Dream #35245

It was cold but the sun was shining in the morning of my dream last night. Across the lake I saw Chicago before I opened the back driver’s side door of my car and gathered my things. Would I need the scarf? I didn’t think so but I grabbed it anyways and slung it over my shoulder and shoved my gloves into my jacket pocket. One more look around, Chicago again and then to the gravel parking lot where I was standing. The boarding area for the ferry was only about 100 feet away and there didn’t seem to be many people waiting. I went back into the backseat of my car again and grabbed my camera bag and slung it over my shoulder. I made sure nothing else was sitting out in plain view and then locked the car doors and shut them.

Work was still in Baltimore but I made sure not to think about it. I was on vacation and had the day to catch a ferry into the city and head downtown to see if I could find anything surprising or interesting to take pictures of. I was feeling good. I thought about putting on my gloves as I walked to the boarding area and decided not to put them on. The air was brisk and damp and I could see my breath but I felt like it was going to warm up later in the day.

“You lost?” somebody from behind asked as she hurried up alongside me. I wasn’t sure where she’d come from and I hadn’t seen her before. She was shorter than me with an athletic build, dark hair to the middle of her back, and there was something attractive about her but it was difficult to say what it was. She looked about 29 years old. I smiled at her.

“No, I’m not lost,” I said and kept walking to the ferry’s boarding area. I didn’t, however, have any way to tell her where I was going or what I was doing there or even how I’d gotten there to begin with. I didn’t know how she could have decided that I might be lost other than that my license plates were from out of town. I thought, as I often do, that when people surprise me with a question, if the question seems out of place or unexpected in a given situation, that it mostly comes from the asking person’s affiliation needs. ‘She’s lost,’ I thought.

“Are you lost?” I asked.

“No. But I don’t know where I’m going really.”

“Yeah, me either really. Are you from out of town?”

“No. Chicago,” she said smiling and looking at me. I laughed to myself and kept walking with her walking beside me. We got up to the dock and looked at the schedule. I checked my watch. 7:32 AM. The next ferry was picking up at 7:57 AM and so she and I made our way out to the queuing area and sat down on a bench under a Plexiglas shelter. The wood of the bench was damp from the morning dew and I was starting to feel the cold so I dug into my jacket pocket and started pulling my gloves out to put them on.

“So, what are you doing today?” she asked me and smiled and she was attractive still.

“You know, I’m not sure, really. I’m on vacation. I live in Baltimore and I’m here and I was thinking I’d wake up this morning and head downtown and walk around, take a look around, take some pictures. I don’t know, hang out,” I said.

“Are you into photography?” she asked.

“Eh, yeah, whatever, you know? I like taking pictures, that’s about the extent of it. Nothing, uh, you know, nothing crazy. I’ve got some friends who live in the city and I thought I might try to stop by and see them at some point. They don’t know I’m here though, so I don’t know what they’re doing today or what their schedule is like,” I said. She looked at me for a second and then put her hands in her jacket pocket and we both faced forward.

The polite thing would have been to ask her what her plan for the day was but I hadn’t decided whether I wanted to be polite. This person who just walked up and struck up a conversation with me, out of the middle of nowhere, was in the position to totally turn my day upside down if I let her. I’d really only planned on walking around Chicago by myself and I didn’t want anyone getting in the way of that. If I wanted to go see Jeremiah and Terry I didn’t need someone getting in the way of that either. When I’m alone I can do whatever I want. But maybe she was nice. Or normal. I laughed to myself and she heard me and we both turned and looked at each other at the same time and I smiled. “What’s your plan for the day?” I asked.

Just as she was about to answer the ferry appeared and blew its horn and pulled up to the dock and the two of us got on and paid. It felt good to get out of the cold but the windows of the ferry were moist from the condensation issued from the crowd on board. There were no seats available and I made my way to the back of the boat and held on to a pole. My new friend had walked back with me and grabbed hold of the same pole and stood alongside me. I just watched out the window and listened to a couple of conversations people were having above the din of the motor.

“Hi, I’m Kevin, by the way,” I said and stuck my hand out to her and smiled apologetically.

“It’s nice to meet you, Kevin,” she said shaking my hand and smiling wryly. “Do you mind that I just picked you out and started talking to you? Would you rather I had just left you alone?”

I looked at her and said, “No. I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all,” and smiled and she looked at me and smiled and I looked out the window again.

Later that day it was overcast and I was walking to the house. I heard Ryan and Jeremiah and Terry and Adam talking and walking about a block behind me and the girl was with them. ‘I guess they’ll think it’s strange I got so far ahead but whatever,’ I thought as I walked up the wooden steps onto the covered porch of the house and got my keys out. I opened the front door and went in shutting only the storm door. I put my keys on the table and walked into the kitchen and pulled a glass out of the cupboard. Through the window over the sink I could see everyone coming down the sidewalk and I expected to hear everyone coming in any minute now. I filled a glass of water, drank it and set the glass down in the porcelain sink. I walked over to the table and I flipped through the mail, nothing but bills and pizza advertisements. A cat jumped up on the table and rubbed up against me and I made sure not to touch it with my hands. I looked over to the window facing the porch only I didn’t hear anyone. Underneath that window was a couch and I walked over to it and sat down. My phone started vibrating and I looked to see who it was. It was Ryan.

“Hey,” I said answering it.

“Hey, sorry we didn’t come in, we had to go,” he said.

“Yeah, it’s cool man, it’s fine,” I said putting my arm over the back of the couch and looking out the window. The girl was sitting on the front porch steps looking out into the street and appeared to be deep in thought.

“She’s cool, Kev,” he said.

“Oh yeah, you think so?” I asked looking at her through the window.

“I mean, I don’t know. I only met her today but Jeremiah and Terry seemed to really like her. Course, they’re pretty easy to get along with anyways, it’s hard to think that they wouldn’t like her. But she’s cute, she’s athletic, she’s funny.”

“Yeah?” I said looking at her through the window.