Dream Journal
I was sitting on the floor in a hallway with a group of high school friends just like we did in high school. Loren approached the group and sat down in his usual place. He was dressed very nicely and I could tell he was successful and happy. He said some things to me and then to the group; we were all very happy to see him.
I then heard Danny’s voice in the office at the end of the hallway and knew that he and B were making a delivery there. I got up from the group and hurried to the office. I saw Danny standing in the office: he smiled at me. Through an open doorway I saw B sitting in one of a group of small chairs placed in a semi-circle; he barely glanced in my direction.
Walking back to the group, I lean down and give Loren a big hug and tell him how much I’ve missed him before sitting down.
Then we were in the basement of my childhood church. It was set up for a party with a long table in the center filled with pot-luck-type foods. At the other side of the basement, a small table held a large cake. There were few people in the basement setting up for the party.
Pam stood over the long table arranging and placing plates of finger food. She was wearing a long skirt and heels. I walked past her headed for the cake and she turned to watch me pass. I was determined to not look at her, but when I got to the end of the long table I turned and made eye contact with her. I willed for her to see all the hurt in my eyes.
Ryan and Loren were standing at the cake table: Ryan was beaming. He told me that he had hid the engagement ring for KatiAnn inside the cake. The cake was square; it was covered with black frosting and had a hill of black bead-like decorations on top - it was in this hill that he had put the ring.
Loren and I told him that he shouldn’t have done that. KatiAnn wasn’t the only person that was going to eat from the cake - what if someone else found it? He was still convinced that his idea was brilliant.
From a closed door behind me, I heard what I thought was KatiAnn vomiting violently. I cracked the door open and peeked in. At first I saw a thick pinkish vomit-like substance being tossed onto the floor from a bucket. Then I saw Dan, a man who works at the church, holding the bucket; he was cleaning the floor with this substance, a heavy-duty cleaner.
He told me that he was preparing for the murder: the pastor was going to shoot Maryann in the head tonight just before the potluck. I was horrified that the murder was going to happen so soon right next to the food table and that the pastor would be a murderer.
I feel a need to stop the pastor, but don’t know what to do.
I turned my attention back to the black cake and again told Ryan that we needed to get the ring out of there. He finally agreed and we started poking around in the black hill. Knowing the murder is imminent, I dig my hands in to the cake. I lean over one edge and he the other, scooping frosting and decorations. After quite a bit of searching, the ring has not been found and the cake is ruined.
Frustrated, I turn and see the pastor walking down the stairs into the basement. Maryann’s death flashes through my mind—the pastor standing over her, gunshot wound to the head, her body lying in a large pool of blood, people eating food—and I nearly have a panic attack.
Themes: Pam & Tina