I was in a pub with Alan and my mother and aunt and many other people. I felt like I knew all the people who owned and worked in the pub very well, and they let me do whatever I wanted while I was there. At one point I was sitting behind the bar eating some food when my father walked in and gave me and everyone else a strange look, and sat off to the side somewhere. I kept hoping he would come and talk to me but he never did.
The pub was dark and had a very welcoming feeling to it, but I became uncomfortable waiting for my dad to acknowledge me. I overheard him talking to another man about a commercial he had seen recently, and what he said went something like this:
"There was a man walking through what seemed to be a water desert. There was no sand anywhere, just shallow water that went on forever. He came to a palace made of water, with watery towers and pillars in the front. When he walked into the palace, a silver car appeared. It was a Lexus. He got into the car and drove away. Isn't that amazing? Everything made of water and then a car that looks like it's made of water too! I want a Lexus now!"
He moved around the room a lot until I lost track of him. I turned to a man who was sitting next to me (he reminded me of the Green Man, and I considered him a father figure in this dream) and asked if my dad had left. He said no and pointed to a booth in the corner where my dad was sitting with a group of guys, looking uncomfortable. I decided that I didn't want to waste my evening worrying about him, so I sat and joked around with Alan and my mom for awhile. One of the bartenders came by and placed a huge bottle of soda on the countertop. My mom made a face and said, "We had that stuff when we were kids and it was disgusting. Don't drink it." She crossed the room soon after that, and when she was coming back she stopped in her tracks halfway because she saw something in the foyer to her right. She made a face like "oh my god" in sarcasm, and laughed and sat across from me.
"Your father just gave me a look like he wants me to come home with him tonight," she said, leaning across the counter and smiling. My aunt laughed and said, "I dare you to go!" and I replied, "Yeh, I dare you too!" But I thought harder about it and concluded that it wouldn't be a good idea because they might get emotionally involved and that would just make life more complicated for everyone. I was about to say that to her, but she said it herself and we all agreed it was a bad idea.
We all eventually ended up in the foyer, talking together. There was a Chinese girl about the same age as me but a few inches shorter. She told me that there was a place in the back of the pub that had a ghostly feel to it, where she'd heard strange whispering voices before. I asked her to show me the place, so she took my hand and led me through halls and rooms until we came to a white door that opened out to a garden patio. The door was stuck, so we had to crawl through a doggy door that was cut through the bottom half. There were two Asian men seated at two different tables on the patio. They were very quiet, and the girl led me to the center of the garden, saying "My brother killed my father a few days ago." She was crying. "I think that might be who is whispering to me."
The center of the garden was a huge tree with leaves and branches that spread out so far. It might have been an oak. The roots were enormous and forced their way to the surface of the earth, where small white flowers and moss covered them. We stood together on the roots and waited. After what seemed like several moments I started to hear a strange whispering sound that seemed to me to be coming from the tree itself, instead of from a human voice. A strong wind began to blow, hurling flower petals around us in spirals. The Chinese girl suddenly became smaller than she had been before, and I took her hand and we ran back toward the building.
As we reached the patio, the younger of the two men seated there stood, and began approaching us slowly, his face devoid of expression. I urged the girl to get into the building, but for some reason the doggy door had become too small for me to follow. I assured her I would find a way out around the other side of the building. The man was walking towards me now and as I ran to the side of the building I was expecting to find a high wall that would be impossible to climb (because that's how my dreams usually work out). However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a very short fence that I only had to hop over.
I returned to the foyer where everyone was still sitting. The Chinese girl had shrunk to about two feet tall, so I picked her up and held her on my hip. We looked at the door, and the young man soon entered. He made eye contact with both of us before turning around again and leaving.