Meredith
This was a long sprawling dream of moderate intensity, so would have best been written down right after getting up, but the realities of the working world prevented this. The dream was much more detailed, coherent, and cohesive among its sequences than is recorded here, for it is very difficult, even with diligent reviewing, to keep a dream of this sort together and vivid for more than a couple of hours.
Unlike some dreams, such as Storm Waves (#57), where the scenes are abandoned, this one was full of people, any number of whom I conversed with.
Fade-in: The first recalled scene opened in a brightly lit and spacious store that sold, among other things, books. I was looking at books on a revolving wire rack and talking to people, particularly to a moderately attractive young lady named Meredith. Later, outside, she showed me some objects she had made or was working on. I made some suggestions regarding them. While many of the people surrounding me here were involved in arts and crafts, including Meredith, the objects she showed me had magical uses. Their construction and purpose were particularly the subject of our conversation.
Lapse: There was a sequence involving boat hulls made of reinforced concrete, similar to the one I built in my waking life. These were in various stages of construction, perhaps by me, but at least with my help.
Lapse: A man I had not spoken to for some time called me on the phone to talk about some business subject and to invite me to dinner or to a party. He was one of many people I knew from very varied occupations, people who would not normally associate with each other. Apparently I had casual business dealings with quite a few people. Besides the boats and artsy stuff, I was somehow involved in buying metals, such as lead, zinc, and copper, in raw form, mostly from third world countries. I had them shipped to where they could be sold for a little more than the cost. The price difference per pound was very small, but the weights were large, so the profit was significant.
Lapse: I was outside near some trees where several people I was talking to stood on a shallow embankment. A somewhat heavy set woman addressed me and said, "You know that Meredith is nearly ready to ask to be your apprentice? Are you ready to accept her?"
I was a little taken aback by this, and I doubted a person at my level had any business accepting apprentices. Thinking quickly, I wondered when an appropriate time was and how much teaching had to be learned on the fly. It occurred to me that Meredith might be a very suitable first apprentice and good experience, besides, it would not be nice to say no, so I replied, "Well, I guess I am".
The woman then asked me, "You know that means she will be with you every day of every weekend don't you?"
the implications of this sank in very quickly, and I stalled, "Well, let me think about this". It would certainly change my private life if I had Meredith with me every weekend, and it would be a lot of work seeing that I held up my end of the deal. It would surely play hob with my raking about town too, but this was apparently not going so well as to be unexpendable. Besides, she would not actually be present all the time since she would have her own pursuits and her own personal business to attend to a good part of each day. That thought was a bit of a relief and made the whole idea acceptable, so I answered, "Yes".
Fade to awake
It is noteworthy here that I do not now, nor do I remember having ever met a person named Meredith. Nonetheless, that was her name. I remember with great clarity the heavy woman's sentence, "You know that Meredith is nearly ready to ask to be your apprentice?"