This morning’s dream notes is One Hot Mess. It’s out of order, and the (lack of) sentence structure is making my eyes bleed. So I nuked the original post from this morning and wrote the events in chronological order…
- Walking down the street. It’s a nice day. I’m feathered up from head to toe. Literally. I don’t have a teeny, tiny afro. I have a black feathered head. I’m not surprised by this and accept it as the evolution of my dream self. I’m wearing my raven feather cloak and it is wrapped around me in that delightful “Don’t fuck with me” way. Most people on the street that see me stare in shock for a moment, then stammer a greeting. They are surprised when I return the greeting and smile. I’m a bitch, but I’m a polite bitch. They return the smile and chitter amongst themselves about running into The Black Woman and wait until their friends hear about that! Did I mention it’s a nice day? I know I’m supposed to be catching up with a friend, so I’m on my way to the City’s borders.
- “Lady! Hey Lady! Thank God I ran into you!” Guy in a tuxedo saw me through the windows of a meeting hall. He’s running after me the best his too-small dress shoes will allow. I stop and wait for him to catch up. As he approaches, he realizes I’m “Black Feathers”. He catches his breath while muttering his apologies to me for stopping me, and his prayers for he is scared I’m angry at him for stopping me. “Aww, shit. Black Feathers. I’m sorry. I… I need your help but I have nothing to pay you with.” I ask him what he needs my help with, but remind him I’m not committing to anything. “I’m having a wedding! In half an hour, actually. But I don’t have everything ready. At the last second, my soon-to-be mother-in-law hijacked the decor and removed all the stuff I had placed. It’s now white from floor to ceiling! But my family’s tradition is that you have to have the major colors of the rainbow present, to represent the different bloodlines that the bride and groom come from! I have most of the colors back in token form, but I’m missing black and green. Would you attend my wedding? All I need is for you to be there when we say our vows.” He’s trying to be very calm and serene about the request. I can see the panic in his eyes. I’m tell him I’ll attend.
- When he said she made it white, he wasn’t kidding. She had even tried to get the minister to wear a white frock instead of his usual black. (The minister didn’t count for color representation, because his usual is black. I counted because I was not required to attend the wedding, but I chose to do so anyway.) The minister is waiting at the door, he thought the groom had decided to call the whole thing off. The groom is almost in tears. There is no green! The minister whispers to the groom, “I have something you should see.”, and lifts the hem of his black frock. He’s wearing a green robe under it! “Would this do? Even though no one can see it?” The groom is ecstatic. Yes, this will do. The minister chose to wear it, and it is not required.
- The bride’s father saw the minister’s gesture, and interpreted it as the minister making a pass at the groom. I happened to see the bride’s father’s face and intercepted the man from accosting the minister. “I know what you think went down. That’s not what went down. By making a scene here, you are telling your daughter that you do not trust her soon-to-be husband. Are you sure you want that kind of drama today? What will your wife think? It’s bad enough she disrespected the groom by completely changing the decor at the last second. The minister is wearing green under his frock, and is showing the groom so he will be put at ease. That’s all.” The bride’s father is still huffing and puffing and glaring at the minister. He finally looks to see who this little woman is confronting him and sees the feathers. His eyes grow large and he starts to stammer out an apology. “The only words I want to hear from you is ‘I welcome my son-in-law’. Otherwise, go sit down.” He swallows hard, turns, and joins his wife.
- It’s a beautiful wedding. But at the last second, before they are declared husband and wife, the bride has a surprise. She knew her mother would try to disrupt the wedding by removing colors. “I have a gift for you, my dear husband.” He looks at her in question. “RED!” Some of those present, apparently dressed in white coats, stand up and turn their coats inside out and place them on. The red stain liner gleamed brilliantly. “ORANGE!” Several of the bridesmaids were large women. They reached into their bosom and pulled out several orange boas they had hidden there. All the bridesmaids took a boa and wrapped it around themselves. One by one, the bride called out a color, and members of the audience would reveal they had been wearing or carrying an item of that color the entire time. When she called for green, the minister placed his book on the podium, and shed the black frock, revealing the green robe tied with a green sash. He picked up his book, and nodded at the bride to continue. One by one, she called the major colors of the rainbow. But she did not call out black.
- The groom asked her if she had anyone to represent the color black. She said she could not find all black clothing at the last second. He looked at me. I nodded. He called out the color with vigor. I dispersed my feathers and swirled them around the hall in elaborate displays, bringing them together as a halo around the bride and the groom.
