Slightly anxious, I was waiting at the airport for my wife. An old Thai lady was selling some trinkets at the entrance to a lounge where I was standing and I was trying my best to tell her that I wasn't interested whilst not taking out my frustrations on her. Had I really been that insensitive to my wife? She had been involved in a minor accident because she had been overworking at the office as usual and had fallen asleep on the way home. I always feared that that would happen one day and even though I know the non-financial costs of running a small business that is still in relatively infancy, she was more important to me than the success of her business. That sounded so unsupportive in hindsight, but it was true. Maybe I just hadn't phrased myself well and that was the last straw. I know that everything I had put her through was hard for her and I was glad and appreciative of her support. So, maybe this was the last straw and the resulting stupid, futile argument had broken her. My heart sank and I knew she wasn't coming on the flight with me and had withdrawn to somewhere else in the airport.
What the heck did I need a pincushion for?! As I ran in search of my wife, I began thinking the lady must have been a bit senile as I squeezed the cushion. An extended loud whistling sound came from the cushion, startling me. I squeezed it harder and faster and the whistle was louder and longer. This is what the old lady meant? Ok, so I wasn't lost at sea but perhaps such an odd noise would attract the attention of my wife as I began calling her name. Squeezing the cushion from the sides, there was no whistle as I expected but, instead, the top of the cushion shone brightly. It's a lantern as well? Wow, this is a pretty cool gadget. I admonished myself for thinking the lady was senile and made a mental note to thank her profusely when I got back.
I searched the airport thoroughly, making sure I went through every entrance and exit, even if they did lead to the same place, moving from area to area, inside to outside. At one point, I passed a couple of ladies talking by a few step like seats. On the bottom step was a soft toy, maybe 40cm high, that was some sort of strange cross between a panda and a kangaroo. It actually didn't look anything like either, but I knew that was just what it was. Whatever it was, it was cute and cuddly.
"Is this yours?", I asked the ladies. They looked at me annoyed as if I was at an international meeting of world leaders about to actually agree on world peace and I had interrupted and asked to go to the toilet. Shaking their heads, partly in a negative response and partly in condescension, they turned back to their conversation. I mumbled a thank you which they ignored.
This toy was so cute and I hugged it a bit longer, but it wasn't mine and I had to keep looking for my wife so I put it back down and resumed my search. Through corridors and lounges, lobbies and atriums, I ran looking, calling her name and squeezing the little, loud whistle. My path re-intersected with the seats where that soft toy was and I took it as a sign. Another lady was now sitting on the steps behind the toy. I reached for it, intent on taking it whether it belonged to me or not. I just had to have it.
"What do you think you're doing?", asked the lady in a stern yet friendly manner. "That's mine". I looked up to see her admonishing yet smiling face and then looked back down to see her dog retreating between her legs. Smiling, I patted the dog which it seemed to enjoy and apologised to the lady.
"Sorry, I was looking for something else", I said ashamedly, looking around. My eyes lit up as I saw the toy sitting on the bench next to the steps. I stood up and went over and cuddled it in my arms.
"That's cute", replied the lady smiling.
"Thanks", I replied as I once again ran off to resume my search, but this time with a new companion.
That's about when I realised I was dreaming. Suddenly, I was running through the airport with a couple of bags in hand and my teddy bear, Ching, had somehow appeared. He must have thought the panda/kangaroo cross was interesting and had decided to accompany me. Obviously, I had been shopping and in the bags were odd items to be buying at at airport. Towels? Porcelain plates? T-shirts? Ok, that last one might be understandable but the time skip combined with the silliness of the items had triggered my dream alert sensor. Having said that, I can see that one day I will be eating my words when I buy towels at an airport.
Rushing though the building crowds and fancy vip lounges, I wondered if my wife had managed to get inside one of the rooms that I was not allowed access to. Not that there was any privacy since it seemed they wanted everyone to see the modern technology and luxuriousness that they might be missing out on. Up ahead, I saw my brother in law and a couple of friends.
"I think we know where she is", he yelled out to me. He checked his watch and calculated how long it would be before check-in closed and how long it would take us to get back there.
"It's ok", interjected one my friends, reading his thoughts. "I think she already checked in."
But I haven't, I thought, I had been waiting for her. I did some mental calculations and realised this would be a race for me to check-in in time. I pushed my way to the crowds and ran up the escalator to try to catch up to my friends that were already crossing a walkway and had almost reached the other side. While doing so, I was glad my brother-in-law was still talking to me and wasn't being awkward any more.
I ran across the long walkway, past the fancy American Express vip lounge with it's modern white colour scheme and the gorgeous blond asking if I would like to come in. It was like a premier unveiling as translucently thin silky curtains began to life showing the insides of the lounge.
