The first thing I remember was being down on the street in an urban area that was in the vicinity of a college dorm where I was living at the time.  Apparently I had come down from my unit which was on an upper level, and was meeting up with my high school friend, Brett.  As I walked through the streets, I saw Liverpool football players gathering in a particular spot, wearing the full kit, as I knew there would be a match that afternoon.  As I saw Firmino and others from the team, it occurred to me that they were in a public area, which obviously would have caused some ruckus in reality as fans would probably want to rush them.  But in this case it seemed that the locals knew to keep some distance, not to disturb, probably understanding the gravity of the situation with the upcoming match.

So I walked over to a car with Brett, which I think was a Jeep Wrangler (the car I drove in high school).  I thought it had been a while since I had seen or hung out with him, so I felt the need to check in with him.  “How are you doing, man?” Whereas before we’d both been paying attention to where we were walking or looking down at our phones, I made sure to make eye contact with him to get a better idea of how he actually was.  He said something like ‘okay’ or ‘good’, and looked back at me confidently, so I felt content that he was in fact good, and that we could move along with making a plan for something to do until game time.  I knew the match would be at 4 pm, but in that moment I believed we had about two hours until kickoff; Brett corrected me.  I looked at the clock and realized there were only 20 minutes until kickoff.

So that obviously truncated our schedule and the immediate consensus was to go watch the game somewhere.  Since I lived only a couple blocks away it made my place the best candidate.  We went up to my dorm, arrived at my unit, and I noticed that some change had occurred since I had been there last.  Up until then I had been living by myself in the unit, although it was meant to accommodate several people, but apparently no one else had yet been assigned or showed up– until now.  There was suddenly a bed where there had previously been a couch, next to the bed I was using, which was off to the right.  The covers were flipped up from the night before.  I became thoughtful about the difference in upkeep I would maintain now that another person would be living there.  I didn’t leave the room in a perfectly tidy condition; now that it would be a shared situation I knew I would be more consistent in keeping it picked up, neat and organized.  Nevertheless, it was still in acceptable condition.  The new guy wasn’t there.  

Brett picked up a turquoise and silver jacket that I assumed belonged to the new guy and we walked out into the hallway.  He handed it to me and said to look for something in the pocket.  I patted it down and discovered a three-inch cubic box in the right side pocket.  I took it out and handed it to Brett; he found a little drawer-like compartment, opened it and took out a little metal and colored enamel pipe.  Apparently we had found the guy’s piece and perhaps a small weed stash.  I wasn’t too interested in it — I didn’t really care to go snooping through the guy’s stuff, nor did I care about him having a little jazz-cabbage.  Brett seemed to take interest in the pipe and put it to his mouth to see how well the air flowed through it.  Then I shifted my focus to an adjacent unit in the hallway.  I poked my head into the door of the unit next to mine; there were three made beds; the lights were on, but no one was there.  I didn’t know whose place it was; I could tell from how tidy it was that it wasn’t the same unit I had just come out of.

Suddenly I was in bed inside the original dorm unit, under the covers, and it was like waking up first thing in the morning.  Initially I could only hear a conversation that was being had amongst the other people in the room.  One of the guys said something about being homeless.  As I opened my eyes I noticed that he was sitting in a chair across from me, and appeared to be no more than five or six years old.  It caused me to wake up a little quicker, as I was in a state of confusion and disbelief about what I had heard, now that I thought some young kid was surviving out on the streets with apparently no parent/guardian/caretaker.  I sat up, still wrapped in bedding, observed that the kid who had said that looked a bit strange, as he also had some aged quality in his appearance which made me wonder if perhaps he was an adult with a rare genetic condition which made him appear childlike even into middle age.  So I was a bit extra curious about what I was observing– on multiple levels I suppose.  So I asked, to get clarity on what I had heard, “You were homeless, like living on the streets until just recently?”  I think he confirmed that, but the focus then shifted to the other guys there.

There were three other guys: two guys on my left, 1) an out-of-shape, beginning-to-bald with long brown hair, mid-30’s guy, and 2) a clean-cut, slicked-back gray haired, more professional looking guy who reminded me of Jimmy Page, wearing a suit.  On my right was also a professional looking silver-haired guy who was also wearing a suit, but was less fit — I guess he seemed more like a politician.  There was a brief discussion which seemed to center on there being some kind of current ‘situation’.  The mid-30’s guy said he was in finance, which he said in a way that made me think he believed he didn’t have the relevant skills or expertise to address it.  It was somewhat like that “Don’t ask me, I’m just the accountant” type of comment.  I said I was also in finance, but in that way which was the total opposite– I had to put a convenient label on what I do career-wise to explain quickly to people what my general field is, but that label didn’t even begin to adequately capture the depth and breadth of stuff I incorporate into my practice.

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