Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Clearing Out a Worshipful Master's House

Chicken parm sandwiches with yam chips, a bowl of cereal later.

WM R.J. has died, and a bunch of us from 72 (for some reason) are going to his house to start clearing it out. In the dream, he has been a lifelong bachelor, and the son of an old & wealthy family. His home is a monstrous mansion, somewhat in disrepair but still magnificent. The two wings seem to be made up each of primarily one giant room. We start in one, which is darker (and I don't remember much about it) and move on to the other, which is far more brightly lit. The ceilings in these giant rooms are easily 40 feet. In this second, bright room, there are shelves that go nearly all the way up, but only in a few places. It is like a giant library room. The walls are plaster & white, the ceiling is wood, almost like shingles but on the inside. But the shingles don't reach all the way to the walls, but rather roughly stop a foot or two back. Lance comments that this was R.J.'s choice, for some reason, that he had a plan with that.

There is discussion that at some point in this family's history in the house, they buried five "time capsules" somewhere in the structure. I'm really in search of these, whatever they are, to save them and archive them. I look in a small, red closet. It is lined with racks of uniforms and military gear. Everything is heavily decorated, sheathed in medals. It's impressive, but not what I'm looking for. I climb around and below the jackets and uniforms, I think I find loose planks and peer beneath, to no avail.

Walt takes me down in to the basement/crawl space, by way of a door outside at ground level. It is dark, cobwebby, and low. We're finding nothing, but we're undaunted. We keep looking.

We go back into the giant library room. Way, way up, on the highest shelf, I can see a big white box or book or something. It says "From Smitty" on the side, though I'm amazed I can make that out at such a distance. Lance and I joke about getting up there and retrieving it, but I'm entirely unwilling to get a ladder and climb that high for it. Never mind. We'll keep looking.

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