Cages

It seems like i’m in Manassas at my old house. Or the network of paths in the woods behind that house specifically. Somebody and i are trying to get to a ?mouse that is missing. I’m trying to make a “yoo hoo” whistle sound but my lips are dry. My partner ?Angie? (i’ll assume it’s Angie) whistles for me and we can hear the mouse whistle in response so we know we’re going the right way. I’m not sure but i think we might be animals of some kind. Dogs maybe? As we leave the woods to cross Sabula’s Field we see several other dogs of types i’ve never seen before. There are parents with their kids choosing a pet and each time a child points out the one he or she wants, i think that the particular dog will require some kind of special care that will make the relationship a lot more difficult than either the parent or child expects. As we near Hoadly Road we come to some large old oak trees by a white farm house (my great-grandparents?) and i can see a pair of peacocks doing a mating dance. The male is beautiful iridescent blue-green and the female is shades of gray but still striking. I want to watch the dance but the mouse is calling. It takes us forever to get through the oaks to the road and before we get to the road i see the peacock pair again. They look awful, ragged and worn, but they’re still dancing. It’s their post romance dance and even though they look pretty bedraggled - all the feathers from their tails are mostly gone leaving just the long quills - they seem content.

On the road it’s a short way to the mouse and we walk in to a little house and i go right to a room with little furniture and no carpeting or curtains. There’s just a table with a cage with a blue floor sitting on top and inside the cage a little black mouse with a white belly. It looks okay but i can see that it’s out of water and doesn’t have any food and we got there just in time. I fill up the little eye dropper with water and hang it back inside the cage and the mouse drinks some water. Then i find some loose sunflower seeds and put them in the cage and the little mouse starts to eat one of the seeds. I find a little muslin bag of bird seed and pour some of that in the cage and the mouse likes that food better.

Sharon comes in to the room. This is supposed to be Sharon’s house in Herndon but the floors are all wood without carpeting and the furnishings are sparse. She’s making excuses why the mouse didn’t have food or water like she wasn’t responsible. Dream morphs and Angie is gone. Sharon is sitting in a recliner type chair and complaining about how uncomfortable the chair is. I look around the room and all the furniture looks fine but i know that it’s all the stuff that belonged to her grandmother. I begin to suggest that she take out a second mortgage on the house and refurnish it but even as i’m thinking it it’s like she can read my thought and begins making excuses and berating me because i don’t know anything about her situation. Then i suggest she just buy a new recliner because even a quality one shouldn’t be expected to last forever. Sharon says that she’s going to reupholster the chair herself and i warn her that she’ll never be able to make the chair as good as new again and should really just buy new furniture. There’s somebody else in the room with us. A man. He isn’t saying anything. Sharon gets up out of the chair and she, the man and i (who are both already standing) leave the room to go. We’re heading to the front of the house to go outside. As i’m walking, leading them out, i’m pointing out how no matter which way your gaze falls, you can through all of the rooms to the blue sky and green trees outside. When we get to the front of the house we turn around and look back to where we came from. The light from outside shines in through all the glass and lights up all the rooms with a soft golden light. I tell Sharon how much i’ve always loved her house and it’s really heartfelt and makes me want to cry because it’s so beautiful.

The house i was dreaming in was the star of my dream. The rest may have held more meaning but the house is what i loved. Sort of a Frank Lloyd Wright modern. All wood and glass and sky. Just another kind of cage i guess. The peacock dance was sweet.