Vivid dreams

Lately, I've been having vivid dreams. Particularly, I have had a recurring dream where I keep running into one of my best childhood friends, a person I haven't talked to in over a year. In the first two dreams, I come upon him in different places and I am surprised that he seems upset with me. In the last two dreams, I get a hold of him on the phone - something I have been trying to do in waking life - and he still seems upset. I desperately want to reach him somehow, outside of my dreams, but the phone just rings and goes to voicemail.

Yet the dream that has stayed with me played out a few nights ago: I am the father of three young sons and I work in a small office in the middle of a city. In the basement of the office, a secret panel slides away to reveal a hidden chamber, which in turn acts as the doorway to an escape tunnel. One evening, I ride my motorbike home only to find a police car outside of my house. But the police car is not a typical one - it is sky blue in color, the shape of a Twinkie, and the size of a single-wide mobile home. I watch my sons talk to the policeman and he leaves, suspecting nothing. The next morning, my sons accompany me into work and we sneak into the secret room under the office. The tunnel leads us out of the city, into a suburban park that features stone archways at both entrances. In the park, dozens of other people join us and it is then that I realize that we are Jews, escaping persecution. We set up a table and exchange red boxes that look like wrapped gifts. In the boxes, I understand that we have given one another information about everyone in the group - family names, addresses of relatives outside of the country - in the hopes of finding one another after the purge ends. Suddenly, a police car screeches by and stops down the street. The group disperses in different directions, red packages in hand, trying not to look suspicious. I am scared but I think up an excuse if am questioned - we are an extended family having a reunion in the park. We walk away from the park and frequently glance behind us to see if we are being followed.