Chapter 4

     The dreams started when I was in foster care, shortly after we had been taken, and after my meeting with the “Mr. Clean Angel.”  I would have a dream and shortly thereafter, within a day or so, it would actually happen, or as I would say, “It came true”. 

     The dreams were different than my other dreams in that they were extremely vivid.  They were “lit up” and had very bright colors.  After having had a few of them, I looked forward to seeing if it would “come true”.  When it did, I was always in awe, as I still am today.  

     These dreams started out as fairly simple dreams.  I would dream of a place and within a day or so, I would be in that place.  I would dream of a person and in a day or so, I would meet that person.  I learned that bright dreams always came true.  I simply just had to wait and watch as they happened.

     At first, the dreams came true within a day or so, but then some would take a little longer.  As it went on, some took weeks and then some took months.  It wasn’t long before I could tell about how long it would take.  The more dreams I experienced, the more I was amazed.

     Right from the start though, I wondered, “How could this be happening?  How can it be that I am dreaming about something that hasn’t even happened yet?  How can anyone know the future?  Or even, how can the future be known?”  

     It didn’t take long before I concluded that only God must be giving me these dreams and showing me these things.  There was simply no other solution.  However, I was at a total loss as to why this was happening to me.

     Each dream taught me more and I came to be dependent on them.  Learning as I went, I began looking forward to the next dream.

     One night, I dreamed that a red-headed boy moved into the neighborhood, and we became good friends.  Sure enough, after just a few days, the boy from my dream showed up.  The first time I met him I told him about my dream, and he looked at me like I was nuts.  

     It took a while for him to come around, but we did become good friends.  However, from then on, I was very careful about sharing my dreams.

     Another time when I was five years old, I was at my Grandma Provins’ [Shirley’s Mom] house during the holidays.  The phone rang and everyone was busy, so they asked me to get it.  

     When I picked up the phone, I said hello and then someone started talking but then a strange thing happened, I could see them.  I pulled the phone away from my ear and the visual stopped.  I put it back to my ear and it started again.  I remember thinking, “I didn’t know these phones could do that”.

     I was rendered speechless, and the others started yelling at me to say something but all I could get out was “Aaaahh” wondering if I should try to explain what I was experiencing.  Finally, someone came and took the phone from me.  From that day on and for years after, they teased me saying, “Don’t let Rick answer the phone, all he says is “dahhh”.  

     This has happened numerous times over the years and still amazes me.  

     The hardest part of all is that it has left me feeling very much alone.  Like, no one to talk to about this, and it made it hard for me to relate to others.  There was a whole world that existed that I lived in that was almost impossible for me to explain so that others would understand, and it was risky to even try.  

     Year after year, such was my life.  I felt more like a watcher as I was shown in dreams, event after event, which then occurred.  It made me feel as though my life was not my own.

     The fruit stands were made of wood.  The sides were lower in the front and went up higher as they went toward the back, as was the fruit in them.  The legs were made of wood too, but there was a large open space underneath them with just the legs coming down.  

     There were eight fruit stands in all.  Two were in front of me standing side-by-side and two behind me standing side-by-side and two on each side of me standing side-by-side.  They all touched at the corners forming a complete square enclosure, with me in the center, sitting on the ground.

     The stands were full of fruit, all kinds of fruit.  I knew what some of them were, but some I did not.  I got up to inspect the fruit stands, and to try to pry them apart to get out of the middle, but I could not.  I tried going underneath them, but they lowered themselves so that I could not escape that way either.  I tried to climb over them, but the pile of fruit just got higher preventing my escape.

      The distress of the situation started to overwhelm me.  Seeing that I was trapped, I sat back down and began to cry.  I sat there for a while, very disturbed.  At one point I looked up, and one of the fruits lit up, then another.  

     Slowly I stood up and went over to the fruit that had a light on it and picked it up.  I took a bite, and it was very good.  I tried to pick up a fruit that was not lit up but I could not even budge it.  I backed off and waited for another fruit to light up and when it did, I picked it up, but still could not pick up a fruit that was not lit up.

     The way it worked is that when a fruit was lit up, I could pick it up, but if there was no light on it, I could not.  When a fruit lit up, but then went dim before I got to it, I could not pick it up.  So, I realized I could only pick up fruit when it had a light on it.  

     One time I picked up a fruit that had a light on it and waited for it to go dim to take a bite.  It was very bitter, and I spit it out.

     The feeling of being trapped started getting to me when I heard a voice say, “This is not a trap, you may leave at any time.”

     I asked, “How do I leave, as I cannot climb over nor go underneath?”

     The voice said, “Just ask”, so I did.

     The fruit stands parted for me, and I was able to walk out of the middle of them.  I kept walking and walking.  I would look back and there they were; but I was free.  

     Soon I began to miss the fruit and felt lost without them.  So, I turned around and went back to the fruit stands.  Cautiously, I walked into the middle, and they closed around me, and the fruit started lighting up again.  

     The fountain was huge with multiple fountain tiers, and I would go sit by it often.  I watched it being built and when it was finished  and it being so peaceful to set around, I thought to myself, I would like to live here forever.  Shortly thereafter though, I found myself by another fountain.  Then another.

     It seemed that about the time I got used to the fountain where I was, I moved to the next.  But each fountain had its own beauty and after a few moves I learned to enjoy each fountain for what it was, and I started looking forward to the next fountain.

     Sometimes the dream was short, sometimes it would go on for quite a while.  Every once in a while, I would go back to a fountain that I had seen before.  Especially the first one.  I always enjoyed visiting it.  I did so many times in this dream.

     One time, I asked, “What do the fountains mean?”  

     A voice replied and told me that each fountain was a place where I would learn lessons and each lesson was important for my life.

     This was the second dream that “played” after the first one about the Fruit Stands.  Whenever one would play, I knew the other would play the same night or shortly thereafter.  One first, and then the other.  Either way, they both played.

     The dreams went on like this for a while.  Then another dream was added, and another, until a total of ten dreams played together.