Dreams can be kinda freaky...

Ever have one of those dreams that you're sure must mean something, that they're simply so bizarre your subconscious must be screaming to get your attention?

I had one of those last night.

It was at a forties-era schoolhouse, now closed, in the middle of the woods. I had the impression it was kept up, though, to some extent, because it was in the middle of a nice square clearing, and the grass around it was green and mostly weed-free. I was there with my two closest friends from high school (CA and JF, both female), a couple of friends from elementary school (JP-female, PD-male), and my brother, only he was about nine or ten. It was around two in the afternoon in early May, hot but not miserably so.

So far, all of this has a strange internal logic. There *are* empty shools around here, and while they're not usually way out in the woods, they can be off the beaten track, the communities they once served dead or dying. And the elementary school I went to had so dwindled in numbers by the time that I went through that some sections had been shut off totally. Sine Mom was a parent volunteer, I spent a lot of time after school exploring those places with my brother and those two friends.

At any rate, the six of us are there, at this school, split up, looking around, trying to find a way in. The building was on a slight hill, and had a raised foundation; in the back it was waist-high off the ground, and a porch went all the way around; the railing seemed to have been broken off long, long ago. There were lockers up against the walls (yes, on the outside)--dark green, three-tier lockers, the kind you have to bring your own lock for. I was opening all of them, hoping somehow something interesting had been left inside one, until I came to some that had the doors standing wide open and books inside. Not just any books either--textbooks and teacher's guides, new ones. I looked into the door of the classroom that was right there--but the desks and the globe I could see looked as if they hadn't been touched in a while. CA came and told me she'd circled the whole building and all the doors were locked and could I please tell my little brother to stop following the girls around and making fun of them.

Then JP wanders around, and tells us there's an upper window on another side that's open, and if one of us will give her a boost, she thinks she can get in and open a door. CA goes to help her. I stay, and try the door knob--tada! It's unlocked. I don't say anything, but I go on inside. A door on the other side of the room opens to the gym; lil' bro and PB have found a medicine ball and are trying to play dodgeball with it.

JF appears out of nowhere and asks me if I've found the bathrooms yet. I haven't, but the next door we see goes to a locker room. I wonder if it's the boys' locker room; although there are no urinals, the first toilet isn't in a stall at all, and the stalls there are are not quite chest high, and don't hide much of anything--in fact, they seem more like horses' stalls! To make it worse, there are women using them, women I don't know, who haven't shown up previously in this dream. I look at JF, and she looks at me.

"I don't need to go that bad," she says.

We open the door and go back outside. Yes, the door now goes outside. It opens up right beside the lockers with the books. We sit in the shade and talk about how much we wish we had some ice cream and then start doing flips and stuff off the railing. (which wasn't there before.) Eventually everyone else shows up (except the women from the restroom) and we all go find the playground, which is ond enough to have some kickass, highly dangerous equipment. And as it gets almost to sunset, a tractor shows up and we get to ride home on it.

***

I'm guessing it's my inner child needing attention, or something. Maybe I need to take a break and goof off more. Aside from the bathroom bit, the whole general feeling was about exploration and play. Although, put that way, it sounds kinda dirty. Hmmm...