In this dream, I lived in my childhood house with my mother - or, more appropriately, was spending some time at my childhood house with my mother. (We sold the house in 1995.) She had left, as had all of my siblings, to go run some errands and my friend Jared (who now lives in Tennessee) came over to keep me company. It was nighttime. My twins (now named Aidan and Amelia) were asleep in a twin-set carrier on the living room floor, where I had put on a video.
Jared and I were in the kitchen. He was sitting on a barstool in the breakfast room, facing the kitchen, and I was sitting on the counter in the kitchen. We leaned against the counter, which, in reality, is a stove, and were talking. A pack of Marlboro Lights, a pack of Camel Wides, an ash tray, and two lighters lay between us. Jared, who does not smoke, was smoking a cigarette and I, who only smoke cigarettes, was smoking a cigar.
"Why are you smoking a cigar?" Jared asked me.
"Because my mom doesn't know what they smell like," I answered, huffing away. (In the dream, I was smoking a cigar like one smokes a cigarette so, in reality, it was like this giant clove.) "I can pass it off as a new perfume if she smells it."
"What about the babies?" Jared asked, glancing through the doorway to look at them. I peered over there, too, and, seeing my babies, felt a rush of love and the thought of "how on earth did I manage to create two little things so perfect?"
"They're only two weeks old, Jare," I'd answered. "You'd be surprised. Newborn babies have the highest immune systems ever because they have their own, plus anything remaining in them from mine.
"Oh."
We chatted, I don't know about what, as we smoked and then we heard the back screen door open, a key inserted into the lock, and watched as the door swing open. Panicing at being caught 1) smoking, 2) smoking inside of the house, and 3) smoking with my children in the house, I jumped off the counter tried to put the cigar out. It wouldn't go out. I tried to put my cigarettes and my lighter in the draw beneath the counter but it was one of those fake drawers that only look like a drawer. I was freaking out and Jared kept smoking, watching me, wide-eyed. I knew that it just hadn't set in yet that someone was walking into the house.
No one entered, though.
"Find some air freshner," I told Jared in a low, hushed whisper, "and get rid of this crap. HURRY!" As he scurried off, I went to the door in search of who had been there but no one was there. I walked into the backyard, through the courtyard, and finally on to the driveway. There, my brother (Brandon's) girlfriend, Allison, was emptying things out of her car. Allison has straight brown hair in real life but, in my dream, had shoulder-length (dyed dark brown) hair that had really big, light curls (like waves) in it. She looked amazing.
"Hey, Missy!" she called. "What's up?"
"Don't you ever," I told her seriously, but with a stressed smile on my face, "EVER come into my house without knocking, okay? Promise me!"
"But I have a key," she said.
"I don't care!" I told her. We were walking back to the house as we spoke. "Don't EVER do that to me again, you nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Why?" When she got into the house and inhaled, she spotted the ashtrays that Jared hadn't gotten rid of and glanced at them. "You're smoking?" she asked.
"Yeah. Don't tell Mom."
"You shouldn't smoke!" she told me. "You just had twins! And you shouldn't smoke around them! Are you *trying* to kill them?"
I woke up after rushing to their side to check on them. I handed Aidan to Allison and snuggled with Amelia - both twins remained asleep - but, as I was waking up, Aidan opened his eyes and smiled then Amelia did.
