This morning was not uncommon. I did what I do. Last night was less common - as I almost fell asleep while watching my nightly film (!), and, I went up to bed by 9, that's NINE, 9 o'clock (!) P.M.. TOTALLY weird for me. I don't know why I was that tired, but I was...and I gave in.

My wife came home from a church meeting to a quiet, dark house. I'd left a couple lights on for her, but tuned it down to signal her I was OKAY but asleep. I knew she'd wonder where I was and what was wrong. "Hey, where's the MOVIE?!" This would tell her all was okay...not typical, but okay.

Communication is SUCH a complicated, interesting act, isn't it?.

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Speaking of which, Alvin had a VERY interesting set of personal experiences and hadn't put the "pieces" together yet. ("Alvin" is my on-the-same-block antiques dealer neighbor - "Country Boy Antiques" - who I like a lot.) When things are slow, we meet in the middle and share many thoughts and experiences.)

1) He'd been in another city this morning, picking up antique architectural salvage (by appointment) for his business. It was at a house slated for destruction.

Out back of this house was a shed. So, while there, he inspected the shed as well. After all, you never know... Going in with a flash light, he saw something he'd never seen before (and is especially rare on the east coast): a mummified cat. It was organless, eyeless, fatless, furless. It hadn't been eaten, so the hairless skin was intact, stretched over the bones like shrink-wrap over an action figure. I've seen these before (more common out west with the super dry air). The skin becomes very hard, and is a translucent, pale yellow-gray. You can just see the bones inside. For pure visual quality, it's actually a good looking, interesting object. Alvin's NOT in that sort of mode. It freaked him out. He left. Fast.

2) So, we're sitting outside as he tells his story of the Cat Mummy, and he adds:

"And then I see a house across the street. It's abandoned, so I wander over to peek in the windows - you know - if I see anything, leave a note for the owner or whoever, right? I walked around back... the back door was open..."

"Alvin, you're nuts. You went in, right?"

"Right. I went in. It was empty but there were parts of the house that could be salvageable, so I walked inside a few feet... and ... then... I saw a shadow. It was someone crouching down and they were moving... slow... near me..."

"I swear to god Alvin, there's gonna come a day when I open my store and your truck isn't here and the store is closed, and so I'll check on you every hour, and you don't show up... and it'll be because you've been cut into 75 pieces and packed into the hollow wall of an abandoned house..."

He continued:

"...and this figure was almost gliding along like a ghost, and I couldn't hear a thing, and then I think I see it - it was a woman - but by now I'm BACKING OUT! I'M DONE! I back out all the way and I'm GONE!! I told the people (next door to the house I AM salvaging), and they said they KNOW she's there! She's like a stray cat - doesn't bother anyone - so it's all "fine" with them.

Well, needless to say, it was the second time within minutes Alvin had himself a fright.

3) And then he seemed to switch subjects. He said:

"I had this weird, bad dream last week. I was in a house somewhere, it was dark...dark. I was sitting at a table, there were other people there, they were dangerous, evil people I didn't know. No one was saying anything. On the middle of the table was a cat. The cat was dead but it was alive... Its eyes were gone and its body was gutted, but it was sort of moving, dancing like a puppet, silent, like a puppet-ghost or something, moving like it was in a breeze or I dunno, but it was really scary. I knew I could wake up if I wanted... but I didn't."

I sat there waiting for him to connect the events.

"I don't know WHAT all this is about..." he said.

"Man, Alvin, pal, what more do you need?", I asked. "That dream last week laid out your morning today like a game plan! Old house, dark, threatening encounters with strange people, a dead/eyeless/gutless cat........ by the time you saw the dead cat, your dream was in full swing! Your future was here!"

"Huh... I never thought of it like that..."

"I'm sticking to what you said. I'm not adding A THING to your day or your dream, right? Have this morning's events ever happened to you before?

"No."

"Have you ever had a dream even close to that before?"

"No! ...I see your point!"

There was another man sitting with us. He was nodding right along. The pieces of the puzzle were all there, and no one was trimming them for a good fit. This IS what it seems to be.

"Well, I hope today's a good one," he mused.

"It already is."

"How?"

"Your weird morning and your dream."

"I mean SALES."

"Fine. I'd like to make a sale too, but YOU have a special day on your hands. Don't forget it, and learn to watch for them. It'd be a shame to waste them."

"You're right..... you're right about that..."

PS: I asked him if we could go back and get the cat. "No," he said. I laughed, but I did want to photograph it and put it on my site. Seriously. He added, "By now the whole property has been leveled."

"Oh crap," I said.