The Voodoo Dream
So I sat down to write this all out as soon as I woke up because it was one of the most intricate dreams I've had in a really long time.
Paul and I are standing at our back sliding glass door looking out into our yard after letting the dog in and suddenly we hear faint moaning. We look around the yard and don't see anything. I strain to see if there was anything I missed when there's a flash of lightning and for a moment an army of evil dolls is lurching across the yard, then it's gone. I rush to close the door, just as the dog tries to get out. Luckily, it closes before he gets to it.
There's no appearance of anything unusual, but I set about making sure the house as secure as I can, just in case. I lock the sliding glass door, put the wooden brace to keep it from being opened and close the vertical blinds. (IRL I would have worried/obsessed about this much more and at the very least done some basic spellwork and gone around the side yard to get a better look at the back lawn.) I walk out of our room and into the living room. There's a flash of lightning again. The living room I'm in is now halfway transformed into the living room from our old horrible apartment. I rush back into our bedroom down the hallway belonging to our old apartment and see Paul standing by the open curtain and open sliding glass door with a storm blowing in although the day had only been mildly overcast seconds before. He is carrying the dog, so I didn't worry about his safety immediately.
I yell at Paul and asked him what he's thinking, but I don't pay attention to his reply because I notice the view out of the lawn has changed completely, resembling a pastiche of our actual backyard, the central courtyard from our horrible apartment, the courtyard of a place I lived in when I was about 3 and a gentrified former slum in New Orleans. When I look out on the back yard I also see that the dolls are back and they are more like fancy baby dolls which have gotten a voodoo treatment (sewn eyes and mouths). Each of them is dressed in fancy old-fashioned black and white clothes. They snarl as they lurch across the lawn toward us. Unseen voices begin whispering menacing things.
I grab the edge of the sliding glass door and slam it home only to be thwarted in some way, At first I think it's a faulty locking mechanism. Then I realize it's some sort of force holding the door open. The door also beings to age: the enamel on the metal cracks, the metal begins to rust and warp and cracks spider-web across the glass. I yell, "NO! This isn't happening!" turning it in the end from a whine to a command. I put all the magical energy I can bring to bear on the door and lightning flashes again. The door is back to normal. I close and lock it. The dolls are gone, as is our dog. Gone as if he never existed.
It is suddenly nighttime and the backyard has become even stranger. In the center is a large fake rock formation that is from Frontierland in Disneyworld. It's covered in potted plants. Some are ours from throughout our actual house, but most belong to different neighbors. We each have different levels assigned to us on this rock formation where we can keep our plants. Paul is convinced that someone has added a plant to our level and this is how they are putting a curse on us. We slide open the door and walk out cautiously to figure which plant doesn't belong. Paul can't tell which level is ours or which plant might not belong there. I feel like I know which level is ours, but none of the plants on it look familiar. I finally settle on an long stemmed white orchid as the most likely curse bearer. I pick it up and give it to Paul who starts hunting for its proper place.
I turn when I hear children laughing. I run through the maze of walkways and alcoves created by all the houses now crowding in around us and find a Hispanic family that appears to be alternate versions of my middle sister Isis' kids. I stop them and question them about the strange goings-on and though they look very uncomfortable one of them finally lets slip the word "voodoo". I try to get more out of them until their mom appears around a corner. I switch tactics and speak with her. She is in a constant rush reminding me a little of the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland in the way that her haste seems to be her defining quality.
As I rush around behind her she tells me that of course it is voodoo and it all has to do with the latest Holmes. At first I think she is talking about the new houses nearby, then I realize she means the detective. I can't tell whether she is referring to a movie or a TV show or a book and whenever I try to explain this she blows me off. Eventually I'm able to get one clue out of her: it has something to do with Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Potted Plans (not Plants). I run back to the plants at this point and Paul is still trying to sort them, to make things right.
Two women began trying to get my attention at this point from what looks like a cross between another old childhood home and Snow White's cottage from the Disney movie. One girl is black and one girl was white, though both seem creepily friendly, even though I know I've never met them. The White Rabbit mom mumbles "Black and White, playing together? You can't really be above board!" I decide to go inside their home. It is so dark that I can't see very much, just outlines and suggestions. It looks a little like a cross between my grandmother's house and our house until lightning flashes once more so hugely I can't see anything for a little while.
When I can see again I'm standing in the long long side aisle of the Catholic church I attended as a child. Alcoves that should have contained statues of saints are empty and none of the candles are lit. To my left where all the pews and the center aisle and the altar and the far wall with the confessionals should have been is just a blank wall that seems gauzy and wavering, as if it is made of fog or spiderwebs. It sometimes reveals a room where only a bed with a shaft of moonlight on it are visible and sometimes is just an empty wall. On the floor I see a tiny snake egg with two tiny holes in it. I wonder if this is the vector for the voodoo curse as I pick it up.
I have the sudden thought that the holes might have been made by the snake's fangs lashing out to bite the last person who picked it up. I drop the egg quickly, shattering it. A white goo spreads onto the terrazzo floor from my childhood home, sizzling and eating through the floor. I hear the groaning again and I understand that Paul is gone in the same way the dog is gone, erased, but the dolls are now back, except they were never dolls, they have always been the corpses of babies and toddlers.
