Ghetto Home Depot

The part of the dream i remember starts with me in my car ?leaving work? and getting onto a highway. It’s a total cluster fuck in the work parking lot and it takes me a while to get out of there. As i’m merging on to the highway, i see a big white boat of a car (‘ 75 –‘78 caddy maybe) going the wrong way up the big curved access ramp. I don’t know if i should exit off and come around to make sure nobody is hurt by the idiot or just keep on going. I must’ve kept going because now i’m in an older  neighborhood. It looks a little rough and i’m trying to find a safe place to park my car. I pull on to one street and immediately feel like it’s a mistake and turn around. It reminds me of southwest Raleigh, around Saunders Street. Kinda ghetto. I go a few blocks closer to my destination and find a place that seems okay. I go into a store and get in line. It’s a really junky store and the merchandise is all jumbled and stacked up everywhere. I hear somebody in the line ahead of me call it Home Depot so i guess it’s a Home Depot but not like any i’ve ever been in. The floor is wood plank and other than the space for the line of people, there’s no order to anything. There is an older couple in the line directly in front of me and, to pass the time, i tell them about the idiot driver going the wrong way up the highway access ramp. They have the expected reaction of shock. The line of people is getting shorter and we’re almost to the check-out counter. The woman running the cash register looks familiar (i think she might be me). There’s another person behind the counter that looks like a character from an R.Crumb cartoon. It’s a really ugly person and it’s hard to tell if it’s a man or a woman. It walks from behind the counter and cuts through the line in front of me and i see it’s a woman. A really ugly woman. As she passes by me she practically gets in my face and looks directly into my eyes. I realize she’s a lesbian and is wondering if i’m a lesbian too because i don’t wear any makeup. When she gets back behind the counter i look at the guy behind me in line and raise my eyebrows like “YIKES!” Then the older couple is paying and i’m up next. I don’t even know what i’m buying. A small box of something. I can tell by the print on the box that it’s something cheap from China or Taiwan. The price is printed right on the package and i want to be ready when it’s my turn to check out so i pull a five dollar bill out of my wallet and some various coins out of the change compartment. I notice that the serial number on the five dollar bill is 420 and show it to the dude behind me. We kind of laugh at that and as i hand the five to the lady behind the counter it falls out of my hand and onto the floor. I look under the counter and pick up a bill and hand it to the lady but it’s a really ratty one dollar bill, not my five. I look again and find my five with the 420 on it and hand it over along with some change.

I leave the store and realize i don’t remember where i parked my car. It’s dark outside, like twilight. I start walking in the direction i think it is and keep pressing the emergency button on the key fob. I walk on to the street i’d first driven down and turned around. There are a bunch of guys playing basketball and i turn around to go back the way i came hoping they don’t notice me because i’m afraid they’ll hurt me. I’m walking up a kind of park or square. The sidewalk is under an arbor that has green vines growing on it. As i’m walking back towards the Home Depot, a van with a speaker on top is driving on the road next to the sidewalk. He’s driving slowly by me. When he gets right next to me he speaks over the loudspeaker and says something including “Sabrina Eyerich” and i wonder if he knows me since he knows Sabrina. I’m still pressing the emergency button on my key fob hoping i’ll find my car and as i walk around the corner of a big brick building like a bank i hear my car alarm go off. Yay! I’m happy. There is a couple sitting in lawn chairs right behind my car and i ask them to move so i can drive away.

I wake up to the sound of loud static. It took a few minutes to realize i was awake and the static was really the sound of heavy rain falling.