Dream.

Dream.


January 2005.



I dreamed a sturgeon came to live in our bathtub. It was a friendly fish, and made little sturgeon-y coos when you petted it. It was slightly iridescent in appearance.



My three year old would take a bath with it. He put bubbles in the bath water, which made the sturgeon sneeze and sniffle.



I decided the fish was getting too big for the bathtub, and wanted to release it. My husband was concerned about the environmental impact of releasing a tame sturgeon, but I insisted that it was like all other sturgeons, other than its gentle nature, its slight iridescence, and its dislike for bubble bath. It would be okay to let it go in the lake.



So I marched up to the bathtub to explain the situation to the sturgeon, and picked it up. With it under my arm like a wiggly, scaled football, I went out my back door and marched down the sandy beach to the lake*. It made little whimpering sturgeon sounds. I shushed it, as I didn't want the neighbours to see me letting it go, as they were busybodies and would surely report me to the fisheries ministry. The fish obliged and was quiet.



I reached the edge of the water, and let my sturgeon go. It didn't even look back.


*In my dream we lived in one of a row of townhouses located on a beach, with fencing separating our "yards" (really plots of sandy beach) all the way down to the beautiful lake below. This is, um, not based in reality.