Darchelle and I are lying in a big bed in the room in the house in Jackson which used to be my
parents' room when I was young. She is reading but I lean over to her and begin kissing her lower
back right above the hem of her flowery underwear. We would make love but suddenly Mike Adair
appears in the doorway. He is wearing a brown suit. I had forgotten that he was coming but I get
up to show him to his room. He seems unsure of himself and I am surprised to realize that I have as
much or more self-confidence than he does. We walk into a new addition to the house in place of Mom
and John's current bedroom, office and greenhouse. It is a large room painted entirely in white
with a bathroom and shower, also white, in one corner. The room has a shiny appearance everywhere
as if it is made of white porcelain.
Mike Adair seemed to be perhaps the most self-confident person I had ever met when I worked with him
at Microsoft and Expedia but he died in 2016 after suffering for several years with complications
from a severe stroke. In this dream I think he represents death, and illustrates how death
equalizes the living. No matter what we are in life, in death we are all dead. The ceramic quality
of the room for Mike suggests the permanence of death and perhaps also our loss of agency with
regard to dying. We can't choose not to die. The bed Darchelle and I are lying in is my parents'
bed. Just as my father left my mother when I was a child, so I will leave Darchelle through death,
symbolized by Mike Adair interrupting our potential lovemaking. But I am still living, and still
with Darchelle whom I love.