After falling into bed uncharacteristically early last night, I fell into a deep sleep and dreamed. It’s rare that I remember dreams - but one of last night’s dreams (there were several) burned its way into my memory - fragments of it are still there, several hours later.
There was a girl, sitting on a raised grassy bank on a corner of a busy city street. We had somehow found ourselves in conversation with one another for some time - perfect strangers - forging an unlikely friendship.
Some time later - a year, several years - dreams work in strange ways - I found myself passing the same corner, and she was there once more. We recognised each other as old friends do, and made a pact - to meet up on the same corner each year.
And so the dream continued - returning year on year, on a date we had agreed. As the years passed we told stories of the year that had passed - of our families, our friends, our struggles, our celebrations - but we always seemed to meet alone.
The dream happened in the space of a couple of hours. I remeber waking in the early hours with a previous dream, and waking again a few hours later after a completely different dream.
I remember exactly what she looked like. How does our brain do that ? How does it conjure such intricate, detailed stories from fragments of our thoughts and memories ?
I wonder if I’ll ever meet her ?