Cafe Hitch-hike

2020-12-06

One to sleep on

I had a dream that I was back in my old neighborhood on Hamilton NW. I was walking west towards the park where I had lots of outdoor fun as a kid, and everything was different. The buildings were gone and some workers were setting up portable tennis courts; I guess the neighborhood was hosting a big tournament (the region once hosted a famous one where thousands of people converged to play basketball in certain streets that were blocked off). Tennis? That was interesting, considering the area was home to many factories throughout the 20th century (and also had lots of bars that were open all the time for the late night workers).

I kept walking, and I noticed something else. All the streets had different names. I remembered their original names very well, but all the streets were not longer the ones they used to be: Forrest, Primrose, or Muscovee...

Then, I felt a whirl. I wasn't in the neighborhood anymore. I was with my sis Bre and bro Deebo, and some other younger relatives were with me; I think I saw Arielle, too. My pup Marley was with us. We were at a beach at dusk in California, and the weather was on the cool side. It reminded me of Stinson Beach with a little Venice Beach. We parked our car and then ran like hell to the to beach because we all were absolutely excited to be there! (We usually did the same as kids whenever we went to the lakes in the summer). Marley caught the vibe and ran along with us, with her little tongue hanging from her mouth as she happily sprinted with us. We all were happy and excited.

We walked by many street performers dressed as all kinds of things, and my siblings were eager to take pics with them. I whispered to my brother that since they were working, its nice to leave them at tip if we take our picture with them.

I woke up with a warm ache in my chest. Marley definitely caught my vibe and jumped on my chest; she was more affectionate than her usual morning puppy hugs. She absolutely loves Bre and Deebo, so she probably caught their presence like she did in the dream.

I laid and sat with the notion, and gradually strung together recent dreams of where I grew up. I thought of the one where I wandered in the old Hamilton NW neighborhood and encountered a elderly Black woman who wanted to show me her flowers and mostly handmade forget-me-not wares (it was beautiful yet slightly wistful). There was the one where I shot my stepfather in near the knee (the first time in my life that I ever had the notion of someone, anyone, defending and protecting us from him, since in the dream he had a gun and wanted to shoot me). Then, I'm back again but everything's different, and we ended up on the opposite edge of America and feeling bliss.

I've been wanting to lay so much about home to rest and for so long. I hope and pray these dreams are a little signal for that. On the last night he was alive, Charlie Murphy tweeted this and it's such a powerful message (I'll also take the last one misattributed to Lincoln but was deleted).

downwind | upstream