Dream of: 27 January 1996 "Burning Building"

I was ridding in the front passenger seat of a car in which three women (probably in their late 50s) were riding in the back. Although the car belonged to me, it was being driven by a tall, thin man (probably in his late 30s). We were somewhere in Texas, although it wasn't clear where we were going.

The man driving began talking about himself. Apparently he used to be a preacher. He said that he had once lived out in one of the rural southwest Texas counties and that it had been the loneliest time of his life. I could just imagine what it must have been like for him. I could visualize one of those small towns surrounded by miles of uninhabited land. I myself had thought of moving to such a place, but now I realized I also would probably not like living in one of those little towns.

I was uncertain why I had allowed this fellow to drive my car instead of driving it myself. He wasn't driving poorly and several times I noticed him weaving. Besides that, he was exuding an air of superiority, as if he was the one in charge of what was going on. I thought I would soon have to put an end to that and take back control of the car.

But suddenly the fellow slowed the car down. He said we had just passed a building which looked as if it were on fire, and one of the women in the back seat confirmed that she had also seen the burning building. The driver made a U-turn and headed back down the road. A few seconds later I could see the building blazing ahead of us.

As we pulled onto the concrete parking lot, I noticed that nobody was around the outside of the building, and at first I thought perhaps no one was yet aware that the building was on fire. But then, through the windows, I saw some people inside the building.

The building was two stories and was obviously some kind of store. Most of the bottom story was covered with windows so we could see inside. The fire was concentrated on the top floor and on one end of the bottom floor where there were no windows, so the fire hadn't yet reached the actual store where the windows were.

The driver and I jumped from the car and hurried up to the door of the building. Now I could clearly see that the store was some kind of clothing store, and that indeed several people were inside. I thought they must be trying to salvage what they could. As soon as I reached the front door a woman inside opened it for me. I quickly asked if there was anything we could do to help, and I suggested we could carry out some of the clothes. She let us in and told us to grab whatever we could.

I walked over to a rack of clothes which were on hangers and began pulling off handfuls of clothes still on the hangers. It looked as if the store contained mostly children and women's clothes, and the clothes didn't appear to be of the highest quality. But there was little time to think of that. I thought I was already beginning to feel the heat from the fire, and I knew there were only a few minutes left before the entire store would be engulfed in flames. I hurried from the store with my load of clothes.