In my dream, I'm standing in a supermarket, getting ready to check out. (My dream does not include any reference as to what I'm buying -- and maybe that means something...) As I approach the check-out line, I realize I know the cashier -- somewhat informally, but enough that we can call each other by our first names.
I hand her money in payment. It's some number of dollars (don't recall how many) and seven cents. As I would normally do in a situatiion like this, I hand her strictly paper cash, expecting change. She looks at me apologetically and tells me it has to be the exact change. Puzzled but undaundted, I take back some of the paper money and hand her the only coin I have in my pocket, which is a dime. In doing this, I tell her she can keep the extra three cents, but it seems that's unacceptable as well. "Exact" means exact.
(There's a scene change in the dream. It's not part of the dream to elaborate on how this dilemma was resolved.)
I am now outside the supermarket and discover, much to my amazement that I have a pocketful of loose change, and could come up with the seven cents amount many different ways and do it again and again with the change I have. I go back inside the supermarket to "settle up" (a phrase from my notes) the above-mentioned issue about payment.
Inside, I see that folks are building some "gateways" that look like toll booths for pedestrians. The're light brown (as in imiatation wood) and have one or more (not sure) lights overhead that might be red and green for getting through the gate, as in "Go" and "Stop." There are other bits of construction work going on in the midst of it being a supermarket with aisles of food and so forth. I'm not informed as to what this other construction stuff -- or the "gateways" either -- are all about, but it doesn't feel like a good thing is unfolding. Somebody seems to be looking to take heavy handed control of the people in the store.
I hear a voice which I believe must be one of the people guiding this building process. The voice says: "(something) (something) to take care of Randy if he comes back." Clearly, it's time for me to get out and the concern about seven cents dwindles in importance.
I'm now outside the building looking in through the large front windows at the activity inside, trying to figure out what was going on. Doing so, I see the face of someone I knew back in either elementary school or junior high or maybe both. It's a girl's/woman's face which is unmistakeable from what I remember. I don't recall her name and now, being awake and writing this report, I'm surpised and puzzled that I recall her face as clearly as I did.
She was somebody who shared a number of classes with me and someone I would have liked to know better. It was a kind face and much a more interesting face than simply being pretty. Among other things, her compexion suggested that some of her ancestry was not typical "white," but slightly darker, but not African-American. The me that I am now would certainly want to chat her up and see how she was doing and what she remembered of our shared school experiences etc., etc. But the me from back then was essentially terrified of female persons of any age, so chatting her up back then was way beyond possibility. She's looking out the window and might well be looking at me. I can't tell...
It was quite a shock to see her. I think I recall that "Wow, it's nice to have her here in my dream, but she really doesn't seem to fit. Or maybe she does and I just don't understand how or why just yet." So not only was her face a surprise but the momentary elevation out of the dream was also a surprise. I think I recall making the decision to drop back into the dream story. Pick it up where it left off.
Seeing her the age I am now and recalling her fondly, I had a strong temptation to re-enter the supermarket and tell her about my fear that something bad was going to happen in there some time soon. But I also felt that might put me back in danger, remembering that it seemed someone was making plans to do someting to or about me "if I came back."
So, do I go back and warn her -- risking myself in the process -- or do I just keep going and hope that things are okay for her? As the dream ends, I am allowing my momentum to carry me away from the supermarket, but feel I might change my mind at any moment. But I also understand that, if I decided to do that, the sooner the better, as whatever bad thing might be in the works might begin at any moment.
I wake up.
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