Dream LIX

I went to a large wooden house that also doubled as a library/study room. I knew that everyone there was a member of an internet forum (Notebook in Hand) to which I also belonged.

When I got there, a young woman with glasses and medium length dark hair was insistently demanding that people reveal their birthdays.

I didn't want to reveal mine, so before she could get to me, I sat at an open computer terminal on a heavy wooden table, and began posting messages to the group. Instead of texts, however, I was posting actual physical objects--a piece of mirror, for example.

Under the table was a crate that was stuck in the wall and open at one of the small ends. I went under the table and climbed inside, because there was something glowing at the other end that I needed to adjust somehow; I was growing increasingly annoyed and irritable, and I knew adjusting the glowing objects would help.

The floor of the crate was actually two pairs of trousered legs, which kept squirming, trying to dislodge me. A handsome young man sat at the computer I'd just vacated and placed his hands on the keyboard, but he didn't type.

Finally, I delivered a short, sharp kick to the legs. They settled down, but I immediately and apologetically asked the young man if they were his legs. He simply laughed and shook his head.

Another person, a somewhat older, motherly woman came over and asked me if I could help with decorations for the children's area. I said I’d try, and I climbed back out of the crate. As I followed her, she explained that they were making "candy trees" and they knew I was good at sculpting leaf-masses for the tops of the trees.

But all I had to work with was some melted candy. It had the texture (but not the temperature) of melted snow. I was supposed to shape handfuls of this so that they looked like treetops, but because it had melted so much, all I could do was create loose blobs. I tried to place them on the tree trunks so that they wouldn't drip all over the little dioramas that the people had set down.

Behind me, some of the other parents would place little wrapped candies, gumdrops, and small play objects on the blobs.

It turned out only the first two were tree trunks, so I used the rest of the candy material to place blobs on top of tiny buildings, churches, picnic tables, tombs, and other miniature items.

I went back to get some of the other candies from the plastic buckets that were around, largely so I could cover up the blobs and make them look presentable. Every time I came close to a child, that child would turn to its parent and, with a wicked smile, would relate the most gruesome family tragedies in a cruel way. ("Isn't it sad, mom, that dad is dead now? Doesn't that make you sad?")

With a bit of embarrassment, another of the women apologized for the behavior of the children, but I told her that it seemed to be triggered by my presence. If I wasn't near them, they were happy and child-like; as soon as I came close, his or her personality would become morbid and ghastly.

The woman scowled at me, and I decided to leave that part of the library.

Coming back into the open area, I noticed credits appearing in very small letters along the baseboards; I thought, then, that I must actually be in a movie. I waited for the final credit, "The End," but it never appeared. At last I walked over to the huge television in the center of the room, and walked around it until I could see the screen. On it were more credits, including the name of the director, and a picture of a happy snowman outside a house decorated for Christmas.