I usually have very vivid dreams when I sleep… as long as I’m not stressed out 😉 As the first day of school approaches, and my son gets ready to attend full-day kindergarten for the first time, a personal sense of something akin to peace is settling my well-being… and that means the dreams have returned.
More often than not the dreams I remember are good contenders for books or stories. This time, I think the new fantasy series I’m writing (The White Raven) is informing my dreams and maybe my mother being courted by a new beau too…
How do these two things relate?
Well, the dream centred around a difficult time I went through after changing schools as a pre-teen; but in the dream I never moved away from this new school. I went on to high school with the very people who made my life a living hell at that elementary school… but not all the kids were horrible to me.
There was this guy who was teased badly about his last name – Warner… The kids called him “Wiener”. That’s the only negative thing they ever said to/about the guy and I guess he was used to it because he never let it show that it bothered him.
It would have bothered me – and an even worse nickname did, eventually.
Well, in my dream some version of myself as a teen in this alternate reality ended up dating David Warner – the nice guy who was a bit of a geek but still cute in his own right 😉 (kind of sounds like the guy I married!) And my subconscious took me through a lesson I wish I’d learned as a pre-teen – Ignore the bullies; don’t try to be a part of the ‘cool’ crowd; celebrate the ‘nice’ kids.
You see, I had been coerced by one of my supposed ‘cool’ friends to date another cool kid who “liked me”. Of course, I later found out that he was ‘curious’ about me and my past and really had no other interest in me beyond that. So, after sharing my ‘secrets’ with him (I was altogether too trusting and still am) he dumped me 3 months later and started to use those secrets against me.
Enter David Warner…
The day I was planning to do something rather stupid (because I could no longer handle the incessant bullying and negative teasing) he hung out with me over lunch break and, well, we had a great time. I completely forgot about those creeps who I thought were my friends and for 45 minutes I had a ‘normal’ lunch break with someone who treated me like a real friend.
Now, here’s how my new series and my mother fit in to this.
In my ‘what if’ alternate reality dream David and I hooked up in high school… me and the ‘good’ guy – not the ‘cool’ guy. While it’s true that in my real high school experience I did much the same thing, it struck me that my main character, Dray, had to learn how to deal with her own ‘difference’ in elementary and high school. And, like me, she tried desperately to fit in to the ‘cool’ crowd – but it never really worked out. She became a bit of a ‘nice rebel’ – lol!
You see, my mom also had a habit of dating the ‘wrong’ guys (at least from my perspective) and now, in her late 50s she’s finally met a ‘nice guy’ who treats her right… her own David Warner so to speak. And Dray, my character, tries her darndest not to fall for anyone, but finds herself inexplicably drawn to a ‘nice guy’ but is certain she’ll only mess things up with him too.
I tried to find David Warner online today. I googled his name, checked facebook and linkedin but honestly – I’m terrible when it comes to trying to find people like that.
Why was I trying to find him?
To thank him.
I don’t think I ever did.
… and, now I’m curious to see if my mental projection of what he looked liked in the future actually matches reality 😉 Dreams are crazy that way 😉 Still, it’s been over 20 years since I gave him more than a passing thought. I also have a great memory for people I shared classes with during my elementary days – whereas I seem to be fairly forgettable to them, lol!
What about you?
Have you ever had your dreams try work things out for you while you’re sleeping? What about trying to find someone from your childhood?
Author MJ Moores 