- “Before the living and the dead, with those gone before as witnesses, and those to come holding promise, with all the colors of life and living holding court, I pronounce you husband and wife. To each other surrender and be blessed.”
- I DID NOT CRY. I only sniffled. A little.
- Some lady in the audience had some STANK perfume on and that’s why my eyes are watering! OKAY! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
- My feathers reclaimed, each and every one of them, I start to wish the new couple a good life. The wife’s mother headed towards them as well. They ruined her special moment. I intercept her. She starts to tear into me about my filthy feathers and my morbid appearance and how I should be banished from the City because “only beautiful people should be here”. “Lady, if the City only accepted beautiful people as citizens, then you would never have been allowed to know it exists. Your soul is ugly from trying to force your daughter to live the perfect life you demand. She’s an adult, and her own person. Step the fuck off and relinquish your plans while your daughter still loves you. You’ve made it perfectly clear, the only reason you destroyed the colorful decor is because you don’t want your daughter to live independently of you. This whole bullshit was a reminder to her that you will always run her life for her. And yet, she turned it right back around. I was going to wish her strength and tenacity, but it looks like she has a healthy serving of that instead.”
- My anger spent, I turned to the couple. One look at the new wife’s face tells me she’s going to be just fine. I kiss them both for good luck, and leave. The new husband is in tears. The new wife got it handled. Fuck yea.
- “Hey, Lady! Where ya headed?” One of the friends of the groom stops me as I leave. I tell him I’m headed to the City border. “Need a lift? I’m headed there too. I stopped by to wish my friend ‘good luck’. I couldn’t attend the wedding, I have a rehabilitated falcon to set loose and today is the day!” Yea, sure.
- I hop in his 4×4 and we take off. We don’t even get four blocks away when the traffic just congeals around us. A bad accident at a critical intersection has paralyzed traffic. The man is in distress. He’s not prepared for such a delay, and doesn’t want to stress the falcon by keeping it caged up for so long. I note I can see the hills just outside the city. “If we release the bird here, would it be okay?” “I dunno, Lady. I don’t speak bird!”
- “I know which way is home. I’ll be okay.” The man and I stare at each other with a Did you hear what I heard? face. The caged falcon laughs at us both. “I don’t tell most people I can speak human, but anyone that wears those kind of feathers is going to be okay with me speaking. He was very good to me, and my wing is completely healed now. I do want out of this cage, though.”
- Well then. That’s that. The man is tearfully happy to know the falcon recovered from his injuries. The falcon was very matter-of-fact about it and surprised the man was emotional about his recovery. “It’s a human thing.” The falcon just nodded.
- The cage was opened without ceremony. The falcon hopped out, stretched his wings, and announced to the world that “I’m back! Let’s do this!”. The bird jumped forward but didn’t gain much altitude. He flew low over a yellow, open-top convertible, pissing off the driver.
- The convertible took off after the bird, trying to hit it. The falcon led him on a merry chase, that ended with the driver not noticing he was being led into a parking lot. The falcon turned tightly at a crucial point, the driver attempted to follow and lost control.
- Two SUVs and a third car of unknown make were harmed in teaching the convertible driver a lesson. “How did such a small car make such a huge dent?” “The car was carrying the driver’s ego as well as the driver.” “That will do it.”
- The traffic breaks free and the guy takes me to the City’s border like he promised. Of course, NOW is when I remember I could have left the City at any time, merely by willing myself elsewhere. Whoops. But, to make him feel better, I let him see me walking out the City on foot. Overhead, a falcon declares how good it is to be on the wind again.
- I leave the City, but wind up sitting on the front porch of a friend’s house. Chica was having unsettling dreams and was chitchatting with me to distract her. She realizes how much time I’ve spent with her. “Oh shit, you’re supposed to be at the Svartalf! And I’m soaking up all your time!” Yea. But. I have plenty of time. (Famous last words.) She gets settled and goes inside to go back to sleep. I step off the porch and get swallowed up by deeper sleep.
- The rest of the night was Little Distracting Shit. If I was paranoid, I’d say I’m being kept from reaching him, or tested to see how far I’m willing to go.
~sigh~
And as of this writing (5:30pm), I STILL haven’t thrown down tarot to see what’s blocking my ass. Also, this was supposed to be “notes”. And it is. If I had written it out fully, it would be time for bed when I finished.
Back to work.