I’m Seeing Things
My thoughts seem buried underground. Perhaps it is this pestilential cold that ever lingers in my chest. Or the constant brouhaha about the discovery of a king’s bones under a parking lot that I’m convinced I walked past in Leicester in June of 2010. Maybe it’s that my aunt, the one with the sea shell, finally died almost two weeks ago.
No. Wait. It had to be MTM’s news Tuesday afternoon.
I’ll save that one for another time.
I find myself caught between not-quite-being-well and waiting. And reading. And sleeping. And snoring. According to MTM, who has no room to talk.
And, when I sleep, I dream of a woman I never met. A phantom who has haunted me through the filaments of her untold story since I was a child.
“Tell them about me,” she whispers.
Even though I know so little about her, really.
So.
Through dripping nose and snoring and the haze of cold medicine, I will attempt to revive this female shade in the coming days. Fiction, but all fiction has a seed of fact buried within the words and letters.
Does your imagination go into overdrive when you’re sick? Or, am I the only one of us who’s a weirdo?
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- He Stopped Loving Her Today | The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- And Soon They’ll Carry Him Away | The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- They Placed a Wreath Upon His Door | The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Yesterday I Woke Up Sucking a Lemon | The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Everything In Its Wrong Place | The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- merciless. | Sick with Poetry.
Depends on the illness. High fever? I am off into the clouds with Alice and Frodo, Gatsby and Lear, that odd stranger I think I saw on the street? Sneezy, achy, coughing, runny nose? I’m lucky if my thoughts are deeper than whatever is on TV.
My thoughts will have to run to the next book I can download. If I stay stick for a couple more days, I will have all research for my next novel completed.
Get better.
In due course, I’m sure I will. Thank you.
I hope you feel better real soon Andra (and MTM). I think I’m always in a fantasy land almost every day, every time I pick up a book, read a blog, read the news…
Get Better!
Many would say the same of me, Lori. Maybe that’s why I like you so much.
Weirdos Anonymous, to thine ownself be true.
I’m not very anonymous about my weirdness, Lou………
I hope you are soon better! My imagination goes wild when I dream. Mine frequently have epic struggles, battles, and aliens. Perhaps too much scifi? As a child I had a recurring dream of being in an elevator that plummeted and I flung to the ceiling of the elevator and could not help myself. At least I don’t have that one anymore. My favorite ones are when I dream of flying, without a plane or helicopter.
If you’re seeing things, perhaps you ought to back off the cold meds?
I dreamed last night that I was suffocating in snot. Oh, wait…………..
Sounds like that was reality. You need the head of your bed propped up on bricks, which is what I always did with the children’s crib when they had horrid colds.
I did sleep with it propped up on pillows two nights ago.
Because I sleep poorly, I remember my dreams better. And since I have kooky dreams anyway, yes, I have LOTS of imagination when I’m sick.
My dreams last night were fueled by the book I finished at almost 2am. And now, I barely remember any of it.
What’s your kookiest dream?
M.C. Escher graphics – that becomes my world when I am ill or sleep deprived.
Ah ha. I can see why. Good one.
http://www.mcescher.com/
Andra, I hope you feel better soon. And if I can comment on MTM’s post of yesterday as well, men and women are different when it comes to being sick and how they want to be taken care of; my wife likes me to provide her with lots of attention and all I want to do is hide, take care of myself and get it over with.
Thank you.
And, I suspect MTM feels just as you do when I am sick. Ha.
That’s very funny, Howard.
Ready for the new-age oddness? I believe that when one is ill one retreats closer towards the unconscious, where so much of our lives is stored in intricate detail. If this life, then perhaps other lives. I have one friend who remembered, vividly, sitting desolate inside a rough dark castle tower staring up at a hole through which light was streaming, knowing she would never emerge again. And she maintains she did not, and that this vivid memory was another of her pasts.
And so yes: I believe our most insistent characters come knowcking for us when we are ill.
That makes the coming tale all-the-freakier, Kate, as you shall soon see.
What an amazing story from your friend. I shivered as I read your comment.
Andra, you cannot just write… “Tell them about me,” she whispers.”… And then Not Tell Us! So, how long do we have to wait? Also, the image of Andra snoring should never be put in print.
