Warnings from Beyond

I had a dream of my grandfather.

I was raised by my grandparents.  My parents lived with them.  My parents were hippies.  They were crazy artist types.  They weren't very stable nor very kid friendly. 

I spent most of my time with my redheaded grandma and my quiet and reserved grandpa. 

When grandma spoke, people trembled. 

When grandpa spoke, people listened. 

When I was a baby, I liked grapes.  One of my earliest memories was standing out in the backyard with my grandfather planting a grape vine.  He gave me toy gardening tools and said I called him a 'dumb bunny'.  It was spring.  There is a picture of me on a motorized rabbit scooter type toy. 

I don't think I called grandpa the dumb bunny but, nonetheless, for the next twenty-seven years he would chuckle about that. 

When I was five, we sat at the kitchen table eating peaches.  I asked him why people had no food if we could grow peaches from the seeds.  He planted two peach trees, one with his seed and one with mine. 

The tree first bore fruit when I was ten.   He gave the fruit away once it came.  We spent days canning it.  We canned peaches, made preserves, even grape jelly.  I miss those days. 

We grew raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb, too.  The back yard was lined in pink roses with little pockets of daisy's to play with. It was a little girl's paradise. 

When he had a stroke, my greedy uncle sold the house out from under him.  I tried to get a loan to buy it back for him but I didn't earn enough money.    It was a big house. 

I loved my grandpa. 

He had blue eyes and glowed neon when he was happy.  The first boy I fell in love with had the same quality. 

Grandpa liked that boy.  I never told him when we broke up, I just quit bringing my friend over.  For years, my relatives would ask about him (not caring who was in the room...this led to quite a few marital spats). 

Every man I brought home after that was met with disapproval and a comparison to my best friend from high school. 

Grandpa wasn't very thrilled when I got married.  He didn't say much about it only that I was investing far too much time with my fiancee's family and not enough time doing what made me happy. 

Grandpa knew. 

I wish I would have listened. 

I gave up college to stay in town after Grandpa was diagnosed with cancer.  My grandmother had died just a few months before and it was easy to see the pain in his face.  I would visited him three times a week and moved a couple of blocks away.  It was hard to be apart from him.  We were always so close. 

He died shortly after my twenty-ninth birthday.  I've always felt lost without him. 

He visits me in my dreams and tells me what to expect. 

I've learned not to ignore him. 

He'll warn me about stuff, tell me when to see the doctor, when to fix the car, where to invest money... when I ignore the dreams bad stuff happens.


In '06, he told me he would bring my old friend back to visit to talk some sense into me.  He told me that it was being set up with my friend's father and a woman (an aunt?)....I don't know.  He gives the name 'Robinson'.  I don't know what that means....but I write it all down for later reference. 

In '07, he told me that my friend was doing drugs and drinking a lot.  I was supposed to get licensed as a drug counselor in order to understand the pain my friend was enduring.  I did my best to follow through...but...life got in the way. 

I have a dream diary where I document the dreams. 

The last one I had was a little freaky (and funny). 

In this dream, I'm visiting with him and several deceased relatives.  My mom, my dad, my step-dad and my aunt are there.  They are telling me to start taking my vitamins again.  I need to take garlic (the stinky kind) as, they claim, it will solve a lot of problems. 

In the dream, I'm confused and asked my grandfather to expound upon the situation.  He shows me a scene in which I die in a hospital due to a blood clot.  I am forty-four. 

There is a man by my bedside. 

Grandpa will not tell me who the man is because, he says, it will only make me run away from him when I meet him. 

Grandpa knows me. 

He says that the man brings me to the hospital for reasons he will not disclose. 

Now, I'm curious, so I ask.... 

"Grandpa, am I there because of chest pains?" 

"No. You're there because you're stupid and selfish."

"Oh." 

Apparently, I die in childbirth.  

I get horny.  I don't take birth control.  I pay the price and ruin some poor guy's life in the process. 

This is why, according to my grandfather, I must take two garlic pills and an aspirin every day. 

At this point in my dream, I start laughing. 

"So, Grandpa...are you saying that I must take tons and tons of garlic to make me smell so bad that no man will ever touch me?  That ought to work!"

"Some one's being silly."  Grandpa always used to say that to me.....all the time.

I miss him.   

At this point, another aunt walks into the room.  She is a living aunt. 

I look at her and ask, 'What are you doing here?" 

"Well..." she replies "I had a waxing job go bad and let my skin get infected.  I never got help and ended up dying from it." 

femi-nazi, bra-avoiding, hairy legged, hippie chicks who would never go to a salon for any reason. 

She called me today. 

She was going to get waxed but decided against it after I told her about the dream. 

Now, I'm freaking out. 



I'll truly end up freaked out if his windows are busted. 



I'm still avoiding those awful, smelly garlic tabs. 

Ick!!

I'd take my chances with the blood clot.   I mean, really....I'm not going to get knocked up at my age.  

If I'm that dumb, I've got worse things to worry about than thick blood.

I'd be worried about senility.

Love,

S.