Val and The Pony Are a Synchronized Dream Team

Saturday dawned dark and early at 5:30 a.m. Hick had to work. Which meant he had to make sure Val couldn't sleep, like one who has worked so hard all these years to support him in the manner to which he is accustomed, deserves to sleep in.

Hick's phone alarm went off like the warning sirens at Kerr-McGee when Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood passed her hands under the radiation detector. He leaves the gently clock radio alarm set to 4:50 for our weekday routine. Still, I thought I could go back to sleep. Which I managed, a few seconds before Hick plopped down on the bed to put on his socks. And just in case the mattress undulating like the California countryside when the big one hits didn't wake me, Hick poked me a couple times on the shoulder while he told me he was going to work.

I got up and took my medicine, tossed in a load of laundry, then went back to bed. Start the day at 6:00 a.m. when I don't have to go to work? That's crazy talk! I was snoozing peacefully soon enough. A whole 45 minutes more!

What a busy 45 minutes it was. I had a dream that I was sitting in a house unknown to me, and my grandma came in and sat down across from me, on a red couch. She was not my old grandma, but a younger version, in her 50s, it seems. Grandma tucked one leg up under her, and settled on the couch. She was cheerful and loving, telling me that I needed to take a couple things from her house. She wanted me to have them. I don't know what they were, but I know it was two things.

When she was living, we used to visit Grandma every Sunday evening at her house, and she tried to give me things. "Take a set of dishes. I have 27. Pick out a couple." And back then, I did. I took a set of red Depression Glass dishes, and another set of china that had a pattern and a forest green wide border. Anyhoo...in this dream, I didn't want anything. I told Grandma I was only waiting to use her shower. It seems I was just visiting for a few days. However, so were some strangers, and they were currently monopolizing the shower. Grandma said okay, and then she left.

Grandma's place in that dream was taken by my mom. She sat on the red couch, chatting about nothing, like we used to. I was still waiting for the shower, with some 11 or 12 people in business suits ahead of me. Mom said, "Oh, I need to pick up my car. I think I'll call [my favorite gambling aunt, her sister-in-law] to see if she can take me."

My dream voice said, "No, Mom. Don't bother her [her son has been very ill, and had surgery two weeks ago]. I'll take you. Just as soon as I get my shower. I'm going by there anyway, and I can drop you off." Dream Mom agreed. Then I woke up.

So interesting, to have a dream with both Mom and Grandma in it. I went to the kitchen to take the rest of my medicine. As I was standing at the counter, The Pony came in. Let the record show that The Pony rarely rises before 10:00 on a Saturday, and that only after I hound him to get out of bed. To see him at 7:15 was a surprise.

"Did you hear it too?"

"What?"

"That noise. In the basement. It woke me up."

"No."

Let the record further show that my bedroom is at the south end of the homestead, the end by Hick's sheds, and the BARn field, over my office and Hick's basement workshop. The Pony's bedroom is at the northeast corner of the house, over the part of the basement with the pool table, slot machine, air hockey table, and pinball machine.

"I WAS opening the cabinet to get out my medicine. And earlier, I put in a load of laundry."

"No. This was a different noise. Like the slot machine. Not when somebody wins. Just the noise when you put in the tokens. And play."

Let the record even further show that this slot machine is a tabletop model we've had for 15 years, bought for me one Christmas by Hick, from a building-materials store. It lights up and makes a loud "DOINK" noise when the token goes in, and "BOING BOING BOING" sounds as the reels spin. We've tried forever to find a volume control, but there is none. Forget about watching TV or conversing while somebody is playing the slots.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. That's exactly what it sounded like."

"Huh. I was having a dream about my grandma right before I got up."

Let the record finally show that Grandma loved to play the slots, and went to the casino any time her son came to visit, or my gambling aunt took her. She carried around a purse full of cash should an opportunity arise. AND that Hick took my mom's car, now driven by him, to the shop last week and found out that the 4WD needs to be repaired.

Let the record post-scriptedly show that when we were watching TV on Saturday night, The Pony went over to the slot machine to put in a token and remind me of the noise he heard. He found the power cord dangling over the edge of the chest of drawers the slot machine sits on, not even plugged in to the outlet. The chest of drawers Hick bought for toddler Genius at a second-hand store. The chest of drawers we have come to consider haunted...