I will tell you in the coming days, Ted. Or, she will.
Since I’m asleep, I have no idea what the image must be like.
I see you found her. Good series. Eerie stuff, so sad.
The underpinnings of this story have always haunted me.
I think my dreams are always like that… unless I’m sick, then I’m so tired I just sleep
I have cool, fun dreams, in big beautiful homes, its like a going to visit really cool people who you don’t know… bizarre, but entertaining I suppose!
Those are cool experiences, Barbara. I always wonder what homes look like inside, and you must as well, if your dreams are any indication.
You hit the nail on the head! I love home interiors (well, exteriors too)… interesting nonetheless, ha ha… my husband and I are volunteering to be docents at the HGTV Dream Home, that should be fun!
I hope you’ll tell us about it. That has to be a fun experience.
Cold medicine rocks! It is even better mixed with rum or tequila. And I love it when strange women talk to me in my dreams. Heck, I love it when strange women talk to me during my waking hours – which of course is how you and I met. Well, the strange woman part anyway.
Can’t wait to hear your Shade’s story. Maybe she new Richard III somehow. Or at least parked her car on him. Maybe I could sell signs “I parked on King Richard III”. Or the American version “I rode Dick out back”….
Well, I just snorted with enough laughter to clear my head….oh, wait. Never mind.
Oh, for shame! Snorting laughter here, too!
If I can make a woman snort with laughter, Andra or Karen or whomever, my job here is done.
I’m sorry to hear about your Aunt, Andra. It’s not surprising you’re not feeling at your best at the moment, what with the combination of events. I hope the winter lurgy leaves you soon.
I’ve been having some lively dreams lately, to the point where some nights I think my nights have been more action packed than my days!
I hadn’t given it any thought that it could be down to feeling poorly. I’ll have to watch and learn when I’m completely better.
Maybe it’s the reverse, and you’re dreaming because you’re feeling mighty.
But, I don’t think we sleep as well when we’re sick, and that can lead to more remembered dreams.
I think you could be right about us remembering them better. I had one the other night in which I was crying and then I woke myself up crying. Strangely enough, I went back into the dream when I went back to sleep. That never happens with good dreams!
May you have good dreams tonight, Heather.
Thanks! I wish the same for you tonight, too.
Definitely NOT a weirdo, Andra. My imagination goes into overdrive almost all of the time (although it must be said I seem to be constantly trying to shake off a cold…). On Christmas Eve a character by the name of Caitlin wouldn’t leave me alone, and I had to write about her diary entries for my Christmas Day post… they do that, these characters…
They are pesky, these characters.
This is what I get for secretly thinking that I had avoided all pestilence this winter season………
I don’t think I dream much when I’m sick…I sleep like the dead from all the meds I pour on myself to numb feeling bad! I hope you return to the healthier version of you very soon, Andra. In the meantime, it’s good to languish about, hopefully taking care to rest all you can. So very sorry about your aunt’s passing. There is stress associated with these losses, and added to all of life’s ups and downs, I’m sure you’re going to be ready to delve into fresh fiction and hopefully get lost in it for a while! Looking forward to the new character! oxo
My imagination is often on overdrive when I am sick. My sister had an adverse reaction to one of the pain medications, which was a terrifying several hours for us. She did come out of it and days later expounded on her dreams as we were all trying to awaken her. Now that she’s on the mend, I’m sure my own dreams will start.
Hope you are feeling better, Andra.
I am glad to hear that your sister is on the mend, Penny. It is frightening to watch pain play out in someone we love.
It seems we’ve both been battling the ick, Andra. I only wish I had jotted down some of my dreams- most sleep I’ve had in at least 6 months! Odd stuff, indeed ~
I hope I don’t jinx myself but it’s been so long since I’ve been sick that I don’t remember whether odd dreams filled my thoughts. I don’t think I’ve spent even a day in bed sick since we became vegetarians in 1997 ~ just a mild case of the sniffles on rare occasion.
Hope you’re on the road to recovery.
I’m sick so often that I don’t think much changes when I am! I think that the shades that have haunted you for years are often the most promising ones for future storytelling — exciting to finally pull one out and see where it goes!
They do have a more vivid pull on the imagination. That’s for sure.