I am driving with Thomas from the town where we used to live to the town where we live now. We are about halfway home and it's very late and dark. We are going past the airport and I notice a dark airplane in the sky. The airplane doesn't have any lights, but I can see from the way the moon lights up the clouds behind it that it is not flying in a normal way, and it doesn't appear to be a normal plane. The plane is sort of arrow shaped, rather than being the traditional cross shape. I think it looks like a military plane. The plane alternates between being in a normal flat position and in an inclined take off position. It looks to me like it is having trouble staying in the air. I watch it descend towards the ground and I know it's crashing. I am on foot and I run towards the plane, I know it's going to crash and that the people inside will need help.
I run down the road and I come up behind a large man walking. I'm both afraid that me running up behind him will frighten him, and also that he might be a bad man and hurt me. I'm glad when Thomas comes up behind me, but again I'm nervous that the man will think we're two bad people there to hurt him. Thomas comes up right behind the man and I think that's a really inconsiderate thing to do and might really scare him. I realize that Thomas knows the man. As we come around a bend in the road around a small hill, Thomas and the man turn off into a farm with their arms around each other's shoulders. The plane is completely out of my mind and we turn to walk down the lane into this farm.
On the right side of the lane are dozens of small fields with stacked dry stone walls on the borders. It looks like Ireland. The man, who I can see now, indicates that his family owns those fields. Now that I can see him, I notice that he appears to be Latino and a bit heavy set. On the left of the lane the fields are larger and have the same dry stacked stone fences around the borders. We come up to a house. It's neatly tucked in behind the hills and is in a wonderful, private location. I think to myself that my friend Dawn would be interested in buying this place. Thomas is talking with the man - he's been trying to get a price from him for this place for several months. I see that he's investigating purchasing this place for us. I know that he's been working on this deal for a while, but didn't want to tell me until he knew more.
The footprint of the house is small, but the scale is very large. It's got extraordinarily tall ceilings, doors, and windows, but only appears to be one room wide and maybe two rooms deep. There are huge columns all around the house with stone pavers all around as a porch. To the left, I sense outbuildings and barns, but I don't really look at them. The house is decrepit and I'm not even sure we'll be able to walk inside. I can't imagine Thomas wanting to buy this place with the mountain of work that it needs. As we approach the front door, I see that it does have an second floor and the whole structure has a lot of large, grand windows.
Inside, despite the many windows visible from the outside, the house feels dark. The floors are soft, rotten wood. I am in a big foyer and can see a railing above me from a second floor landing, but I don't see stairs going up. I look to my left, where there should have been a wall, but instead there is a step down and a large, dark room full of pools and fountains all one step height different from one another. We walk ahead and I see a staircase going down to a basement. The stairs are made of bright, newer looking wood and I think they are safe to go down. The inner corners of each tread are caked in tight, den-style spider webs. With every step I feel the little webs collapsing under my feet and I'm afraid that I'm driving out tons of spiders and making them angry. My mind fortunately doesn't linger on that thought.
In the basement, we find a small car. Thomas tries to get it started for the property owner. It lurches forward and ends up having one wheel dangling over a large hole that goes down to a sub basement. Thomas places a working go-cart under the car to try and give it a little bit more power to get started, but it's hard to get it going without having space to get a running start. I'm relieved - I don't know what we would do with a running car in a small basement. The Latino man has a laptop and is trying to do calculations on the price of the house. His laptop dies and it seems to prevent him from coming up with a price. I'm not sure if he needs documents or just needs the calculator. I find his inability to come up with a price really strange. We finally discover that the price is $140,000. The house is in bad shape, but it comes with a farm, so it doesn't sound like an absurd price.
As we walk back upstairs to the main floor, he explains that the sale price has to go "directly to the church." I'm not sure what he's talking about, until I remember that I had looked through a window of the house and seen a huge chapel sticking out of the side. As everything starts to make more sense, the dream fills out and the building fills out. I look down a corridor that I previously hadn't noticed and see that what had seemed like a small house was just the foyer of this much larger building. Down the corridor are classrooms and dormitories and I see that we are actually on a historical religious school campus. We walk towards the chapel to explore.
The chapel is enormous and it is more like a cathedral. It reminds me of Notre Dame with huge windows and a marvelous vaulted ceiling. As I enter I hear totally inappropriate music. It sounds like the loud and fast music that a DJ would play before starting a set of songs. I refuse to walk through the cathedral until that music stops. It gets quieter, but then comes back in with loud drumming. I'm wondering if anybody else hears it - there are several people in the cathedral and nobody seems bothered. In the back, I see a DJ booth set up with a Mac computer. I realize that the pastor of the church was livestreaming something and using that music. I turn it off and turn off the live stream. As I do that, I realize that I am basically hijacking the church congregation and building. I know I've reached a point where I can't turn back.
As I explore the cathedral, more and more people casually appear. I don't find anything strange about discovering that this decrepit, tiny house is actually a bustling church and grounds. I walk through the different wings of the cathedral and see parishioners engaged in heated theological discussion. In one area, instead of pews, the floor is divided by chest high railings placed in hollow squares. Parishioners stand facing the middle of the square arguing with one another. I'm surprised at how argumentative they seem and I realize that they are a Libertarian congregation. In my understanding, this meant that their church and theology was every man for himself. They didn't accept any central teachings and considered everything up for debate. They were so individualistic that they wouldn't even move to the side to allow people to pass in the aisles between arguing boxes. I asked someone what they would do if two people came across one another and neither would move. The person responded that there would be a fight, and the loser would step aside and the winner would pass in the direction they were traveling.
I am now the leader of the church, which is really more like a cult. I am in the area I saw earlier with all the pools. I walk through the dark area and come out in a very bright courtyard with more pools. They flow from one to another, all on different levels like a stream running down hill. The courtyard columns and windows are all decorated with beautiful Art Nouveau sculptures. Everything is in shades of white and the water is a beautiful teal. I know I have a really special place.
In one of the shallowest pools, which is barely wetness on textured concrete, I see two fluffy white kittens. I call for Michelle - she will love the kittens. I turn back and see that there are really about six kittens. Marie enters and says that Otis already has one of the kittens. She thinks it's so strange, she didn't even know he liked kittens, but he loved these. Anne and Michelle enter to see the kittens.
