Just another day

I am being chased. I don’t know by whom. My heartbeat is rapid. I can't breathe. I am running through a parking garage. I get to my car, I am fumbling with the keys. I drop the keys. I have to get the door open. Then I wake up. Every night it is the same dream. I wake up in a sweat and try to make sense out of vision that won’t escape my mind. The dream seems very real. It is almost like a memory. It has not happened.
Dragging myself out of bed, I went to the kitchen and started brewing a strong pot of coffee and thought again about the dream. The dream had started about a month ago. About once a week I would wake remembering bit and pieces about being chased. Third cup of coffee in hand, I walked out the door.
I was running a little late today. I decided to drive to work rather than take the T into work. I had some errands to do after work and having the car would make my life easier. The traffic in Boston is horrible but today I would just have to suck it up. The earlier I leave the better the traffic. I pulled into the underground garage and parked in my usual spot next to the elevator. I hate to walk more than I have to.
I work in the business district in a third floor office for the Law Offices of William Tate. I am a legal assistant. Work has been very slow lately and I find myself challenged more often than not looking for something to do. I surf the web a lot. Most times I end up looking for new jobs or looking into law schools. I have my bachelors in Political Science. I became a legal secretary to get a feel for the law business before I jumped into a 3-year loan-consuming program. I have learned to enjoy the business just not this one. I like to be challenged and kept busy. The only reason I stay is the paycheck.
My boss is away on business this week and the projects he left me took all about 30 minutes to accomplish. Basically I’m here for the phones that never ring. They pay a lot more than you would probably think.
After checking out schools, the news, jobs and just about every subject I could image I decided to see if I could find the meaning of dreams of the web. Maybe I could figure out why the dream keeps coming. I did a search and found a couple of different site that interpreted dreams. I didn’t realize that there was that many doctors and psychic that dealt with this stuff. Most of the sites wanted me to call or e-mail a doctor or psychic for a price of course. I wanted free info. I finally found a site.
According to Dreamdictionary.com running away from someone indicates an issue I am trying to avoid. Apparently I am not taking or accepting responsibility for my actions and I am not facing and confronting my fears. I couldn’t find anything about fumbling for the keys. Very interesting.
I was trying to make sense of it when the phone rang. “William Tate’s Office”, I answered picking up on the first ring. A man asked to make an appointment today with Mr. Tate. I informed him that Mr. Tate would not be back until next week. He asked if he could come by and drop off something for Mr. Tate for his immediate review for when he returned. He expressed that the matter was urgent and asked if maybe the folder could be sent over night. I told him I would see what I could do.
About 30 minutes and 10 websites later a man about 30 years old, tall, curly blond hair and dressed in a brown slightly wrinkled suit entered the office. He handed me a brown package that felt as if a couple books were inside. He pleaded once again, “Please make sure Mr. Tate gets this. It’s urgent.” Again I told him I would do my best.
I didn’t have an address or a number for that matter of where Mr. Tate was staying. You would think that Mr. Tate would leave me numbers to contact him in case of crisis at the office but he never left numbers. When he was away on business he usually checked in every few days but he had just left this morning and it was doubtful that he would call today or tomorrow. I guess I would just have to wait and hope for him to call.
I looked at the package sitting on my desk. There was no writing on it. I realized I never did get the name of the man who had left the package. Oops. His name was probably on the papers inside that package. Maybe I should open it and see. The man had peaked my interest when he expressed the urgency of the material. I am a nosy person by nature. I seem to be interested most in those things that are held back from me. Telling me I can’t do something makes me just want to do it more.
The envelope was tightly sealed. We did have envelopes in the office with similar size and color. I could just open it then reseal it in one of the other envelopes. No one would know.
After 5 more websites and no phone calls I couldn’t hold back. I opened the package and looked inside the envelope and was startled to see four piles of $100 bills. There must be hundreds. I did a mental estimate of the approximate amount of money sitting in front of me. I calculated about $10,000.
Why would this man want to have $10,000 cash given to Mr. Tate immediately? I couldn’t come up with a logical explanation. There had to be one. Just then I heard and saw glass shattering in front on me. As I quickly hid behind the desk I looked down and saw a baseball.
I got up and looked out the window. I saw two little boys with a baseball bat and gloves. They apologized and I threw the ball back to them and asked them to play somewhere else. We had insurance at the office so I was not too worried about tracking down their parents to pay for the window. Most of the people that lived close to the office were from poor families. It wasn’t worth the trouble.
I started looking for a phone number for a glass repair person and realized that I had temporarily forgot about the money. It was still sitting in the middle of my desk in four big piles. Shards of glass also were on my desk.
I found an envelope similar to the one that held the cash and placed the money in the envelope and sealed it. I called Jim’s glass repair and Jim told me that he would not be able to fix the window until tomorrow.
I got a trash bag and taped it over the hole in the window as best I could. The envelope sat on my desk for the duration of the day while I answered two phone calls and looked up different vacation spots in Russia. At 5:00pm I still had not heard from Mr. Tate. I decided to leave and take the money with me. With the window broken I didn’t want to risk someone getting in.
I took the envelope and placed it in my shoulder bag. I then grabbed my keys and headed out the door toward the parking garage. I approached the elevator and noticed an out of order sign. I now had to walk the long way to my car.
The stairs were not as close as they should be. I started walking towards the stairs and had an uneasy feeling that I was being followed. The closer I got to the stair the more the feeling increased. I increased my pace but could not shake the feeling. As I headed down the stairs I was practically running.
By the time I got to my parking level I was running. As I approached my car I was fumbling for the keys. I kept dropping them. I finally got the key in the door and I felt pressure on my shoulder. I must have jumped about 10 feet in the air in addition to my scream. As I turned to see what mad man was attacking I saw Mr.Tate.
"Mr. Tate, You scared me half too death." I said still out of breath. "I can see that, " he said. He explained that the business trip had ended early and how he was about to go into the office when he saw me walking to the parking garage. He wanted to catch me to find out if there were any deliveries or messages before he missed me. I told him about the envelope, leaving out the part about me opening it. I handed him the envelope and he opened it. He saw the cash and noticed that I had as well.
Mr. Tate went into an explanation. The young man had been his nephew. The money was for a down payment to buy an office building in Melrose. The seller had said that if they paid the downpayment in cash he would knock another $5000 off the price. The exchange wasn't suppose to happen until next week but the seller had called and asked for the sale to happen sooner. Mr. Tate was out of town and had all the paperwork.
The sellers had received another offer on the property and they wanted the deal to close within the next few days or they would reneg on the contract. That was the reason for the urgency. After Mr. Tate had left I got in my car and drove home.
In my car I pondered the day I realized my dream had been a premonition. Dreamdictionary.com had been wrong. I also realized that in between all the boring moments of my job there were also some exciting ones.