'Statues Crumble for Me': "Melissa"

verywhere I go statues crumble for me ... who knows how long I've loved you?" I heard that over and over in my dream last night; it sounded like part of a song. Maybe it is. I don't know. All I know is that I dreamt I was back in that office at St. Clair Shores staring in fascination at a mirror someone had hung on the wall. I was startled, to say the least, because it was the same mirror those demon cats held in that dream from a long time ago - the one with Medusa.

Before I could figure out just why the mirror would be in my St. Clair Shores office I saw Medusa herself appear in the mirror and stand with her back to me, looking into an identical mirror. A mirror within a mirror. Medusa asked the mirror, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the foulest of them all?" All I could think was that this was certainly not the way I learned the "Snow White" story when I was little. My mouth dropped open - I must have looked like some landed fish! - when the mirror told her a name just before she stepped into the mirror and walked between two rows of beds in some amazing room in a gothic church or castle of stone. It reminded me of the children's story "Madeline" ... twelve little girls in two straight lines. I counted them as I watched.

She was utterly silent and wasted no time singling out one of the sleeping forms on one of the twelve beds. A pair of worn out shoes with battered soles lay at the foot of each bed and each princess - for I recognized the twelve dancing princesses asleep on those beds - had dropped on top of the bed covers in her ball gown.

Twelve times Medusa questioned the mirror and twelve times she went into that vast room on the other side of it, to touch a princess and turn her to stone. I have no idea why she asked her question of the mirror repeatedly, but she did. I remember it vividly.

I stood there staring at the sight of those twelve immobilized princesses lying there in that vast space - effigies, it seemed, atop their tombs. Answers, I wanted answers, but I wasn't sure where to begin. I did receive a happy answer, of sorts. My Crow arrived just then, along with young Ham and his buddy, Sam. They flew in on a pig, the pig from the 'Lost and Found' bin, right behind my Crow.

Ham called out to me that we had to go break the spell on the princesses. I started to climb onto my Crow's back, but suddenly remembered something. I shouted "Wait!" and ran out of the room. The next thing I knew I was digging through the 'Lost and Found' bin, pulling out shoes, their tongues flapping. I shoved the shoes into a bag and climbed on my Crow's back, then we flew - boy, girl, and woman, pig and Crow - through the mirror into the princesses' sleeping chamber.

Ham leapt from his pig and ran from bed to bed, kissing each statue as I ran from bed to bed leaving shoes for them. I could not hear what Ham said to the princesses because the sound of crumbling and falling stone became a bit loud, and we hurried away because the Crow said it was time to go, time to leave.

Back at St. Clair Shores Ham, Sam and I snacked on animal crackers and cocoa in the office. The Crow joined us after flying around a bit, and he gave me a puppet he found somewhere. The puppet was LOVELY - a medieval king in beautiful robes with a crown on his head. His robe was embroidered with a myriad of stars among shields decorated with a gold lion of the coat-of-arms of King Richard I, King Richard the Lion-Hearted.

I slid my hand into the puppet then picked up my pen. I wielded it like a sword and tapped Ham first on one shoulder, then the other. "In the name of King Richard the Lion-Hearted I knight thee Sir Ham, for your courageous and loving service to the Order of the Heart. I hereby knight your loyal and steadfast steed also. Rise, Sir Ham."

Leprechauns Take Flight: "Melissa"

ack in my warehouse in my latest dream - Oh, how funny! I wrote 'my' warehouse instead of 'the' warehouse! - I was pleasantly surprised to see again that lovely, charming little girl from previous dreams.

There she was in her vivid blue outfit and little red Keds singing that old Madonna song "Lucky Star" as she worked at a small table. She did not seem to notice me even as I drew closer to discern what she was doing. It appeared that she had cut the front from a cereal box, a Lucky Charms box to be precise, and used cardboard pieces of various lengths to construct a labyrinth in the remainder of the box. She had cut the leprechauns from a pile of discarded Lucky Charms boxes and lined them up at the entrance to the labyrinth. I do not know how it happened, but suddenly all the leprechauns wore hats like the one Uncle Joe wore at his wedding!

While I pondered that I watched her take discarded aluminum baking dishes - pie plates, loaf pans, casserole dishes - and cut them into a number of diamond shaped pieces. When she had a stack of these cutouts she pasted the star shaped Lucky Charms onto each cutout and placed them into the center of the cereal box labyrinth wherein stood an amazing miniature bull! Amid all those cutouts lined up against the walls surrounding it, the bull stood quietly, patiently, as the child walked each leprechaun through the path of the labyrinth.

I sensed she was giving me a demonstration of her understanding, her interpretation of the myth of the labyrinth and minotaur, but my thoughts tripped over themselves when I saw her guide the leprechauns to bow before the bull and address it with the salutation "Namaste". With that address the bull then instructed each leprechaun to "take up arms" and be. I gasped when I realized that the diamond-shaped cutouts were pairs of coats-of-arms! The child affixed the "arms" to the leprechauns and lifted them in flight from the labyrinth!

It ... It seems she is combining two stories about the labyrinth from Greek mythology, changing things and omitting things, to make some point to me, but what?