22 Jun 2025
Dream
I have a recurring dream where I'm housesitting again for an elderly couple who are travelling, and that it has been extended for years, with me having no idea when or if they are coming back. I'm always keeping silent about it, reluctant to ask anyone in their family or check with authorities, as it's free housing and I dont want to mess up that opportunity. I just go on and plan to claim ignorance should anyone ask. And once again, the cats have all died or run away due to me just not rememebering to feed them, but this time the dog is fine.
This time also, the house is part of some sort of huge gallery or cultural centre, very modern and spectacular, but we only live in one part of it. The rest of the centre is used by academics for exhibitions, conferences, an art gallery, and research facility. I'm also becoming known in the local community, as a bit of a spiritual leader, which is at conflict with some of the intellectuals using the facility, another reason i hide so as not to jeopardise this housing loophole. They know me because of my standing, but they don't know I live there with my three daughters. So we hide in our own area when big shows or conferences are on.
One day, I find out that my oldest daughter drives to work now, but that it takes her two hours each way to get to work, four hours of driving a day and I'm very concerned and upset, I don't want her doing that, its too hard on her. I'm trying to work out how to help her when the toilet (which also is a very odd new design to save money and water by using bore water coming into a large glass cistern) has become blocked, so I attempt to fix it with no clue what Im doing. (I know if I call the only people in the city who can fix it, the famous desingers, my presence in the house will become known) I'm able to release the block in a pipe in the large tank but it seems to release a mass of small dark things that I think are tadpoles and I think they die instantly because the water in the tank is so hot. I'm about to find a way to protect my hands from the hot water, to try to reach in, when there's another interruption. Only myself and my youngest are home and she's in the garden playing with the dog. One of the homeowners' sons - a professor who uses the building for his exhibitions and research (a very condescending man who doesn't like me because of my spiritual standing in the community) - unexpectedly turns up with his lover, to have a romantic tryst. I hide but I can't communicate with my daughter to hide, and then the woman finds her and they start chatting pleasantly. I stay hidden, relieved but hoping my daughter doesn't say why we are there. But then the professor comes unexpectedly into the room I'm hiding, and I realise the jig is finally up.
I immediately switch tactics and lift my chin and become completely confident, saying "yes I'm here", 'when are your parents coming back?", "I've heard nothing from anyone" etc. I act as though I am the one deserving of his consideration here as I am the one who has been doing a job way longer than intitally agreed, that he is at fault for not communicating better. I ask what's happened to delay their return, and say that the cats have long gone (alluding that they left of their own choice) but the dog is fine, and as if to prove it, the dog comes in and plays very intelligently with me, when it normally only plays with the girls. I instantly establish dominance, talking with them from a place of authority, they can see that the house and dog have been well kept for these years. And I'm showing him that a spiritual leader is still a competant, intelligent and reasonable person. And I'm demanding respect... but then I woke before I could see how that all worked out for me!