Riding around town with some people, I randomly had the memory of a place where I used to live, but – for some reason – I just didn’t anymore.
Whether I had left abruptly or never finished moving in was unclear, but I remembered enough to drive us to the other side of town where this random apartment complex was found. I couldn’t remember the address itself, but I had what turned out to be a mailbox number, which surprisingly matched one of the keys on my keyring. When I opened it, the box was packed with mail – mostly junk mail – but a couple of pieces had my actual address including the apartment number, so we drove around until we located which of the two large buildings the unit was allegedly in…
Walking through the building was immediately impressive because it was as if the holiday season was in full swing, with decorations and performers everywhere! I’m talking dancers roaming the halls, a fancy lounge with a guy singing at a piano, lots of lights and trees and snow … the works.
The apartments were intermixed within these public areas, and eventually we found an elegant flight of stairs which we took because I had remembered it being the first time that I’d lived on the second floor (which wasn’t actually true).
At one point I remarked to a friend who was with me that if I actually did live here, I’d better work from home because I’d never want to leave again!
Upstairs was even more extravagant – there was an ice skating rink and snowmen, elves and a place to meet Santa. I wandered away from the group I was with and started looking for Apartment #12 which was supposed to be mine, but when I got to those numbers the range skipped and there wasn’t a door marked with my number.
Instead, I saw a couple of random signs that everything I was seeing around me wasn’t quite real and that if I wanted to find #12, I had to go home.
Walking back to where all of the holiday action was, I knelt down and talked to some kids who gave me the impression that for some reason they saw me as part of the scene rather than myself. Soon someone in charge came by and ushered the group I was with “back to work” making toys, thinking that everyone was elves, however I was able to slip away to continue on with my search.
When I finally got back to my car, which was now more like a bus and much larger than when we had arrived, we counted up and realized that two people were still missing.
Those people were Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
I looked around and frantically searched for Obama while the area started looking more like a theme park than an apartment complex, but I had no luck. Eventually I went back to the car and waited as we saw streams of people suddenly leaving.
Suddenly someone opened the door to the car and ducked inside. It wasn’t either of the former presidents, however she said that she’d located Obama and I quickly followed her to his location where I found him hiding in a corner acting like a poor person – tin cup and all – which was apparently Presidential Protocol to keep people from mobbing him if he got separated from his group.
As I helped him back to the car, he immediately told me that he was fine and then I begrudgingly informed him that I had lost George, too.
Back in the car, everyone scrambled for a phone number either for him or someone who would be able to help, but the dream then faded away before I was able to find the other president or my mystery apartment.