I am visiting Jackson with friends, as we did occasionally on winter weekends when I was in high school. We are sleeping on the floor and I am sleeping under a blanket with Ali. While she is asleep I caress her back from her shoulder blades down to her buttocks. Her skin feels dry and a bit scratchy.
A little later, after we are all up, we connect for a moment and hold hands. I am very happy to realize that she likes me and we are together.

I am in the kitchen getting ready to make coffee. A couple people are with me while the others are in the dining room but it is not clear who exactly they are; Sarah, perhaps Eric, John Farrell and perhaps Carol are among the half-dozen or so people gathered for breakfast. "Who wants coffee?", I call out and maybe four people respond so I realize I need to make more coffee than I had planned.
I decide to do pourover since I have a glass coffee pot which holds about 4 cups. I put the kettle on the burner after first clearing away saucepans, cookie sheets a large mixing bowl from the stovetop. It is apparently Thanksgiving morning and whoever had been cooking had not cleaned up yet. The mixing bowl had enough bits of dough stuck to its sides to make a small loaf of bread.
While the water is heating up I put a large red pourover funnel and filter on the coffee pot. I have a can of ground coffee but it has no fragrance at all so I decide to use a specialty coffee called "Gotu Kola" or something like that. When I opened the bag, I cannot smell any fragrance from that coffee either but I use it anyhow.
The pourover funnel is filled to the brim with ground coffee and I am ready to add 3 cups of water but first I go out to the playroom to check in with Darchelle. She is standing in front of a blazing fire in the fireplace, talking with Rob Pepper who was standing on the other side of the room, on the far side of a table with a bunch of stuff on it. The fire had been down to a single log before Darchelle added wood to it and got it going again. I return to the kitchen to discover that someone, perhaps Sarah, has finished making the coffee.

When I recalled this dream, I was at first embarrassed to tell Darchelle about it given that I was dreaming of sleeping with Ali but in the dream itself I felt no shame at all about that even though Darchelle was also among my friends in the house. My desire for Ali was more emotional than sexual though sex was part of the mix. Ali was my first girlfriend, during the summer before high school; we were no longer together during the timeframe of the dream though we did spend a summer together in Jackson after we graduated.

This dream is really about my relationship with Darchelle and how that relationship fulfills the longing for intimacy which I first experienced in a significant way with Ali that summer. The dream juxtaposes my high school visits to Jackson and my current life with Darchelle. Longing for a girlfriend is a vivid component of my memories of Jackson during high school, and perhaps even earlier. The kettle, the stove, the fireplace in the playroom, the gathering of friends all represent that time. On the other hand, the reference to Thanksgiving, making coffee, Darchelle's talking with Rob all represent my current life with Darchelle. We were married on Thanksgiving weekend. We make pourover coffee almost every morning we are at home. Darchelle has shared texts with Rob within the past week.
Other references in the dream are a little more obscure. The absence of fragrance in the coffee may represent my inability to physically brew coffee anymore. Darchelle does it for me. Sarah's completing the coffee-making may symbolize her example and encouragement in my leaving Susan to be with Darchelle. John and Carol are among the few of my high school friends with whom Darchelle and I have remained in touch. Eric's vague presence suggests my own impending premature death.