At some point in time this morning I began to dream that I was with all my co-workers past and present. We were all seated around 4 rectangular tables that had been placed in an open rectangle in a fairly small room. I was sitting at the table with my back to the door. To my right, along the wall, was a coat cupboard with hooks, like you used to see in schools back in the day. It was all wood with wrought iron hooks and a shelf for hats and whatever above.
I knew everyone around the table, and knew which coat belonged to whom. There were two blue coats, or rather jackets as they were lightweight, like windbreakers, but thigh length, not hip or waist length. There was a bright blue one and a medium blue one.
The older doctor who most recently retired was sitting further down the same table as I was. He is and always has been a bit of an odd fellow. He never hangs around for long. So I wasn't surprised when he abruptly stood up from the table, came behind me and snatched one of the blue jackets from the hook and left. I knew he had taken David's jacket, not his own, so I, being the universal mother hen in the flock, jumped up and grabbed his blue jacket and went after him to make the swap so David would have his jacket when the meeting or dinner, or whatever was going on around that table, was over.
I found myself in a department store, of all places, not a medical office as I had expected, or the back room of a restaurant, which would have been reasonable, considering we were all in one place at one time. I searched for him and found him in a room that was startlingly similar to my dining room. There were several green purses lying on the cluttered table )part of the clutter recognizable as the clutter that occupies my own dining room table in real life.) One purse was open and had some cosmetics and things inside. He was examining a purse that had cash in it, tucking a dollar bill back into the bill compartment. I told him the purse with the cosmetics was for my sister, I had been working on filling it for her. He nodded, then picked up one of my current novels, Black King Takes White Queen, which has a green cover. I told him he could take a copy of the book.
He raised his head and looked at me and I was troubled because he looked unshaven, scruffy, unkempt and somewhat sad. I stood there looking at him, him looking at me, and then he said, "I need a hug."
I then woke up, feeling as if I needed to find him and hug him. I heard Kelly moving around getting ready for work and that's probably what had woken me from the dream, but all day I have had the sense that he is feeling sad or discouraged or lonesome and he needs a hug.
He used to joke that I was his office wife because I would occasionally make him a cup of coffee, and I kept a lo-fat snack drawer for him to snack out of when he was hungry, having come from the hospital to the office, or into the office after running or biking looking for something to munch on. I cleaned up his messes and was always pestering him for signatures when he was flossing his teeth or combing his hair. We had the strangest relationship of any of the many relationships that have developed over the years in that office. And he never even suspected I was a writer until November 2014 when I brought in a copy of Blackstone's Menagerie after winning 2nd place in a Halloween Story writing contest that year.
I think I took on a third dimension in his mind and became a more real person when I gave him several Irish themed stories I'd written to read, and then wrote him a funny story about a medical secretary who's hauled into the police station and interrogated after she's accused of causing an elderly man's death from apoplexy when he calls her and harasses her on the phone for not obtaining a medication prior authorization. Having a criminal justice background I blended the two into a crazy, funny story in which wishful thinking in not considered a crime, even if the person you wished dead actually drops dead. The doctor wrote, "U R 2 Funny!" on the manuscript and left it on my desk to find.
Anyway, I wrote him a couple of brief action/adventure tales with a character he created prior to his retirement at the beginning of May 2015. He's since read several of my books and posted a couple reviews for me on Amazon. He's been to one of my book signings. I am that medical secretary he took for granted for years who turned out to have a secret life of my own outside of work, one that defined me as someone and something else entirely- an author.
So, my friend, wherever you may be this evening- this blog is my hug to you.
Dreams that real, that powerful and that remain with me and haunt me throughout an entire day must mean something, after all.
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