duck and cover

Last night, I changed the sheets on my bed to my favorite linen set. I always sleep better on freshly-laundered sheets, and this night was no different - at first that is. Eventually things got weird.

Eventually I had a long and convoluted dream about Obscure Object of Desire*, and going to his house, and our getting caught by his wife. I have no idea why I dreamed about him, as I haven't spoken to or seen him in a long time. 

In this dream, I'd driven my real-life car to OOD's house on his invitation. It didn't look like his real-life home; instead, it was a larger, sprawling home. We had just had quite a satisfying tryst in his marital bed - something I would have never done in real life. I was thinking that I should get a move on as the wife was expected home soon, but OOD insists I relax, no reason to rush. But he's wrong.

I'm just putting on the last of my clothing when she arrives. She walks in and sees us both. She's not happy. When not haranguing both of us, she's packing up her stuff to leave. She even packs up a couple of large pieces of furniture, but ends up dumping them outdoors. 

I'm about to get into my car and leave when OOD walks toward me. I see he's carrying a large, shiny handgun and he offers it to me. I'm clueless as to why he's doing this, until he points to his wife standing about 10 yards away. She also has a large and shiny handgun - it looks as if it's entirely chrome - and she's aiming it directly at me. She fires and I can actually feel the bullet go past my head. 

I realize that the venue has suddenly changed in an odd way. I'm not parked outside OOD's house any more. Instead I'm parked outside a garage in a crowded lot. A Hummer backs out and nearly runs over my own car. I decide I need to leave sharpish. 

I get a few blocks away and stop in a neighborhood with some small stores. I don't remember why I got out of the car, but then I see OOD's wife at a distance. She's traded the handgun for a rifle, and this time she manages to shoot me twice, both times in the leg. I manage to limp to my car and drive away.

After making my getaway, I decide I need to find an ER pretty quickly, although I can't see any blood. But I keep getting lost and end up on some muddy dirt roads. I can't figure out where I am, even though OOD's house must have not been far away.  I ended up taking a dirt road that runs parallel to a beach. By now it's dark and the road is wet, and I'm beginning to feel faint. But after I drive for several miles, I finally find a small building that turns out to be a rural doctor's office. Even though it's now night time, the doctor is in.

I limp inside and explain what's happened, but I end up having to wait in line a few minutes. Eventually the doctor invites me into his office. He's dressed in scrubs as though he's about to go into surgery, but he takes me to a small room and has me lie down on the table. 

He finds the bullet wounds which strangely aren't bleeding. And here's where it gets even stranger: he uses a vacuum cleaner hose to extract the bullets. It turns out they didn't go in far at all. He puts some plain gauze bandages on my leg and shows me the door. I'm not asked to pay.

As usual, I awoke wondering what Jung would make of all that. One part that reflects badly on OOD is that is he made no attempt to stop my being shot. Instead, he handed me a gun and stepped aside.

(But on second thought, he always knew I was a much better shot than he ever was.)

* See Key to Characters at right.