Steps Out

Thursday night

I was back at my parents' house, and overheard part of a conversation that my mom was having on the kitchen phone. She said, "It's OK. Two of the boys are out of the house now, and [my name] is about to start going to college."

I went out the front door, and time seemed to slow down. As I walked down the concrete steps I stopped and studied each one in minute detail.

*****

There was a black mounted wall phone in my parents' kitchen, and whenever Mom spoke on that phone she would sit just outside the kitchen in a dining room chair, with her back against the wall.

I don't know if this is a snippet of a real conversation or not, but based on what was said, it would date this dream to 1981. The concrete steps were removed sometime in the 1980s and replaced by new ones made of brick.