Dream

Posted on October 15, 2003 in Dreams

I’m walking down Highland Avenue in San Bernardino, much as it used to be and more like it should be today. I’m chasing Tracy my cat who is dragging a wagon with her litter box behind her. We’re heading home (east) and I want to pick her up so that she doesn’t get too tired. I lose her, though, in front of the businesses along the street, so I hail a cab. The cab driver agrees to take me home for seven dollars, which I know is the proper rate. I share the cab with him and two wives. Asa we pass a wrecked and abandoned storefront where there used to be a Muslim bookstore, I sigh and shake my head. I can still see the places where the word “Allah” has been embossed on pieces of silver and nailed to the wall. The cabbie suddenly makes a sharp left into what used to be a bank building. It is now a mosque and the front is covered by a huge curtain embellished with purplish-pink arabesques. He drives through the curtain, explaining that we must delay our trip because it is time to pray. Inside, we circle the floor of the mosque four times. The cabbie and his wife bow towards Mecca along with the believers who have positioned their prayer rugs along the edges of the mosque. He drives out when he is finished. He then announces that he must let me out there. I pull out my wallet and negotiate with him. I have a five thousand dollar bill and several smaller ones. “Can you at least take me to Waterman Avenue for this?” He relents and agrees to take me to my doorstep for $7.