Icky Nightmare

Saturday night I had a memorable, shitty nightmare. I don't want to have it again, so I'm hoping that this blog entry will vaccinate me!

I'm at my mother's house. I think this is back in the days when we all lived there. Or maybe it's a holiday, like Christmas, when I have occasionally spent the night. My favorite grandma (who died in 1997) was there, so that confuses the timeline a bit.

It's pre-dawn. For some reason, I'm looking out the picture window and am not sure, but I think I see foul play in front of the apartment building across the street. One man appears to be stabbing another beside a car. I saw the perpetrator's elbow go back, and I could have sworn I saw the knife in his hand.

I am horrified and turn away. Yet when I look back, the car is gone, and only the man who had the knife remains. I'm sure I must have been mistaken and go off to do something else. I look back at the window and there he is, looking into my mother's front window! Apparently I have witnessed something nefarious, and the man behind it wanted to know more about me.

I grabbed the phone beside my mom's sofa and dialed 911. I couldn't get through! It was terribly frustrating and scary. I hung up and redialed, over and over. By the time the police finally showed up, he was gone.

Time is telescoped and I'm testifying in court against the man I now know stabbed (but didn't kill). I'm telling my story, reporting what I witnessed, and am very frustrated and embarrassed because the defense attorney makes me look like I'm lying.

I wake up feeling unsettled, wondering why no one was there to help at the time, and why no one believed me in court, and how of all people Burt Reynolds ended up being the perp's dad.

According to dreammoods: The knife crime may indicate feelings of inadequacy or defensiveness … not being able to get through to the police suggests I "have yet to acknowledge my own authoritativeness in a situation" … court could represent a situation that brings me "distress and worry."

No word on the meaning of a cameo by Burt Reynolds.

Because the dream is set in my mother's house, because I am witnessing the action and not the catalyst, I suspect this is about my weird sister's weird but blissfully brief return home.