Dream XLIII

I was doing my laundry at the Laundromat. A number of the employees were standing around chatting and laughing. I decided that since I was doing so much laundry, I’d go ahead and throw in the things I was wearing, too. So I put everything in, poured in the detergent, and started the machine.

After about twenty seconds, the machine stopped dead. Distressed, I asked the attendant what had happened; she said that the water was going to be shut off at two PM, and this was what stopped the machine. I angrily asked her why she and her co-workers had observed me loading the machine and had not seen fit to tell me that it wasn’t going to work. She had no answer, and I asked her if she had a trash bag I could put my wet, soapy clothes in, but she did not.

So I went to work, looking for such a bag. Once there, I saw that our department was in the midst of a massive project, and that my help was needed; I realized that I needed to cover myself. I went into a back storage room and found an old t-shirt and a pair of pants. The pants had a hole in the crotch and were covered with daubs of paint, but it was better than being naked. On the belt was an old cell phone that I had been assigned some years back; I thought I would turn it back in now that it was re-found.

I went back through the back halls of the building, where the pipes ran and where everything was made out of cement. I saw a guy from the plumbing department who was working on laundry machines. He smacked a device about the size of a hardback book on a cement table and said, “Look at this! The company says the only thing that needs to be changed about this, is the company name needs to be changed from Whitley to Biber.” He then pointed to where the logo was, and how the word “Whitley” had been painted over. I asked if writing the word “Biber” on top of that would solve the problem.

Around us had appeared a steady flow of small children, wearing animal costumes. They were a troupe who were here to perform a theatrical piece about the world of nature, and they were gathering themselves together in anticipation of the upcoming event. They would wander into this back hallway, then they would leave through another door.