Don't Let the Scary People Notice Us

I had a lot of Australian-related dreams last night. Actually, I can't think of any dreams I had that were NOT related to Australia or Australians.

So here they are:

1. We're staying at my friend Tracey's house. It's our last morning there. Tracey and her family have already left (maybe for work and school?) and we've done our good-byes. We know we shall see each other again in Hawaii, so it's not too heartbreaking. I decide it would be nice if we leave them a note. That way they can find it when they get back home.

I start to write the note. I sign it from myself. I decide I don't like that. The note should be from all of us. I crumple it up. I attempt several times to write them a note, end up not liking it, and then crumple up the paper. I get worried that they'll see this in their rubbish bin, read the notes, and see all my mistakes. I think about taking all the crumpled paper with me, knowing this would be quite weird of me.

2. I learn that the reason a former friend (she's Australian so it counts as an Australian dream) didn't respond to my emails is that she stopped working at the place she used to work at. I had been sending emails to her work address and she never got them.

3. I'm in a backyard (I guess that would translate to garden for Australians). I start thinking about how I really want a fruit tree, and that's one of the main reasons I want to move to Australia. I start thinking if someone was nice enough to help me plant a tree, I might not feel this desire to move to Australia. But then I start thinking, what if we plant the tree, and then we get an opportunity to move to Australia. I'll want to go, but I'll feel obligated to stay because of the tree. (I'm not sure where this idea comes from. I don't think I've ever associated my desire to move to Australia with fruit trees).

4. There's some Australian movie--a fun cult classic type of thing. There's a lot of Australian actors in it, but the only one I remember is Ryan Kwantan. People from Depeche Mode are in it too. (Although when I woke up, I realized they're not Australian. In the dream, they were). The movie has fun credits. Each actor was allowed to come up with a nickname for themselves. It was kind of like the nicknames in the credits of of The Simpson's Treehouse of Horror.

5. I'm at some place where there's an Australian Prime Minister (but probably not Kevin Rudd). I think I have a crush on him, but at the same time I'm very angry with him. He scolded me for eating grilled cheese at the wrong time. I feel a mixture of shame and anger...as if my rights have been infringed upon. I get even more angry when I see him eating something. I act like I hate him, but I have secret feelings for him that I try to deny.

6. Tim, Jack, and I are in a house. (It kinds of seems like our Fort Worth house. The location of the windows and doors is the same. Yet the house is in Australia.) There's some wild Australian celebration going on, and we're scared of it. The people outside are drunk and crazed. Some even seem supernatural. They remind me of the men in The Yabba from Wake in Fright.

I'm afraid they're going to notice us in our house and bother us....hurt us. I follow Tim to the front door. He goes to lock it, but this is a mistake. The men see us.

Then it changes; we're not at our house. We're at some other place. And we have more people in our family....a mother and a little girl. The men take the mother and child, and put them in their trucks/vans. They're being forced to join the parade while we wait helplessly. I take some chemical spray can. I go to a van and spray it at the men, making sure not to spray the driver. I don't want to hurt his eyes. The can ends up not spraying a harmful chemical. Instead it sprays purple party string. And it ends up purple is a dominant color theme in this parade. I just helped these people become even more festive.

We wait helplessly for the parade to end. When it does, the child comes happily back. She doesn't seem harmed at all. She looks happy, as if it had all been fun. The mother also seems totally fine.

I go to talk to one of the scary men, who seems much less scary now. He's very nice and welcoming. He suggests that next year my family have their own float.

I really love that last dream. It seems to have such a positive message.

What would our world be like if we

 knew for sure there 

was life after death, and 

we could easily talk to our 

dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts