Mandy's Dream

The slanted tar driveway travels downhill to my home. Twilight shades it as I come home from the hospital.

 I was so grateful to be off duty, but now that I am walking down my driveway, I am unsure. Some strange woman from somewhere has met me on the tarmac to tell me Obama, President Obama, is staying at my house tonight! She is excited as she tells me of the honor but I cannot image what she is talking about.

I can hear Obama talking, but I am not sure where his voice is coming from. Maybe the TV.

I go into my house expecting to see Michelle, but there are people there I don't recognize.

Several strangers are doing dishes at my kitchen sink. And I realize I have not bought anything to fix for dinner for company. My refrigerator is old and stands on little legs with fat feet.

I am embarrassed about my crappy chipped fridge. 

 I just stand there not knowing what to do.

Some man, kind of cute, turns to me and explains I have been selected to house President Obama tonight because I am a nurse and the President wants to show his respect and support for poor people.

Suddenly I knew I was poor, except, I do own a house!

Oh, now I see. Part of my house has flooded and nobody fixed it! This must have happened while I was working in triage today.

What am I supposed to do?

I don't like Obama!

Out my window I see flowers in my backyard because now the sun is shining and I wonder if a new day has started. I still hear Obama's voice and I know he is campaigning.

I go back up my driveway and see the round holes in the paved driveway where I have planted new tiny trees.

I wish I could see the street not just the sidewalk, but I don't want to climb clear up to the sidewalk to see the street. I can see the tops of cars as they whiz by. It is nighttime and I don't think I will go back down to my house.

Waking up, I feel disturbed that I dreamed about that man I don't like!

“Am I poor?” I think.

Why did I dream about a frigidaire that was in my grandparent's home when I was a kid? A relic they didn't even use!

CrackerJack thanks you for your visit.

Crystal's Dream

The icy road leading to the hospital is treacherous and I cannot figure out why I let somebody else drive the train. I should be driving! I am a nurse.

Stepping out of the boxcar into the very small parking lot, I see a lot of thin white snow on the ground. This is desert, I think. Why all the snow?

Then I remember. Oh, this must be Kanab or Moab. I've taken a new job in a different hospital.

Inside the brown dingy lobby, I suddenly discover it is the polygamous community.

I am disturbed. This is my first day at work and I cannot figure out what time I am supposed to be here or even where I am to start! I can feel hot air blowing on me and the lobby is full of mingling people, a lot of them children. A smiling woman turns to me. “Oh, Crystal, we are having an unusual start today because Dean Ard died and it's his media coverage. We must all attend.” As she points to a partially opened door at the other end of the brown dingy lobby, I see bright yellow light shining forth and inside the room are flowers and pictures on a mantel above an alcove .

I enter the room at the same time as two little well-behaved kids, polygamous kids with their arms neatly folded, who immediately sit on padded folding chairs which are not at the oval table beautified with purple cloth and purple napkin rings and lavender napkins.

Where am I supposed to sit, I think. Who sits at the table? Feeling unsure and a bit confused, I go over to the piano/casket to look at the pictures of Dean Ard. I have heard his name before but am clueless who he is. I recognize him from his picture and wonder why they are honoring a city official from another town. I notice he is old. Sixty at least.

I turn and see Polly, another RN, is sitting on a couch. Ok. That's where I should sit. Polly says, “You know Rosemary”. And I see the polygamous nurse Rosemary I worked with several years ago.

“Do you remember me?” I ask. “Oh, yes!” Rosemary says with a grin. “We all remember YOU.”

I wonder if that is good or bad but since she is smiling I decide to pretend it is good.

I sit down on the couch beside the other two RN's and suddenly I remember I am a surgery nurse and need to go to Surgery! I leave the polygamists to have their funeral festivities and suddenly I am at the tiny Cocoa Cafe right beside the swinging doors to the Operating Room. I need to enter the O.R and since the O.R. is sterile I must “gown in” to enter and I hate gowning in. I decide to have a cup of hot cocoa but the little crowded cafe is busy with a crisis. A sleeping male patient on a gurney is there and awaiting surgery but nobody can figure out who he is. The confused all-male hospital team is trying to get his identity figured out. I am worried about that sleeping patient but since I have no clue who he is, the problem is not mine to solve.

“Get him out into the hallway!” I order the team. Nobody looks at me or responds

Nina Lyn's Dream

I don't like being in this truck. There is no house and the man driving is dangerous, an old dirt bag with no teeth who drives this truck onto an edge overlooking a lawn with no house.

I look at the panoramic view below and the brown jagged dirt of the cliff.

The three green bushes are arranged just right, not tall enough to screen the dining activities of the hospital people below in the yard of red picnic tables with their little matching yellow checkered table cloths fluttering in the wind but never flying away.

I can't go because I lost my purse and my badge was in it. The policy about badges only applies to me, so I can't go.

I'm afraid. Bone chilling fear. But I am determined. I think I can walk down that cliff.

I start walking/climbing down that cliff which blends into a weedy, gravelly yard. I can't see anybody but I hear voices having fun.