I dreamed I was meeting my friends Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny to go to the movies. We were going to watch an advance screening of the first episode of a new miniseries season of the X-Files. I had left the family reunion early because I thought we were going to the noon show, but when I called Gillian to confirm that we were meeting at the theater at River Center Mall, in Downtown San Antonio, she said she and David were still at the reunion, so it would have to be the 3:45pm show.
I hung up the phone and pulled back into the road. I decided I’d get something to eat and browse the mall while I waited. I was driving my friend Emily’s Trans Am, and I want quite used to it. But I was glad it had responsive steering when all of a sudden a big rig crashed through the barrier, coming right at me. I skidded over into the shoulder, narrowly avoiding the cab. As the trailer slewed around across the road, a car in front of me swerved to avoid it and hit a Miata, which flipped up into the air ahead. I hit the gas and managed to swerve around both cars, flying debris, and the tail end of th trailer as it swung back onto its side of the highway.
I pulled up to a theater on the right hand side of the road, and went inside. I saw that Gillian was calling when I looked at my phone, and I thought maybe I’d suggest the theater I was at, so I wouldn’t have to drive any more. When I answered my phone, though, it was on a setting that broadcast my call over the PA speakers in the theater lobby. I kept telling Gillian to hang on while I fixed it, because I was worried someone would recognize her voice, and I’d be mobbed.
She said she and David we’re leaving the reunion, and that I should really call my mom. I didn’t want to do that, but I didn’t know why. I lied and said I would call her, but when and where exactly should we meet? She said they had decided to do a dinner show at one of those theaters that serves real good. But I should call my mom and they’d understand if I changed my mind.
So I decided I really would call my mom, but she didn’t answer. Somehow I knew it must be bad news, but also that my mom didn’t want to tell me, since I was so looking forward to enjoying a movie with friends. So mom didn’t call me back, and I met David and Gillian for the X-Files showing. I explained that I couldn’t reach my mom, and they seemed to understand. They paid for everything, and we had steak and wine and little chocolate mousse desserts with champagne and it was just the fanciest movie experience ever. Gillian kept trying to get me to think David was flirting with me, but it was pretty obvious he was flirting with some supermodels in the row in front of us, so I didn’t think anything of it.
Finally, after the movie and after the champagne was out of my system, I walked back to my car beneath the orange glow of the sulfur lamps. David and Gillian walked with me, then left me at my car. I called my mom and this time she answered. She asked me if I enjoyed the movie, and said she had something to tell me. But she wanted to do it in person, and she had driven to my grandmother’s house, and would I follow her there?
So I drove three hours to get there, and it was very late, so I couldn’t talk to her right away. I went and curled up in my usual bed, but I couldn’t sleep. I lay there watching the night go darker and more still, until the sky began to lighten into dawn.
Finally, late in the morning, my mother told me that my Dad, who had been away for years and come back very ill, had died during the family reunion, right after I’d left. He’d gotten up and gone into his closet, then somehow fallen into the hanging clothes and suffocated. The doctor said he probably passed out and didn’t feel a thing. I couldn’t believe he’d died. I felt like he must still just be out there somewhere, that he’d just gone away again. And then I woke up.
