Dream Log: HER Again

Last night, for the third time in a little over a week, I dreamed about a woman I knew thirty years ago. In the first of these three dreams, she was an actress on Broadway. In the second dream she was a small-town Midwestern civil servant. It last night's dream she was a secret agent like the ones in campy shows like the Jame Bond movies, or "Alias," the TV series starring Jennifer Garner which ran on ABC from 2001 to 2006. She resembled Sidney Bristow, the character played by Garner on the show, in many ways, but not in the many elaborate disguises Bristow wore. Instead she mostly wore black jackets and black pants, a laborer's clothes. Like Sydney Bristow, she was able to beat up just about anybody in the world, if necessary. However, she lacked Bristow's nightmarish background and constant smoldering anger. Unlike Bristow, she rarely came to blows with anyone.

The secret agent and I were in our 20's. At the same time, she and I were both our actual selves, at our actual ages, in our late 50's. And at the same time, she and I were both figures in paintings.

From the inside of my home, I have some close-up views of some large old elm trees. Often, sunlight hits the nearer leaves of these elms in such a way as to give them a silvery appearance -- especially if I'm half-awake, coming out of a nap. The paintings in my dream, pictures of the woman I used to know and myself, had silvery highlights similar to these trees, and similar to some of the paintings of Gustav Klimt:

I had a date with the secret agent. Her house, which she shared with some co-workers, had yellow borders painted on the windows and the front staircase. Yellow delivery vans were driving by on the street nearby.

I had driven there in a Mercedes-Benz. She asked if I wanted to go to the back seat of my car. The car opened up in back and a large carpet rolled out onto the ground. After we had been on the blanket for a while, a large group of her secret-agent co-workers had surrounded us. They followed us silently as we walked to a dock which was otherwise deserted. They stood around watching us expectantly. I wasn't sure exactly why they were there. I told her I would be more comfortable if they left. She shouted, "Danger zone!" and they all vanished.

We stood on the dock and held each other for a little while, and then I woke up.