In my dream, I am driving a car -- I think it's my new VW -- and come up to what might be a short cut on my route to wherever I was headed. A road -- or maybe driveway -- appeared ahead of me. I'd never taken that way before, if it had an outlet on the other side, it would save me a traffic light or two and some considerable distance. So I take the turn -- out of curiosity as anything else. I'm not in a hurry. It's a left turn onto the "road."
The pavement winds around a bit so that I couldn't see exactly where it was going before I turned. In fact, it led behind a building and lead to a parking lot (sized for maybe 30 cars or so) -- without any cars parked there. I don't think there are lines painted on the pavement showing where cars should park. But there are several people standing ahead of me: a tall man and several shorter people that appear to be women. They're all looking in my direction. The tall man gestures suggesting that I should stop. As in: "You can't exit in this direction and I don't want you to turn your car around and leave." So I drive forward a bit and stop the car. The people in front of me do not look angry or dangerous. They're all dressed well and have pleasant-to-neutral looks on their faces.
The man chastises me for driving into this area without permission and without really understanding what I was doing. I think I tell him I'm sorry and that I won't repeat the "offense."
The scene shifts and now I'm inside a building and "know" that it's the building that I saw just to the left of the parking lot. The building for which the lot was designed and built. The room is large with a drop ceiling that seems to be a bit lower than it should be. The room is "under lit," in that I can see what's nearby (if there had been anything nearby, but the room appears to be empty except for him and me) but the light fades as it goes into the corners of the room. It's not dirty but it has the feeling of not having been used in a considerable period of time. It has a "tired-looking" linoleum floor.
The man is explaining to me that, in essence, I can't leave without his permission(?) and that he wasn't going to give that any time soon. In words I can't remember, he outlines how stupid and dangerous it would be for me to try to leave. It's quite possible that I no longer have my car keys.
The scene shifts again. I'm still in the same room, but now there are a few other people with me. They're trapped just as I am. Being a newer in our condition, some of them are still walking slowly around, bewildered. New people "magically" appear as time moves on -- all of whom are suffering the same fate.
The tall man appears in the scene from time to time. He's always congenial and pleasant but firm and insistent that we must all stay until he decides differently. And that doesn't seem to be something likely to happen. Maybe ever. There's no suggestion as to what plans he may have for us
Now there is a table with stackable office chairs around it in the room. No one is anywhere near that area. But the thought occurs to me that we might use the chairs as weapons and clobber the tall man and get ourselves out of the building. But some concern arises that the women might get engaged in the conflict and maybe one or more of them is armed. And if out insurrection fails, the consequences could be severe. So we don't do anything except shrugging our shoulders at one another and wait for help or inspiration.
AFTERMATH
I wake up (the clock ways 2:00 AM) and visit the bathroom. When I come back to bed, I don't fall asleep quickly, but the narrative of the dream continues: I ask "What if we..." and the answer comes back "Not a great idea because..." or "No, that won't work." It's like the dream continues into my waking space and it insists on keeping me trapped in that situation.
It's not fair, of course, or so it seems to me, but the tall man reminds me of Tony Martin. (Although his face doesn't show the stresses that Tony's face often shows.)
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