The 5YO told me a dream:
I went on a walk and I found the pond.
(The one we walk to behind our place, though it sounds like she’s discovering it here in some dream geography.)
I saw a copperhead and he tried to get me, but I punched him in the face.
(There are snakes around us, but this is not the way she’s been told to deal with them.)
And then I ran and found one of my friends. We were playing in the swamp and there was an alligator that came up to us.
(Though my school bus used to drive past the occasional sunning gators, we don’t have any here. That I know of, anyway.)
But it turned out it was another friend in an alligator costume and we were doing a school play.
(That’s my favorite bit. I like to think it was a version of Pogo.)
Then we went to a hotel. It was a nice hotel.
(The snake followed them there and a multi-story chase ensued. She described it with more excitement than fear. I haven’t told her about the several dreams I’ve had of snakes pouring out of heating vents or the dream about a snake biting me between my thumb and first finger and hanging there until the skin starting stretching like melted plastic. All in good time.)
_______
In other news, the kids have given each other nicknames: Big Sister is “Uranus,” while Little Sister is “Knickers.”
Stephen McClurg 