KEYWORDS: church, sort, people, island, kitchen

Hungry Dream, The

David Berg

DO 1734 Aix‚ France 14/2/81

1. THIS IS A CRAZY DREAM I HAD DURING THE NIGHT OR SOMETIME, I don't know when. This is Valentine's Day‚ February 14, 1981. It doesn't seem to make much sense or have any significance, but I just thought I'd better record it because lately I've lost one or two dreams because I was slow to record them because I thought sure I'd remember them, but I forgot'm!

2. BUT ANYHOW‚ I WAS APPARENTLY STAYING AT THIS HOME AS A GUEST on sort of a—it was an island but it was like a peninsula. It might have been an island joined to the mainland with a bridge‚ but it was completely surrounded by the sea on all sides. It was a little hilly.

3. THE HOUSE WAS A BIG WHITE TWO-STORY HOUSE & I was left there alone one Sunday morning while the family apparently had all gone to church, they just left me there to take care of myself. The landlady told me to go & fix myself some breakfast & told me where the kitchen was & where the key to the kitchen was & to help myself. So I did.

4. I WENT DOWN & GOT THE KEY, THE OLD–FASHIONED KEY, & UNLOCKED THE KITCHEN DOOR. I had to go in from the outside for some reason. The kitchen was kind of dark so I turned on the light & somebody had put in a real small bulb & it was hard to see. So I looked around, foraged around the kitchen for a better bulb & I found one in the kitchen drawer or table, & I put this better brighter bulb in so I could see what I was doing.

5. I FIXED MYSELF A CUP OF MY CUSTOMARY MORNING EGG COFFEE & decided to sort of walk around a little bit when I was through with my coffee. I walked down to the beach on the one side of the island, sort of like on the right side as you face the mainland. And there were quite a few people around on Sunday, but they were just sort of walking around, it was too cold to swim‚ but it was nice & sunny.

6. SO I WALKED AROUND & THEN I WALKED BACK UP TO THE HOUSE AGAIN. The people were home this time, but they still didn't seem to be fixing dinner or anything. They were home from church, but seemed a little unconcerned about me & whether I ate or not, & they weren't fixing dinner. I thought, "Well, how come? Most people come home from church & fix dinner." I was really getting hungry. I'm trying to think what happened next.

7. I WAS HUNGRY & WONDERING WHY THEY WEREN'T FIXING ANYTHING TO EAT. I thought, "These people sure aren't very concerned about me & they don't care much, they're pretty unconcerned & inhospitable." It's almost like I was sort of an unwelcome guest. They were sort of obligated to let me stop there, but they didn't really want me there. I think that's about all I dreamed.

8. I WAS THINKING HOW ODD IT WAS & STRANGE IT WAS THAT THEY WEREN'T CONCERNED ABOUT MY WELFARE & weren't concerned about whether I'd get anything to eat. Although they were letting me stay there at the house, they'd almost ignored me. I wouldn't say they were very good church people, although they'd all gone to church. So I don't know what that's supposed to mean.

9. THE PLACE WAS VERY CLEAR IN MY DREAM, a sort of hilly island & I walked down to the beach. In fact, the way I got down, you had to sort of scramble down a bluff to the beach, & it was really pretty & sunny. I walked about a quarter of the way around the island from the side to one end that ran toward the mainland where the bridge was. Then I walked back & I thought, "It sure is very pretty here, a nice place!"

10. BUT THE PEOPLE SEEMED AWFULLY COLD & UNFRIENDLY, but at least they were letting me stay there. But I kept thinking about how hungry I was & wished I had something to eat. I even thought about going out & buying myself something to eat, but there didn't seem to be any places around right there on the island. It was more a sort of residential beach place. I would have had to go too far, clear into town‚ almost too far to walk it.

11. I THINK I WAS STILL TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO, HOW I WAS GOING TO GET SOMETHING TO EAT. I felt like just going back in & fixing myself another cup of coffee. Then I think I woke up. And I think when I woke up I was cold & hungry! Maybe that's what caused the dream, that I was just actually cold & hungry. You could call it "The Hungry Dream", hungry on the beach! Another thing about that dream, I remember finding some recipes in the drawer like little pieces of paper pasted together, but I couldn't find enough materials. (Sure sounds like church to me!—Pretty, but indifferent, cold, dim light—& you've really got to hunt for something to satisfy your hunger!—Ha! What do you think?)