the scene:
Dinner at a long pieced together table in the fashion of a
family gathering. Card, kitchen, and rented folding tables pushed together and covered in a patchwork of old tableclothes and
mis-matched china. Most of the dishes have been cleared and there are only a few plates and wine glasses sitting out. Women are clearing the table and kids are running circles around the table and then off into the living room, out the front door, back in through the back and around the table again.
action:
Kristine is my ex-girlfriend and she is not there but her sister is along with another girl who, by the strangness of dreams, is another sister who doesn't exist
in the waking world. They are talking about Kristine and trying to provoke me it seems with particulars about her new life. I try to remain calm and listen to their stories
but the stress is building regardless of my attempts to distinguish it. One of the sisters, Megan, brings up Kristine's new boyfriend and and stares at me from across the table searching for signs of discomfort in my expression.
Desparate to remain calm, I say "yes ,yes, do tell me how it's going" but at the same time reach for a half full glass of some sort of juice sitting near by an gulp it down. A sudden and voracious thirst has come over me. As I try to act calm and interested in the discussion, I'm grabbing at nearby glasses and sucking the left-over liquid out of each and then begin picking the left-overs off of the remaining plates and saying, betwen gulps and with a mouth full of food, "I'd really like to know, really".
The spectacle I make is distracting to the point that Megan just stares in
disgust, no, maybe more like confusion. I decide to leave, maybe in search of something more to drink but once I get out to the sidewalk I start spitting as I walk and soon I am trying to spit from the very bottom of my throat. At first the spittle is watery and abundant but eventually I feel like I've got cotton mouth or have just eaten
a block of cheese so that the spittle is hard to gather and sticks to my lips...
I woke up blowing bubbles into my pillow.