A Dream

I was in my high school during some sort of break period. I was with two young men, who I actually did go to school with, Billy Medford and Brett. We decided to ditch the place and began walking the hallways. For some reason I was sitting in a big office chair, which I did not leave and in fact rolled through the halls in.

In reality my high school set in a building that was very close to my junior high building. The junior high building was in fact connected to the middle school and elementary school building. In the dream even the high school building was connected to the others via hallways.

We began slowly walking down the halls to the elementary school. We looked at the young kids walking by, studied our old lockers and generally reminisced. Eventually we came to the end of the building and walked outside, me finally leaving the chair.

It was recess, and there were all kinds of kids running and playing. Over there was the BigToy, and just in front was a lively game of softball.

I watched the boys play softball as the batter lobbed a ball directly to the third baseman. A pudgy kid, the third baseman was, and he promptly dropped the lob, the proceeded to fumble with it off the ground, allowing a man to score. When he finally got the ball under control the play was over and he tossed it to the pitcher amongst some good ribbings from his teammates.

At this time an elementary school teacher, Mrs. Buchfink, noticed us and asked what we were doing. Billy immediately walked over making up a story about it being break time at the high school and we got bored playing a game.

I, too, walked over and began discussing how long it had been since I was on this side of the school. I waxed nostalgic with Mrs. Buchfink on how things had changed and how old it all made me feel.

A current coworker, Monique, appeared and I asked her how long she had been at this school, to which she replied she came last year.

I began talking about the parking situation with the teacher and then I awoke.

While this may seem a very bland and boring dream to most, and in fact it is rather dull, there is something I find quite interesting about it. You see Billy Medford was a real student at this school and one I had an odd relationship with, and have dreamed about before.

I was very shy in school, and quite unpopular. Like a lot of kids not on the popular roster, I wanted very much to be there. I was simply too shy to get anywhere near it. In order to not be a complete loser and absolutely alone I often hung together with other unpopular kids, even if I didn’t particularly like them. As if being seen with some jerk was better than being seen alone.

Billy Medford was one such kid. I never particularly liked him, but for different classes and projects we grouped together. Mostly we tolerated each other, though sometimes we fought both verbally and even once physically (though the pacifist in those days I deflected most of the punches without throwing my own).

Since leaving high school for good, I have often dreamed of Billy Medford. In those dreams he is always the annoyance and tormentor. In my dream life he is that much more of a jerk and spends his time doing everything to irritate me to my last nerve. The dreams are never exactly the same, but his role in them is identical.

It is in this most recent dream, which he has taken on a new role. For the first dream ever, Billy is not tormenting me but rather being nice to me, if not exactly a talkative friend.