Brownies bring the bestest of dreams

I was at the group home where I work, attempting to get one of my old clients, Joanne, to go out to my boss's car because we had to take her back to the nursing home where, in real life, she now lives. She was dressed in her usual comfy get-up -> red sweat suit, messy hair, hazy-eyed dementia of Alzheimers. She didn't want to go outside, saying, "Uh-uh! it's too cold!" which, right now wouldn't be far from the truth. But in the dream, it was sunny-warm-springtime, and I opened the door to show her.

As I stepped outside, the light became blinding, and suddenly I was a spectator, watching what might have been a movie of me standing outside the side-door to Howe House, urging Joanne out. The camera focused in on Joanne, and she kept "Nyuh! Nyuh!"ing with each baby-step until she came to the door and the light was blinding again.

I opened my eyes, standing on the walkway, and I saw her as a little yellow bird (which makes sense really, considering she adores Tweety-Bird IRL...calls him "Tweety-Pie!"). She was hiding in the bushes, shivering and excited about it being so warm and sunny. I urged her out, to come play with me. She came swooping out, fluttering about my head and getting entangled in my hair - and my hair was really long again, although it was still red.

I could hear her tweeting in my ears, and I kept saying, "Shhh sweety, it's OK!" until she eventually calmed down enough that she wound up in a balled-mat in my hair. I helped her out, and she fluttered in front of my face, kissing me on the nose and then falling into my palms, changing into a small carp, bright orange with gold tones shimmering from her scales.

I held her close to my face - the air was thickening around me, the skies turning gray, colder. I held my hands cupped with her inside of them, and began to let spit creep from my lips, down on top of her as she gasped, wanting fluid for her lungs. When my spit touched down on her, it was like she had frozen in time, like a prehistoric insect caught in amber. I watched her for a moment, admiring the shimmer of her scales, and then felt the urge to walk away from the house, to an empty field somewhere far, far away.

The skies cleared as I walked through the fields, daisies blooming around my feet with each step. My hands remained cupped, and as the sun came up from behind a hill in the distance, my eyes caught the gold in its rays. Next thing I knew, Joanne was a yellow birdy again tweeting and fluttering all excitedly, away away over the hill.

I chased after her, and as I reached the top of the hill, I found myself on the ledge of a cliff, and went tumbling forward, landing on my stomach in soft grass below. I went to sit up and noticed an old barn, and could smell poplar trees. I felt a cool breeze, and began shivering when a golden-toned hand reached out to rub my arm for warmth. When I looked up, it was that Joe Millionaire guy, only his face kept changing between him and my first love Chris G. I rubbed my eyes, and he smiled sweetly, helping me to my feet. I remember the feeling of the grass, soft and damp, between my toes.

We walked past the barn...I remember the smell of hay and horses as we passed it by.

Just beyond the barn sat my friend Xentrix and, of all people, Dennis Leary (WTF is up with the famous people in my dreams lately?)Dennis was smoking his cigs, and Xen was all surly. I get lost in what happened next, except to say that somehow, me and the Chris-Joe character got lost in some conversation and he revealed just what an inconsiderate idiot he was, forgetting my friend's name, whom he had slept with the night before or something like that. I looked up to find my friend Teri scowling at him, and knew I was in the line of fire, so i stood up.

I decided to hold my hands out, palms raised, just to my sides. Joe M. guy, who was no longer Chris because, well, he was always very polite, kind, and intelligent, stood up next to me and took my left hand, while Teri took my right hand. Before I knew it, there was a huge circle of people, twenty-forty of them, standing with their hands clasped and chanting. I heard Dennis Leary yell out, "What the fuck is this?" and saw him being lifted into the air by Xentrix and some other people. He was bound in ropes, and they threw him up into the air several times before his body landed in the bonfire that suddenly appeared in the middle of the group.

I watched him turn to ashes and crumble, and then we began to walk in a circle.

It eventually felt like I was on a merry-go-round, my feet barely touching the ground as we went in our circle. The chanting grew louder and louder, my feet lifting, floating. Joe M. was laughing like a madman, and I think I became a bit frightened because the flames grew higher and sparks were flying everywhere, hitting people in the eyes, blood splashing with each contact like pools in their sockets.

I decided to look up, and noticed how dark it had become. It was a night of indigo-skies, and the stars were nothing but more sparks as we spun.

But then the Joanne-bird tweeted in my face - she was a humming bird, as it turns out, yellow and shimmering again. Her wings fluttered a million miles a minute, and she smiled with her cute little beak, winking at me, assuring me that everything was just fine.

She zoomed away, and the sky lit up explosively above us. I closed my eyes, enjoying the warmth of the fires around us, and woke up.