Just woke up from a crazy dream.
I was in Germany, and someone--a man, my grandpa?--took Alex after school and brought him to the place I was staying (my mother-in-law's!). I was terrified he'd be found before we got on the plane the next morning, and that he'd be taken away again. I was so happy to have him back, I cried and cried... But afraid to rejoice, in case we didn't make it back home together.
There was a bath involved, with a turtle, dry laundry hanging over the tub and falling into the water, another missing child found naked under the dry-then-wet laundry in the bath tub. His mother came for him, they went home. My mother-in-law was weirdly cooperative. I was irritated I had to speak german again, but managed.
There was getting ready for a Pink Floyd concert and a concert t-shirt. I looked thin yet curvy soft in the mirror. I was pretty, and surprised and pleased by that. I was with a man. He was Jeff. He loved me, and was proud of me.
Then I found myself in a foot race. I ran fast... And won. It wasn't like running-thru-cement dreamtime running. I was fast! Alex and my parents were there, and they were proud of me. Esp Alex.
Then we were home and Mom, Dad and I were at Alex's first bike race (???). We were very proud of him, and he was beginning to loosen up around us. He wasn't upset about being with us and away from his dad, but he was shy and uncertain. He was happy to be with me again.
At the race, there was rain, an arrogant boy we at first mistook for Alex. But Alex was the quiet, wise one.
There were lots of parents.
After the race, there was the whole group, parents and kids, under the same shelter from the rain. There was an issue with a young woman and I desperate for a bathroom and using the nearby bathtub for lack of a toilet.
There were predatory animals (recurrent theme) passing through in a kind of show-and-tell parade. These animals were an alligator, a wolf, a panther which particularly sniffed around me for a long time, then walked away. I was terrified and worried that my fear was of yummy interest to the panther, but he finally moved on.
After the race, someone, an evil man, (old, thin, scrawny, wily, and a crazy-Amish-farmer look about him) took Alex and ran away down this labyrinth of horse stalls. I chased after them and found the man in a stall. He was standing on a stool brandishing a hammer at a cluster of people, intending to kill them with it. I snuck up on him, attacked his legs with something, missed. Strick out again, missed again. He swiped at me once, twice... Missed, turned himself into a pair of very large pencils.
I grabbed them, then smashed them to bits against a pole. I was worried the pieces would reanimate into the evil man again, but thought burning them should take care of the matter.
I woke up after the killing.
It sounds like a terrible dream, but looking at it from the other side, it's really about succeeding over all obstacles. I came out on top in every situation.
