Two dreams: Home invaders, and marble steps to another world

Home invaders

(I had this dream whilst staying in my childhood home in Shanghai)

Two of my Canadian friends came to visit on our street, getting off at a bus stop that does not exist in real life. I am puzzled in the dream because our street is so narrow it doesn’t really accommodate buses, but nevertheless there they are.

They are excited by the old colonial style buildings in the French concession and snap pics of roofs and walls, doors and windows. Actually in real life many tourists do come to the neighbourhood for exactly this reason. They are so engrossed in this exploration that we almost miss the entrance to our place.

We walk inside and I know immediately that something is wrong. The door is slightly ajar, definitely not the way I would have left it when I was locking up. The hallway is dark and I push it open. Inside it looks completely still, and my friends follow me inside still happily chattering away.

Then I cast my eyes to the right and see the television has been smashed face down on the ground with little bits of glass everywhere. My friends fall silent and the general silence in the apartment is suffocatingly overwhelming.

Suddenly two guys dash out of the room to our left and run across the living room. The three of us are blocking the front door so they dash into the kitchen (on our right). I run after them and slam the door shut. There is an external lock on the door that does not exist in real life, but I lock it with some relief. They bang on the door to no avail. By then the neighbours have arrived and said they called the police.

We sit down on the couch, feeling shaken up but temporarily safe. The invaders have stopped banging on the door and it is all quiet again. The police arrive and we explain what has happened. They step gingerly around all the broken glass and one of them says, you girls really know how to enjoy life, drinking tea while the invaders are just a few metres away?

I look down at the tea, a deep murky brown, and wake up.

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Marble steps to another world

This is a really strange dream, because I never confirm who the other person is.

I am standing on a street in front of a large window. The shutters are wooden and look sort of European. It is dark inside and impossible to see from the street level what is inside. I open the window and the shutter clang clumsily. I climb onto the windowsill and dangle my legs over the other side, just barely touching the ground.

The ground feels totally cool and smooth, perhaps some sort of marble. I jump off the windowsill and both my feet are on the ground now – I’m not wearing socks or shoes. My eyes adjust to the room slightly and the dark feels less dark, but it is still quite overwhelming. The air feels still and musty.

I take a step forward and realise that there is a step there. I hold instinctively onto the windowsill, not wanting to lose touch with it. I take the step down and it is extremely steep. My feet reach the bottom of the step and I realise there are even more steps. I reluctantly let go of the windowsill, keeping the pale wedge of light within sight, my connection with the outside world. Then I take a few more steps down.

The window is so small now that it looks like a comical moon. I feel afraid, but then I am aware that someone is ahead of me in the stairwell. I cannot see them or feel them, but I know they are there. The steps curve to the left, and with this curve I lose sight of the window.

My heart races and I go back up one step, to the exact point where the curve is. I can still see the outside world and I calm down a little. Descending further into the darkness feels scary, and I cannot will myself to do it.

Eventually I catch my breath and ascend the smooth marble steps again, till I am gripping the wooden windowsill. I open the window and step out. Outside it’s Belmore Rd, Randwick, something that occurred to me only as I emerged (not as I went into the window). I re-arrange the shutters so that they are slightly ajar, just in case the other person actually wants to come out as well?

I have a strong sense that some time has been lost, but I am not sure how much.

I walk down Belmore Rd and realise all the shops are in Chinese. It must be a Shanghai version of Belmore Rd, I think to myself. I go into a shop and ask for sticky rice cakes with deep fried pork chop and sweet sauce, something I ate in Shanghai recently. The lady says that they are all sold out and the door is closed. I am indeed unable to get out of the shop until a security guard lets me out.

Back in the sunshine, I have another wave of feeling that some time has been lost. I feel lost now, in this strange world that I do not recognise, and then I wake up.