The People Behind My Eyes

Last night I dreamed that my mother was taking a report about a crime that I witnessed. We were sitting on the side of the road by a tree that had been uprooted. Most of the tree had been removed by public services but the trunk was still in the ground. The whole time we talked she was irritated with me. The more she got irritated the more steam came from the ground by the trunk. I reached down and pulled part of the trunk up and off. I noted that it shouldn’t have fallen apart so easily because the wood is solid. She was irritated that I’d broken concentration to note the condition of the tree. She kept talking. I kept giving answers and watching as more and more steam rose above the grass line. Then in a totally different spot but not that far away a second steam hole broke through the ground. Now that had her attention. I told her perhaps the roots went deeper than anyone thought. Maybe they went straight to the core of the earth and the heat from the core hitting this cold surface made it turn into steam. I then reached over and finished pulling up the rest of the tree trunk which was maybe 2 feet thick. I realized it shouldn’t have been that easy to pull up. I also noticed no roots came up. I laid the tree over on its side. The mother then saw that on one of the parts I pulled off was what appeared to be a knot on the tree that grew in the shape of a human hand. It was a hand held in a fist but turned upwards. She tried to hold it but it was too heavy for her. She put it down. We got back to the crime report.

As soon as we got back to the report we heard a ruckus across the street. She jumped up to see what was going on. I just sat there but when I saw my three year old brother dragging a baby by the arm I jumped up to get the baby. He was dragging her across the street by her arm. Her naked butt was getting road burn. Somehow the baby managed to keep her head off the ground and keep it from getting smacked repeatedly when being dragged. I was angry at the brother and treated him as if he were an adult. I asked him why he thought it was okay to drag a baby like that. It seemed like he didn’t see the baby as human and I didn’t see him as a three year old child who wasn’t trying to hurt the baby. He had been given the responsibility of holding a newborn and carrying that newborn across the street. The baby had been holding on for dear life at the three year old’s neck but she couldn’t hold on anymore. She slipped and when she did the three year old simply grabbed her by the hand and dragged her along. I didn’t see the three year old as a child given more responsibility than is natural or safe. I saw him as a 3 year old little man who didn’t care if he hurt the baby or not. The baby ended up being fine. The report never got finished because the mother decided to forget the report and take everyone out to eat.

At the restaurant I let them eat while making a phone call. When I came back in I couldn’t find them. I listened to the sound of a child screaming in pain and followed it figuring I’d find the mother. Before getting to the mother I saw a young boy about 15 abusing a child of the same age. The child being hurt had Captain’s red dog toy in his mouth. His head was being slammed into the table repeatedly by the other boy. I grabbed the abuser up and told him he was to treat the other child as a human being and not an animal. He said very little. He was embarrassed. I kept walking but realized I’d upset him and was concerned about him coming after me. He never did. I also never found the source of the child screaming in pain. I woke up.

Dream: Uprooted Trees -Thursday, March 20, 2008-11:54AM EST
Dream: Uprooted Trees Commentary-Thursday, March 20, 2008-12:50 noon EST