January 8, 2014 Dream

I was having a huge party at our house.  There was a ton of food and lots of different people attended from all parts of my life.  Guests included friends, family, students and their families.  One student's husband got really drunk and challenged another husband.  The second took it to him, while I walked inside and found his son.  I knelt down to hug him because I knew he was scared.  He was immense for a child, incredibly wide.  As I hugged him, he sobbed.  I attempted to lift him in my arms, but he was too heavy, and rolled back onto his back like a turtle might.

Within a second, he rolled himself over, became wiry and thin, and ran around the room laughing and doing the Spiderman web shooting from the wrist thing.  I followed suit, knowing strangely that it would make me more attractive to the guests.  We ran around the room jumping, doing the Spiderman, until I jumped against a window and knocked off the board that framed its upper portion. As I attempted to replace it, I realized that it wasn't long enough anymore. I did my best.

I walked outside to make sure things were going okay, and approached the gate to lock it.  I didn't want the drunk man who'd been beaten quite badly to return and cause more trouble.  Right before I did, a group of young teenagers I didn't recognize approached the gate and snuck in.  There must have been 5 of them.  I asked who they were connected with at the party, and one of them said "15." They were a mixed group racially, but seemed about the same age, were all outwardly males.

I soon realized that they didn't know anyone there and I locked the gate and ventured after them to expel them.  Before I knew it, I found the party overrun with these kids, though now there were females as well.  They weren't wearing a uniform of any kind, although they did sorta match with black t-shirts and usually dark colored pants.  In the midst of booting them out, I continued circulating the party, trying to have a nice time, looking for food and so on.  Each time, I would discover a new bunch of these kids and would expel a group of 3-7 of them.  They never resisted, though they didn't make haste in their exits.

After about 10 such groups, another walked down the steps on the front of the house, and were lead by a young man with bright red hair, light grey shirt partially covered by a checkered sweater, and light grey pants.  He seemed a tad bit older.  As I moved them towards the front gate, he asked, "Are you sure this is the front?" As he did, he walked to the left, approaching the wooden fence that demarcated the property line.  "Are you sure it's not...the side?" He said this with a quite ridiculous air of mystery, likely magnified by his youth.  While I thought it absurd, I watched him walk towards the fence, at which point a gate appeared, through which he passed.  When he did, the brick pathway seemed to slam up against the opening of the gate, but in a distorted way, as if you had shone an image of bricks onto a semi-flat, tilted surface.  It was skewed and appeared saturated and digital, though there it sat.

I refocused on the dozen or so shuffling slowly out the front gate.  (As an aside, I found it interesting that none of the others followed this kid, though he clearly seemed to be their leader.  On their way out, I noticed that one of the graphics on a t-shirt said Orin Industries.  I nearly lost it.  Then I awoke.

(Orin is the name of a character from the film The Ballad of Narayama, from 1958.  The film tells the story of a family in a period of great change.  The grandmother is reaching the age of her honorable expulsion from the community.  The son has recently lost a wife to drowning, but has been given a new wife from across the mountain.  The grandson is indolent and rude, assuming he's old enough and mature enough to start his own family with the young girl he's gotten pregnant.  Orin, the grandmother, becomes somewhat manic about her trip to Narayama - the mountain where she will starve out her last days.  In particular, she is ashamed of her healthy teeth, which are evidence that she's been greedy in times of meager rations.  In her desire to be old dentally, she smashes her front teeth out on the side of a bowl, and thereafter pecks around town with blood running down her chin.  This, of course, is shameful for the family, as she is mocked by the youth in the community as a crone.) See this film!