Song playing: Vertical Horizon – Everything you Want
Goo Goo Dolls – Iris
Aloha!
I had a dream last night.
Of those of you who have been keeping up with my journals, you know the significance of this.
It was raining.
Drizzling, maybe, very cold and nasty. It was… winter? At least approaching.
The building was large, maybe 11, 12 stories high. It was all brick, with moderate sized windows each evenly placed. It was shaped in a giant U, with a courtyard in the middle. The courtyard was terraced; the entire building had been set against a sloping hill. The sidewalks and young trees in it were perilously caked in ice, from the freezing rain.
I took the elevator up. She was on the .. 9th floor? She was somewhere near the base of the U; you could see both of the other sections of the building out her window.
I approached her door.
I was tired, it had been a long journey. I wore blue jeans, a sweater, a leather jacket.
It was open a crack. I listened. I heard her inside.
I pushed the door open.
There she was.
She looked at me wide eyed. Startled. She glanced at my eyes, and then away quickly.
“Are you ok?”
The first words out of my mouth. I was shocked. I was bewildered. Out of all the things I could have said; I said ” Are you ok”? It was almost… almost as if we hadn’t not spoken to each other for a full year.
“Y-yeah…” she stammered “I’m trying to figure out how to get all my clothes down to the laundry room.”
I stepped in.
It was a small dimly lit room, more of a dorm than an apartment. A kitchenette was on my left, a bathroom on my left. And directly in front me was a room that had her bed, a shelf, a tv, her couch… it felt like hers…
She had on her coat, as if she was going out. I opened my arms.
“Hi.” I said.
She moved into my arms suddenly. She wrapped her arms around me under my jacket, burying her head in my chest. The force caught me off balance, and sent us falling into the clothes on her bed.
I eased up, lifting us both back up again. She got up and looked away. “I wish I could be that strong” she said.
I looked down at her clothes.
“Need some help?”
She looked back at me, brushing her eyes. “Sure.” she smiled.
I began gathering up her clothes. ” You’re washing your pillows too?” I asked.
“Yeah, I guess.”
I began stuffing the clothes into the pillowcases, and she joined me.
I noticed Rufus still sat on her bed. I had given her the stuffed raccoon a long time ago. He looked loved.
She began cleaning up, emptying some garbage in a bag to take down with us.
“How are you?” I asked. I felt dumb, that was such an overused question.
“Ok.” she answered. “Grad school is hard, but I’m doing ok.”
We continued packing up in silence.
“Oh shoot.” she said, looking through her food. “They stole more food!”
I raised an eyebrow. “Who?”
“The cleaning people. They just hired this new guy who comes to clean our rooms, and I think he’s been taking food.” she picked through some of her bread. “I’m going to throw this away, it’s getting old.”
The door was still open a crack. A man came in, toting a vacuum cleaner.
I stood up and glared at him.
“Oh! Sorry…” he said, and retreated.
I started toward the door.
“Don’t hurt him..” Caroline came after me.
“That’s not good, Caroline. Maybe you could vacuum your own floor.”
She thought about this a moment, and nodded.
“Can you call the supervisor and ask about that?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
I followed her to the window where the phone was.
I looked out the window into the court yard. The window was open a crack just at the top. It was… it was changing…
She spoke on the phone, her head turned from mine.
Her hair…
Suddenly, I looked out the window, and saw what had changed. It was snowing. The miserable day had just become beautiful.
Snow flakes blew in, and landed in her hair. Tiny little ones, sparkling like tiny jeweled plates. I could see every part of their beauty as they landed on her straight black hair.
She hung up.
“It’s snowing.” I smiled.
Her eyes sparkled. She looked at laundry on the bed.
“Let’s go for a walk.” she smiled.
She put on some mittens and I took her hand.
“You know…” I pondered for a minute. “I seem to remember an ice cream shop in the square. Are you hungry?”
She smiled. “A little… but… Ice cream? In weather like this?”
I took her in my arms. “I think I’m warm enough, don’t you?”
She snuggled close. “Yah. Bears are always warm.”
“Especially Canadian ones.” I smiled.
She giggled.
I woke up.
I think this pretty much answers the ” where I’d most like to visit” question.
No question for today, I’m late for class right now, but I wanted to write this down.
I’ll have a question for you next journal entry.
I haven’t written the letter to her yet, but I’m pretty sure I know what I want to say now. 🙂