Stealing from Old People

Those of you who enjoy dream interpretation, I need your help. Here’s a dream I had last night:

I’m living in a beach town in Florida and there’s been a huge hurricane. I decide to go out after the storm for a cup of coffee. But as I walk to the coffee shop I realize it’s way too far, so I turn toward home, deciding to take the beach road back.

The road along the beach has been heavily damaged and eventually it disappears altogether. I’m slogging through sand that becomes almost waist-deep, and then I’m walking through waist-deep water. I’m worried about what might be in that dark, murky water. I see floating debris and, at one point, I think I see bones.

Amid the debris, I find a small pink box. I tuck it in my bag and slog on.

Finally, I come to a waterfront gift shop, also heavily damaged but intact. I go inside and an elderly man and woman are working there, trying to restore their shop after the storm. I realize that all their stock comes in pink boxes like the one I found, so I pull it out and show it to them. They’re happy that I found some of their missing stock. We open the box, and inside is a set of laminated cardboard coasters with a Chinese motif -- plum blossoms and so on.

They turn away and I’m about to put the box on the shelf when I decide I want these coasters. I put them back in my bag and leave the empty box behind. I turn to leave and as I’m walking out the door I hear the old woman exclaim to the old man, “It’s empty!”

So this is what I’m reduced to -- stealing from old people after a hurricane. And stealing cheap tourist crap at that.

(I think I had this dream because I’m reading a John D. MacDonald mystery, “The Deep Blue Good-by,” which takes place partly in the Keys and is steeped in Florida imagery.)

What could possibly be going on in my mind?

(Photo: "Very Often I Cry When Alone" by Kosbe, street art in SoHo, March 2009)