Before I wake up the last thing I hear is a sweet little voice (much too close to my ear) say, almost sadly "You've become unsynchronized."
Paul and I are standing at our back sliding glass door looking out into our yard after letting the dog in and suddenly we hear faint moaning. We look around the yard and don't see anything. I strain to see if there was anything I missed when there's a flash of lightning and for a moment an army of evil dolls is lurching across the yard, then it's gone. I rush to close the door, just as the dog tries to get out. Luckily, it closes before he gets to it.
There's no appearance of anything unusual, but I set about making sure the house as secure as I can, just in case. I lock the sliding glass door, put the wooden brace to keep it from being opened and close the vertical blinds. (IRL I would have worried/obsessed about this much more and at the very least done some basic spellwork and gone around the side yard to get a better look at the back lawn.) I walk out of our room and into the living room. There's a flash of lightning again. The living room I'm in is now halfway transformed into the living room from our old horrible apartment. I rush back into our bedroom down the hallway belonging to our old apartment and see Paul standing by the open curtain and open sliding glass door with a storm blowing in although the day had only been mildly overcast seconds before. He is carrying the dog, so I didn't worry about his safety immediately.
I yell at Paul and asked him what he's thinking, but I don't pay attention to his reply because I notice the view out of the lawn has changed completely, resembling a pastiche of our actual backyard, the central courtyard from our horrible apartment, the courtyard of a place I lived in when I was about 3 and a gentrified former slum in New Orleans. When I look out on the back yard I also see that the dolls are back and they are more like fancy baby dolls which have gotten a voodoo treatment (sewn eyes and mouths). Each of them is dressed in fancy old-fashioned black and white clothes. They snarl as they lurch across the lawn toward us. Unseen voices begin whispering menacing things.
I grab the edge of the sliding glass door and slam it home only to be thwarted in some way, At first I think it's a faulty locking mechanism. Then I realize it's some sort of force holding the door open. The door also beings to age: the enamel on the metal cracks, the metal begins to rust and warp and cracks spider-web across the glass. I yell, "NO! This isn't happening!" turning it in the end from a whine to a command. I put all the magical energy I can bring to bear on the door and lightning flashes again. The door is back to normal. I close and lock it. The dolls are gone, as is our dog. Gone as if he never existed.
It is suddenly nighttime and the backyard has become even stranger. In the center is a large fake rock formation that is from Frontierland in Disneyworld. It's covered in potted plants. Some are ours from throughout our actual house, but most belong to different neighbors. We each have different levels assigned to us on this rock formation where we can keep our plants. Paul is convinced that someone has added a plant to our level and this is how they are putting a curse on us. We slide open the door and walk out cautiously to figure which plant doesn't belong. Paul can't tell which level is ours or which plant might not belong there. I feel like I know which level is ours, but none of the plants on it look familiar. I finally settle on an long stemmed white orchid as the most likely curse bearer. I pick it up and give it to Paul who starts hunting for its proper place.
I turn when I hear children laughing. I run through the maze of walkways and alcoves created by all the houses now crowding in around us and find a Hispanic family that appears to be alternate versions of my middle sister Isis' kids. I stop them and question them about the strange goings-on and though they look very uncomfortable one of them finally lets slip the word "voodoo". I try to get more out of them until their mom appears around a corner. I switch tactics and speak with her. She is in a constant rush reminding me a little of the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland in the way that her haste seems to be her defining quality.
As I rush around behind her she tells me that of course it is voodoo and it all has to do with the latest Holmes. At first I think she is talking about the new houses nearby, then I realize she means the detective. I can't tell whether she is referring to a movie or a TV show or a book and whenever I try to explain this she blows me off. Eventually I'm able to get one clue out of her: it has something to do with Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Potted Plans (not Plants). I run back to the plants at this point and Paul is still trying to sort them, to make things right.
Two women began trying to get my attention at this point from what looks like a cross between another old childhood home and Snow White's cottage from the Disney movie. One girl is black and one girl was white, though both seem creepily friendly, even though I know I've never met them. The White Rabbit mom mumbles "Black and White, playing together? You can't really be above board!" I decide to go inside their home. It is so dark that I can't see very much, just outlines and suggestions. It looks a little like a cross between my grandmother's house and our house until lightning flashes once more so hugely I can't see anything for a little while.
When I can see again I'm standing in the long long side aisle of the Catholic church I attended as a child. Alcoves that should have contained statues of saints are empty and none of the candles are lit. To my left where all the pews and the center aisle and the altar and the far wall with the confessionals should have been is just a blank wall that seems gauzy and wavering, as if it is made of fog or spiderwebs. It sometimes reveals a room where only a bed with a shaft of moonlight on it are visible and sometimes is just an empty wall. On the floor I see a tiny snake egg with two tiny holes in it. I wonder if this is the vector for the voodoo curse as I pick it up.
I have the sudden thought that the holes might have been made by the snake's fangs lashing out to bite the last person who picked it up. I drop the egg quickly, shattering it. A white goo spreads onto the terrazzo floor from my childhood home, sizzling and eating through the floor. I hear the groaning again and I understand that Paul is gone in the same way the dog is gone, erased, but the dolls are now back, except they were never dolls, they have always been the corpses of babies and toddlers.
Before I wake up the last thing I hear is a sweet little voice (much too close to my ear) say, almost sadly "You've become unsynchronized."