Dreams: The Harlequins

So, now I'm going to talk about dreams.  Most of the ones I've had are rubbish, but there're a few that are quite interesting.  I'll probably skip the ones where Jesus appeared to me in some chimney smoke, though... anyhow...

Most dreams don't really mean anything, do they?  Just the brain sorting out and getting itself organised.  But the imagery in some dreams can certainly have quite a lasting effect on you.  One in particular I remember from when I was child.  I seem to remember having this same dream quite often, although that might just be my memory playing tricks.  But the dream itself I do remember quite vividly.  It was a short dream, but it scared me like no other I've ever had:

It started with me in my old house.  I was about five or six.  I'm at the top of stairs.  It's dark.  I'm on my own... but I can hear voices.  I peer down around the banister and I see of light under the living room door.  My family must be inside watching television.  Tentatively, I start to climb down the stairs.

Suddenly my breathing becomes faster and heavier as I see them.  They're inside the wall, their faces distorting the brick and concrete like it's just a thing sheet of fabric.  I need to get to my family quickly, so I try to run.  They burst out of the wall, spinning through the air and landing at the bottom of the stairs.  Two of them, a man and woman, naked, or as naked as my five year old brain would allow anyway; and completely bald.  But their bodies were painted all over in black and white checkered squares like a chess board.  I didn't have a name for them, then.  It was only in later life when I told this story that I started referring to them as Harlequins.

I tried to run past, to get to the living room where I would be with my family and would be safe.  But they were so fast, and I was so slow.  There was never any chance of escaping the man and woman as they picked me from the ground with ease and threw me between them like a football.

The dream ends with them each getting hold of an arm and leg, heaving and launching me through the air down the hall.

Then everything went black, until I woke up.