COUNTRY HOUSE

Dream of Helen Luke, at age 59, remembered and recorded in her journal in old age:

Dream of Helen Luke, age 78, recorded in her journal:

In my dream I was standing outside a country house on a bright, sunny day. It was empty and had been completely repainted-- a creamy white, inside and out. The doors stood wide. Someone who was showing it to me suggested I go over it. I said, 'I don't need to do that. I remember it very clearly, every room in it.'

Then I remembered that this house (which was a small Georgian type, very gracious) was joined at the back to a much older, dark building; a corridor from the white house's upper story led to a series of rooms, also on two stories, almost like a warren-- perhaps stables underneath. It was dark, Tudor-feeling-- oak beams, etc.

I thought to myself, 'I used to know those dark rooms too,' but I could not remember them so clearly as the 'white' house in the front, and I wondered if I should go through the latter and explore again those other rooms behind it. I seemed to know they were all clean and empty too, the whole place, front and back, awaiting a new tenant.