"I don't have time right now", I panted with a smile as I ran past. She smiled back ever so glowingly and I wondered if I had been entitled to enter or whether that was just a recruiting ploy. Whatever, it was a moot question now. I reached the escalators down and, even though there was space between the thinning crowd to run down, I knew what I had to do. Running towards the escalators, I jumped up and slid down the stainless steel plating that divided the two escalators. I rode it like a hero and a pro. Both James Bond and Tony Hawk would have been impressed. My friends were conversing with what looked a tall English butler and I began running towards them. Something was wrong and I realised that my hands and arms were empty. Spinning around in panic, I saw the bags, and, more importantly, Ching lying on the floor at the bottom of the escalators. I must have dropped them when I landed. Running back, I noticed the wood panelling on the walls in this room gave it a rather different feel to the rest of the airport.
My bags had fallen over and the contents had spilled out. They had also bumped into a shelf and a few items had fallen off the shelf and were intermingled with my items. I sorted through the items and began repacking my towels, porcelain plates and other miscellaneous items. I considered pretending that a glass and pewter decanter was also one of my items but then I realised it was actually a little ugly and, besides, it was chipped so I placed it back on the shelf where it belonged. In my arms I was now carrying three soft toys, or maybe more, and I thought about rearranging my bags so that this wasn't all so cumbersome.
Reaching the English butler, he pointed me towards a door that my friends had just run through and had just begun to start closing again. I hurried towards it, but reached it a fraction too late hearing it click shut before I could stop it. I looked for a handle or some other mechanism to open it, but to no avail. Suddenly, a wood panel on the adjacent wall in the corner began to open. Was I supposed to go through this one? I looked back at the butler and saw him walking away. He turned his head around and, deducing what had transpired, simply turned his head back and continued walking without breaking a stride. Well, this would be my only way then and I stepped through the secret doorway.
This is where my dream became silly. My bags and soft toys were no longer with me and I was wearing a white, plastic armour suit rather like a Storm Trooper in Star Wars. There were no gloves or helmet but I think the shoes matched. I had found myself in a curved corridor, walls covered in tiles and a concrete floor with a small semi-circular concave gutter to one side. It was your typical movie corridor, be it from a horror flick, the passage in some experimental concentration camp or maybe a group of rugby players were about to run out onto the field of glory. I slowly moved along with trepidation.
"Hello?", I shouted out a few times. "Anyone here?" It's the obvious line just before the victim sees the shadow of murderer ahead.
"What are you doing in here?", asked a matronly English voice. To the right there was what looked like an old fashioned fridge, but there was a gap separating the fridge and freezer in which I briefly saw a pair of eyes. I saw her move further down behind what resembled a serving counter. It was kind of like a serving counter, if you were 12 foot tall and were being served wafer thin chips on flat paper plates.
"I might have taken a wrong turn", I stammered feeling rather embarrassed. "I think someone may have opened the wrong door for me."
"Oh well", she replied nonchalantly. "I think you there's actually someone waiting for you outside."
I took a few more steps hurriedly down the corridor and saw that the tiles gave way to a full height glass curtain wall. Freshly fallen pure white snow layered the ground outside and covered the bottom 20cm of the glass. Standing outside under snowflakes drifting ever so gently to the earth was my brother-in-law, my friends and, most importantly, my wife. An immaculately dressed driver, complete with gloves and cap was holding the doors open to a vintage black limousine. I ran as fast as I could outside, still wearing this ridiculous storm trooper suit that severely hindered my ability to run. As the cold wind blasted across my face, I didn't notice it too much as I stumbled towards my wife. At least the boots worked at keeping me warm and I wondered why I didn't get the gloves because my hands were freezing. I did my best (or worst) Darth Vader impersonation as I stomped through the snow.
"Don't underestimate the power, of the dark side", I recited, even though I was wearing a white storm trooper outfit and not a black Darth Vader suit. Everyone laughed anyway as my wife and I fell into each others arms and we hugged for an eternity.
I woke up. At least it was a feel good ending to a ridiculous dream. I was lying on the couch, my head resting in my wife's lap and she was looking at the insurance report on her accident with a stressed look on her face.
"It's ok", I looked up at her reassuringly, "Don't worry about it. Everything will be ok. The important thing is that you're alright."
She smiled and put the paper down and hugged me. My shopping bags were at my feet and I leant over and took Ching out of one and walked him up to my wife. That always made her laugh. I reached down again and took out the panda-roo and walked that up.
"I have no idea what this is", I said. "But I thought it was cute and you might like it."
She smiled and cuddled it.
I woke up. What was that about?! That was a rather strange dream within a dream. I smiled at the thought of the weird dreams I have sometimes. At least everything was all right though; I love my wife and it would have been horrible if I had lost her in that dream. I looked forward to seeing her again. My thoughts paused. My heart sank. I really was awake and had just confused reality for yet another dream. I wasn't going to see her again. Everything was not going to be alright. I sighed, a long, deep, mournful sigh.
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