Two Old Friends

Whom I had not seen in decades appeared, in separate dreams, last night.

In the first, David stayed at my home for a couple of days.  He was effusive in his expression of affection for me throughout the visit, and I returned the emotion.  It was as if we both knew that this would be our last encounter.

David's brother showed up unexpectedly.  He led us in a Native American-inspired ritual that involved the burning of a small circle of grass in a clearing in a wood.  This was somehow connected with the friendship.  We stayed up very late that evening.  When David woke me at 10AM the following day, I was very groggy.  He announced then that he was leaving, immediately and without forewarning, for Atlanta.  I offered to walk him to his car, and he was gone.

In the second, Barbara and I were on a city bus, at night.  One of the other passengers, a scruffy middle-aged man, began to go off the deep end.  The driver stopped the bus and everyone except for me and Barbara, including the driver and "Mr. Berserk," fled on foot.  But a little while later Mr. Berserk reappeared, a few blocks away, holding a big bazooka.  He took aim several times at me and Barbara and the bus.  He nearly hit us, and his aim was getting better.  Barbara got behind the wheel, slammed the door shut with its remote handle, and drove us backwards at some speed through the city streets until we were well out of sight.

Then we disembarked and tried to blend into the knots of people in the neighborhood.  As we walked, Barbara began to talk about her husband, whom I knew back in the day, but in exceedingly cryptic fashion.  I said "Let me try to paraphrase what you just said about your marriage," and I did, very accurately according to Barbara.  This was intriguing, and I wanted to carry on exploring this theme, but she disappeared into the lobby of a building and was gone, for good.