A while ago I had a particularly interesting dream.
At least to me.
I dreamt I was in a room somewhere, probably D.C., because nearby there was a monument to Thomas Jefferson. I was pointing out to someone a bunch of my handmade picture frames, into one of which I had put a painting – either by my mother, or by me. I'm not sure which.
I had also made a particularly large frame – which I had hung empty on the wall inside the Jefferson monument, behind a large statue of Jefferson, so that it simply framed a blank wall.
For some reason in the dream this was a significant political art piece.
Anyway, I stepped out of the room, and when I looked down I saw a bunch of little creatures near my feet. I knelt down to get a closer look, and they seemed to be either mice or large bugs dressed in costumes to make them look like tiny rhinoceros. They were clearly not tiny rhinoceros, because I could see where the edges of the cloth costume they had on were hanging around their little feet, but they were trying to act dangerous. As I knelt down they huddled into a little herd, turning out towards me, stamping the tiny feet, huffing and puffing, trying to be as impressively frightening as possible. It was adorable.
But then I noticed something else – floating above them. It was about a foot long, 4 inches wide, and with the color gray of old battleships. It even had the flat look up painted steel. And it was just hovering there. I looked closer and realized – it was a flying squid!
I was pretty impressed with this, as I had never seen a flying squid before, and had only heard of them. I was also very curious to see what it felt like, what kind of animal it was.
So… I poked it.
It was kind of soft, but didn't feel particularly vulnerable. It also didn't startle. For some reason I poked it again. I don't know why, I guess I was curious, and I guess I had that basic human arrogance of wanting a definitive reaction from an animal when I interact with it. I think it's the same reason people have a tendency to hit large animals rather than just stroking them.
Anyway, as could be expected, the flying squid turned on me. It didn't attack me, it's simply turned its tentacles towards me. So I held my hand up to it palm out, kinda like "Whoa - never mind." This it turned out it was a mistake, as the squid immediately latched itself onto my palm with a suction grip I simply could not break. I did not want to hurt the squid by ripping it off my hand, so I just tried to peel it off. But then it let go, and flew away. I looked at my hand, and in the center of it was suction-cup circle, and at the center of that a small hole. I hadn't felt any pain from being stabbed in the hand by a flying squid beak, but clearly it had done something. I looked at the hole, and decided that if there was any poison in there I should squeeze it out. So I started squeezing, squeezing my hand until something did come out.
Well, started to come out.
Another flying squid.
It was a baby, but about the same size as the adult – only squishier so it could squeeze out of the hole. So the flying squid had apparently laid at least one egg in my hand! Oops, not just one, as another flying squid wriggle out of the hole – which was now getting much bigger.
And another.
And another.
My hand had to basically become a sack of baby flying squid. I held up my hand and looked in the hole and could see the swarming masses, yearning to be free. My hand by now with like an empty glove, only wriggling because of its inhabitants. I wasn't in any pain, but I was a bit disturbed. Eventually my hand kind of slipped away and baby flying squid we're now wriggling out of my forearm. My hand skin had simply curled back like the wrapper of a candy bar, as all these baby creatures made their way out. Fascinated, the best I could figure in the dream was that the the adult squid hadn't simply laid an egg or thousand in me, it was it had put something inside of me that was changing the actual matter of my bones, muscles, and other tissues into baby squid.
Flying squid.
Baby flying squid.
And at this point I realized there was nothing I could do to stop this progression. Very soon I was going to be a mass of baby flying squid. But I was not particularly upset at this process. And I wasn't angry. How could I be? I couldn't be mad at the adult squid, as I was the one who had poked it of my own free will. I couldn't be mad at the babies because they were so darn cute! The only part that was a little distressing was when I realized that one of the baby squid was now coming out of my nose, which meant I only had a few seconds before my brain was turned into baby squid.
Baby flying squid.
I realized this did not give me time to get in touch with my love ones to say goodbye. And that was the only disturbing part. The rest of it may sound pretty horrific, but really, they were just so darn cute! They didn't look mean, or vicious, just kinda wide-eyed and innocent as they flew off into the world.
I have no idea what that dream meant, but it was interesting.
At least to me.