Dream: The Frozen Turkeys and the Campus Tornado

Dream 20021111, 7:15 AM:

I’m working in a grocery store with K. M. We have a big display area with two low freezers facing toward each other, full of various stuff. One of the freezers is entirely full of turkeys, and it seems like our main job here is to push the turkeys. I tell K. that we ought to get one of the already-roasted hot ones from the deli, so that people can smell and taste it; she agrees that this sounds like a good idea. Then, a woman appears and starts asking for a complicated order of turkeys – she wants 223 pounds total, with two that are five pounds and at least four that are twenty pounds. I start sorting through the birds we have on hand, trying to find ones like she’s asking for. I realize that I’ll need to go to the storage at the back of the store, and I start to tell K to cover for me while I’m gone, but I realize she’s gone already. I tell the customer I’ll be back, and walk to the back of the store. It’s somewhat dark here, and I navigate my way through a couple of different areas until I come to a place where a bunch of people are standing in a line. One tall black man winks at me and smiles, saying something about how I’m “da cute one.” I’m standing next to a blond kid in the line, and a woman that I seem to recognize in the dream.

K. comes by carrying a bunch of breads and stuff, and says something about the display. I tell her that we need to get this big order taken care of – she keeps trying to tell me something about how we should serve it on pieces of bread. I am totally confused. [after waking, I realize that she was trying to get stuff set up to serve samples of the roasted turkey, like we had discussed. But it totally doesn’t occur to me within the dream.] I get out of the line, and start trying to find the place where we have the overstock of the frozen turkeys.

Then, without apparent transition, I’m walking outside with Chris. We are walking across what appears to be a college campus, with a number of large brick buildings. The sky is cloudy and it’s sprinkling just a little; I look between two of the big buildings and see that the sky near the horizon is very dark, and point it out to Chris. Then, it seems like the sky is splashing over the edge of the nearest brick building; it’s a confusing image, as if the clouds are being whipped around like trees. Then, between a couple of the buildings, I see a *huge* tornado. I point to it, and tell Chris that we need to seek safety.

I point to a big brick building, and say that they have a basement where we can go. He starts to argue with me, saying that this building doesn’t have a basement. I exlain that I’ve dreamed about this situation a lot, and I know where to go to be safe. We go into the building, and there is a large atrium-like space; I know exactly where to go to find the staircase, which seems kind of industrial, with steel railings. We half-run down the stairs, and at the bottom there is a short hallway. At one end is a glass door, and behind it a bunch of guys watching a TV; I check out the other door, which has a pull-bar on it and the word “MAIN” on a little sign. I open it, and behind it is another door painted bright red, and some red lockers. A couple of Hispanic women in maid uniforms come through the red door, talking together, and I realize this is part of the service area of the building and off limits. We head back over to where the TV-watchers are. I know that the whole basement area is OK, I just wanted to be away from that glass door.