Post-dream follow up

Sometimes I have really intense dreams. I don't mean nightmares, although I have those too. What I'm talking about are dreams that are like action movies; harrowing but not hopeless situations. Often these dreams feature people I know in real life. Sometimes, these dreams are so intense that when they're over, even though I know they're just dreams, I feel obligated to check up on the people who were in them. Is that weird? Maybe. Too bad, though. It's something I do to make me feel better. Of course, they're always fine, being as dreams aren't real and they aren't a shared experience, so they don't even have a recollection of the experience that never actually happened. Still, I like knowing they're all right.

The other night, I had one of those dreams and my friend Mary was in it. She and I used to work together before she got out of show biz to go into nursing. That's admirable, I think. She also moved away and I haven't seen her in four or five years. But here's the note I wrote to her:

 Hi Mary,
I had a dream last night and you were in it. It was scary and realistic and I haven't talked to you in a while so I felt like I needed to check and see if you are okay. In the dream, it was you, me and some other unknown person (they kept changing to different people, which is an annoying thing that happens in dreams). We were in the middle of a park and there were a whole bunch of huge tornadoes all around us. We were all running around trying to survive. Also, in this dream, you were a cop. At one point, you broke a whole bunch of windows for seemingly no good reason (you said "I'm a cop!" at the time, which is how I knew you were one). I'd ask you what that was all about but it was my dream, not yours, and I doubt you'd have a good answer. I woke up before it was over but I assume we all survived, so that's good. You aren't a cop now, are you? You're already a nurse. You can do whatever you want, of course, but I don't think it's necessary to be all the emergency jobs. What I'm saying is don't be a cop. Let some other people pick up the slack. Do they even have tornadoes in Denver? I dream about them all the time, I think because I grew up in the midwest. Anyway, I hope you are doing well, not a cop (although if you are, that's your business and it's fine) and not breaking windows just because you think a job gives you some sort of unbridled authority to do so. - Clark

I haven't heard back form her yet. I hope she's okay.