Dream – 2025-07-22
Posted On July 22, 2025
- It had been raining tons, and I was driving around Boston looking for a certain Italian restaurant. I couldn’t find it, and the roads were turning into rivers, so I gave up and left for Connecticut.
- Mr brother dropped me off in what looked like a marina parking lot somewhere on the west side of the Connecticut River, and I walked to the ferry building which was large and more like a warehouse or old factory.
- After going up many flights of stairs, across a long hallway, and then back down as many flights of stairs I made it to the door leading to the actual ferry terminal.
- I was standing in line for a ticket, but couldn’t see a schedule anywhere. I asked the man standing in front of me if he knew where the schedule was posted, and he pointed to some square Post-It note-sized pieces of paper taped to the wall. I grabbed one, looked at it, and said “There’s nothing on here about departure times? Just some random words and symbols?”
- A little girl of 8 or 9 came up to me and said, “Well, of course there are. You just need to know how to read it.” She took the paper from me and started drawing lines with her fingers across the various words and symbols that were written on the paper. Faint golden lines lit up where she traced her finger, and she started reading off the times the ferry left.
- “Thank you,” I said and she said “You’re welcome!” and handed me back the paper which was again just a normal piece of paper without any glowing lines on it.
- I bought a ticket, walked on the ferry which had just arrived, and sat down near the bow, which was so low to the water I could reach it with my hand. I let my fingers trail through the water relishing the coolness of it, and watching as each finger left a wake behind it. They’re like tiny boats, I thought to myself.
- When we reached the middle of the river the engines stopped and we started drifting.
- “Why are we stopping?” I asked a man standing next to me. He pointed up river at a line of four small sailboats making their way towards the ferry. Each boat had two or three boys on it, and they were pointing towards us.
- “He’s afraid they might be attacking.” the man replies. It does not occur to me that stopping the engines would be the worst thing to do in this case.
- We wait and watch while the small crafts come closer and closer. In front of them I notice is some sort of electronic remote-control box. It is small and black with wires on it. It comes close enough I can reach it. I grab it and throw it as hard as can back up river, away from the ferry. The sailboats all tack, turn, and race towards it. It turns out it was just a game they were playing, chasing this toy around the river.
- In the time that we have drifted we went far enough to reach a “downhill” portion of the river. As we came over a crest the ferry shifted and we started down a steep slope, and yet somehow the river water itself still flowed at a leisurely pace. The captain re-started the engines and began to turn back up the hill. I was worried that there would not be enough power to push the ferry back up the hill and onto the flat section of the river, but my fears were unfounded. The captain applied full power, and I watched as the river behind us turned into boiling and confused propwash (thrusters), and the ferry easily made it back to where we were before, and continued our way up the river.
- However, it was only a short while before we reached another “downhill” portion of this river. I began to realize that this river seemed to not care about vertical ups and downs. Water here could flow “uphill” too it seemed. The ferry continued down and as we did I noticed a large white building, with huge white columns supporting a roof with even larger spires. As we pass, a girl sitting near me says “Oh, that’s Last Gaga’s house! I wonder if she will come bring me a gift? I used to work for her and she always brings me a gift when the ferry goes by, and somehow it’s always exactly what I want!” The girl turns to me and asks, “Don’t you know her too? But last time you saw her you lost a tooth. Maybe she will come take another one!”, she said laughing.
- My hand reaches for my lips as I remember that night where I lost a tooth in an accident at a Lady Gaga party, but am hoping she doesn’t come and take another one from me.
- Soon enough a woman with long blonde hair, wearing a shimmering white gown appears — Lady Gaga. She goes first to the other girl and gifts her a large, fuzzy, white wool blanket, which the girl wraps around herself. “I was feeling quite cold. This is perfect. Thank you Lady Gaga!”
- Lady Gaga then turns to me and smiles. She walks towards me and motions for me to sit on top of some large square cushions that were atop large pedestals in the middle of the ferry. I climb up onto one of the cushions, she does the same, and we both scoot towards each other, sitting cross-legged, with our knees nearly touching. She smiles, reaches into a hidden pocket of her dress and retrieves a cylinder about the size of a can of soda, but taller. It is blue and as she hands it to me I can read the print on the label: “Blueberry Coffee Beans and Popcorn”. I do not question it – in fact it seems like the most normal thing in the world as I remove the lid and peer inside. The coffee beans are a deep shade of blue, nearing indigo. Interspersed in the beans are pieces of popcorn, also blue but a somewhat lighter shade due to the white of the popcorn before being stained by blueberry juice.
- I pour some into my hand and throw the small pile of coffee and popcorn into my mouth. My first thought as I began to chew on the coffee beans was “I am not going to sleep very well tonight”, but my second thought was “This is a wonderful flavor!” Somehow the three flavors combined were better than they were alone, each contributing to the whole, creating something larger than themselves.
- I looked up to thank Lady Gaga, but she was gone, returned to her white castle on the river I supposed. As I pondered this the ferry made a wide turn back towards the ferry terminals and continued its slow journey back “uphill” but “downstream”. The captain had gotten word that the far side terminal was open again, and we were free to tie up there and disembark.
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