kite dream

i dreamed that i got a kite for christmas. i had to put it together and sew sticks inside the edges of the dirty light yellow silk fabric. i did not have anything like a stick to put inside the spool of kite string for it to unwind from. i took the kite outside into the street and started to fly it, and the spool of kite string turned into a dowel about 18″ long. the kite had about ten feet of kite string attached to it, and that was attached to the dowel in my hand.

the day was very windy and so the kite took off immediately. it was so strong that it lifted me off my feet. at first i thought this was fun and held on to the dowel with both hands, but then i realized that i wasn’t coming back down; in fact, i was being lifted further and further into the air. it became clear to me, as i floated up past the neighbor’s tree at the end of the block, that my time to let go of the damn thing and drop to the ground had long passed. so i held on tight and tried to figure out what to do. i was being carried up and out across the neighborhoods. i decided that the only way i was going to get back down would be to twist the dowel around and roll up the kite string, working my way up, so i could poke holes in the kite with my fingers. this seemed to work, and i crash landed, not too hard, in somebody’s side yard underneath some bushes by a chain link fence.

i was really dazed and i wandered out into the street. a woman had just gotten out of her car and she saw me emerging from the direction of the house that she apparently was going to and she came up to me and said “oh good, there you are, is matt there?” i found that it was very difficult to speak and to express myself clearly, but i wanted to tell her that i was lost and needed to get back home. she kept trying to ask me questions as if i lived in that house, and finally i put both my hands on her shoulders and said “listen to me. i don’t know where i am. i need to look at a map so i can find my way back home.”

she said “oh, sure, ok, follow me” and i followed her into the house across the street. i thought that she was going to look for a map so she could show me where i was, but she was taking a really long time looking through stacks of books and magazines. she was rifling through a stack on a little glass table in her sunroom, and she said, “You look really familiar.” i told her my name, and she said “i thought so!” and held up a copy of my cookbook.

then i woke up.