In this dream, my cast from Two Gents and I have been through some kind of accident/trauma/wreck and have washed ashore on a lost island. This island is very Dinotopia-esque, in that it is another world that is cut off from our world. This island was, centuries ago, originally populated by a group of people who were escaping a natural disaster of some sort by riding on the backs of elephants. The elephants swam and swam and eventually reached this island. In the time that passed between then and my dream the elephants evolved into animals different from our image of elephants and were much more like the oliphonts in Lord of the Rings: fearsome and war-like. There are skulls of mammoth sized elephants everywhere as markers, sculptures, warning, or tokens. They're all chilling, just expansive forehead and terrifying tusks. I can see them up and down the beach from the moment we land.
My memory of the dream picks up with my cast and I trying to find a way back to our world. We are unable to simply leave by taking to the sea, due to some kind of treacherous block (like in Dinotopia). Instead we have to take a boat through a complicated series of caverns and find a way out to the open ocean (also like in Dinotopia). We all gather together and try to make a map of these caverns from our memories of the crash/wreck/accident that brought us here. We hash out what we can and come up with a rough idea of how we want to try navigate through these underground rivers, all the while very much aware of the fact that we could easily get lost and die lost in those caverns.
We finish the map and begin to pack our multi-room-ed boat/submarine/machine. As we do so, a native of Elephant-a-topia comes to me. This is odd because none of them have talked to us or helped us the whole time we've been here. This person is dressed in the clothes of their world but carrying a modern day baby carrier - the kind for very small infants with a plastic handle. This person makes it clear that this baby is of our world, not theirs, and that I must bring it with me when we leave. In exchange for taking the baby, this person gives a map of the caverns. The map only appears on the carrier when I am actively caring for the baby, and is written in their language, covered in signs I can't understand.
We all board the boat/submarine and Zach, on of my cast, takes the helm. He has our rough map beside him and has made me the navigator. I hold the infant to my chest and try to consult both maps at once, while talking to Zach and keeping the baby quiet. Eventually we come to a discrepancy between our map and theirs and Zach and I disagree about which way to go. Kate, another cast member, leaps to my defense. She points out that the map I was given was made by people who actually knew what they were doing. Zach refuses to listen, saying that the fact we can't read it makes it useless. I try to explain what shapes I think are rocks and which are currents, but Zach ignores me. Kate becomes infuriated and storms out. I place the baby into the carrier and bring it with me as I follow her.
I find her in another room of the boat/submarine and I sit beside her, trying to calm her down. She is, obviously, upset because all our lives are at stake. After a while of talking we are interrupted by a huge crash our boat/submarine hits something. We both leap up, I grab the baby, and we run back to the control room. There is water pouring in from a huge hole in the wall. I place the baby safely out of the way and run to the hole. As I do so there is terrible tearing sound and Tony, another of cast members, tackles me just tin time to save me from being crushed to death by a piece of the structure of the boat. At this point we are laying on the floor, with him pinning me down. There is chaos everywhere and I am frantically trying to get up, panicking about the baby. He is yelling at me, trying to get his point across: "If it had gone differently, I would have kissed you gently. We could have been Julie Andrews and Captain Von Trapp." And that is where my dream ended.
***
The day after I had this dream, I had lunch with Maria and the Kate from the dream. I sat down and said, "Oh! Kate! I had a dream with you in it." She immediately perked up, "I had one with you in it!" I gasped. I've only ever co-dreamed with one other person (my magical mother) and while our dreams were a.) on the same night and b.) eerily similar, we were not in fact in each other's dreams. The idea that Kate and I both dreamt of Elephant-a-topia was so exciting. Exciting because it would be so eerie and so rare, but also because I was so confused about the dream. If she had had the same dream, maybe she could illuminate more for me(especially about the baby). Before I told her about mine I said, "Stop me if it sounds like your dream at all. And if it does, we have to call Tony and Zach immediately." Then I launched in and both Maria and Kate sat there, slack-jawed. I'm sure you all have already guessed this, but no, Kate did not dream of Elephant-a-topia. She dreamt about going to lunch or something equally banal. She didn't really remember.I keep on remembering mine, especially that baby. I didn't gender it in this retelling because I don't what it was. It had dark hair and a lot of it. It slept so quietly and felt so natural, breathing with me as it lay on my chest. It reminded me of a dream I had last week in which I'd had my first child and was introducing him to my parents. Both babies were very similar - less than three months old with dark hair, sleeping soundly against me. I want to know where it came from, what happened to it, if I'll see it again.
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