Tuesday 1 September 2015

Dream: Marrickville and the elephant sanctuary

In this dream it is dark. I am with Grace and we are off to meet some people for dinner in Marrickville.

We are at a bus stop which appears unfamiliar to me. The bus arrives and I cannot recognise the number or the route, but we get on anyway. It is terribly dark inside the bus, and we can barely see where we are going. We sit and silently watch the abandoned streets pass by.

After some time, we still have no idea where we are. No one else is on the bus, and I start to feel more and more restless. I check my phone for a GPS signal so that the map can show us where we are going, but there is just a flashing blue dot on the screen.

We must get off, I tell Grace, and I press the button. At the next stop, the bus pulls up outside a train station. A sign outside says Central, but it looks nothing like the real Central station (or any other train stations I've been to). We descend the steps as Grace protests that the trains are unsafe in this city.

I look at the clock and it is just after 7pm. We are not going to make it in time, I tell her, we must hurry and find the right train. We try to buy a ticket but all the ticket machines are switched off. There is a ticket booth but no-one inside. The whole station is abandoned.

We go down several escalators to a platform, and an old steam train pulls in. Just as we jump on the train, my phone starts ringing.

And then it cuts to the next scene. We are in an elephant sanctuary and have just reported for work. Grace is the vet and I am the elephant keeper. I feel greatly relieved as I don't think I would be any good at being a vet, especially of elephants!

There are about a dozen elephants in the sanctuary. A few of them are babies, the smallest one being the size of a horse and absolutely adorable. My job is to feed them, observe their activity patterns and do some record keeping. Occasionally the elephants will break into a playful fight, trumpeting loudly from the other side of the reserve. They seem to respond well to me though, and when I show up the fight is broken.

I love my job, and I love the elephants. Then one day I notice that two of the male elephants are both interested in one of the female elephants. I wonder if some of the previous fights have been over her, and I approach Grace to ask about the mating patterns of elephants. She ponders the question and pulls out the files on those elephants, looking at them carefully.

You must keep this elephant away from her. She says solemnly.

Why? I ask.

Because they will make really ugly little elephants. She says without a trace of expression.

Then I wake up. 

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