I got to hang out with my brother last night… if only in a dream, but I still woke up with a smile on my face.
I dream regularly, but rarely does it include anybody who is missing in my life. Moreover, when a person who has passed does appear in my dreams, they rarely speak. But last night was mixture of many different things that, to my recollection, has never happened in my dreams before.
We were at our grandparents’ place and were getting ready for a trip to China. I was running back and forth, trying to pack because as always, I was going to run late and miss my flight. I was overly-stressed because I knew this was a non-refundable flight, and the cost of missing the flight was going to be extreme. I had asked David to come with me, and he begrudgingly acquiesced and began to pack. But in a way, he didn’t.
My grandparents were in the house somewhere. I don’t recall seeing them there, but I could feel their beings in the house.
I was sitting at the dining room table in their kitchen, getting on David to get ready, and I remember thinking how excited I was that he is going to come with me. “I hope we can buy a ticket at the counter for him.” Because he didn’t have one yet. At that moment, I realized I had forgotten to pack all sorts of things and totally freaked out. So I ran back upstairs, flung open my bag, and inside was a whole bunch of stuff… but nothing remotely akin to a person leaving on a trip. Let alone a trip to Asia.
So I began tearing through drawers, grabbing underwear and socks and stuff that I should have obviously packed but hadn’t. Downstairs, I could hear David laughing and joking, yelling up the stairs in a voice I can only make in my head but never imitate. “Ohhh, look who’s making us late now? C’mon Tim, gotta pack and get out of here, buddy bud.” And he kept riding me in that way that we would. I was totally stressed out but laughing at the same time, cursing myself for not paying any particular attention to what I had previously packed.
I got together what would barely pass for packed and imagined myself in China trying to buy clothes… in my head, all they would offer for sale was kung fu outfits, so I was like, “Great, I am going to be dressed like Bruce Lee this whole trip, and David is going to be dressed impeccably, as always.”
We got into a car—a cab, I think, and I knew we were going to miss our flight. I was muttering something about it and apologizing to him in advance if we did miss the flight. He looked at me, and at that moment, I realized his bag was actually empty and that was why he was so quick to pack.
He didn’t think I was going to miss my flight, but he knew he wasn’t coming with.
Regardless, I woke up and was happy to have had that little moment of jibing… even if it was only in my head.
