they might have simply been making it all up.