Rainy Summer Sunday Indianapolis

I'm driving a bulky car. As always, when I'm driving in a dream, everything past the hood is foggy and dim, the windshield is streaked with rain, and my vision fluctuates.  I am crammed into the front seat, just able to reach the pedals with my tiptoes.  I barely have control. The brakes squeal and drag and take forever to stop the car, even as I stretch and apply all the pressure I can manage.

It is dusk. Traffic is bumper to bumper, wall to wall. We are in some small town at a crowded shopping center. I am trying to park in a parking garage with lanes barely wide enough for one car. There are hills and dips and obstacles in this garage. Everything is dark around me, but I am aware that the car is full of kids and adults. I hear them clamoring to go shop here, go eat there. I think maybe all the families were visiting Granny and Papau.

Finally, I manage to park in a short turn-off, just long enough for two cars. I park touching the bumper of the car in front. Immediately, another car parks behind me, sticking out into the main aisle, trapping my car and effectively blocking half of the lane behind it. Honking ensues. At this point (cliché alert), caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, I'm bailing, fleeing the scene, jumping off the cliff, running for my life. I grab the keys. We all abandon the car and head off to our different destinations.

Cut to, everybody back, outside the car. The car is now parked on a steep slope. Balance is difficult. One of the kids yells, "Somebody help him!" 

Across the lane of parked cars, on a sidewalk, Wendall is leaning against a wall, pale and trembling, looking... I don't know, trapped, terrified?

Next scene, I am standing in the lane, reaching my arms out to him, come on, I'll catch you. He leans out, I reach out, he is safe in my arms. We stand, me holding him. In the dream, I say to myself how good this feels. I can feel the warmth of his body. I am aware that this is temporary, and I concentrate on our warm bodies holding each other.

I wake up.

My body is trembling all over. It sometimes does this when I wake up. I just have to wait. 

Later. 

 I pull aside the blackout curtains, raise the blind to the top of the window, open the window all the way. Rain has been forecast for today, so I rehearsed this last night, making sure I could open this window. Anticipating this morning, sitting on my bed listening to the rain while I read and type and sip coffee and eat toast buttered with special Irish butter purchased with just this type occasion in mind. 

Trembling stopped, accouterments gathered, ensconced in my bed with pillow and laptop on my legs, I listen to the patter of rain outside my window.