House Person

I walk around drunkenly. I am not drunk but more asleep than awake. The house where I am staying is large, spacious, and two storied. The rest of the house is still asleep. I stagger up the stairs and find myself in a type of office. I haphazardly lean on a large answering machine. Pulling myself up I notice the light blinking on the machine. Concerned that I did this to someone else's answering machine, I press the stop button. Only when I do so I grow concerned that I might have stopped someone in the middle of their message.

I must have fallen asleep on a couch downstairs because I awake on it with a gaggle of people talking around me. The sisters talking to a guy. The guy is a recently divorced friend who works in an office close to mine. I awake more and greet him. As we shake hands I relate that I thought I dreamed him there, and what a great coincidence that we both know the same family. He replies that it isn't. I realize when he says that, that he and I are after the same thing.

Still more asleep than awake I force myself to my feet by will alone. I stagger a couple of feet with my eyes mostly closed. I stoop down as if to go to sleep on the ground. I force myself to stand again and continue walking. My supervisor remarks about my great degree of self control.

I lurch in a straight line, from the couch where I had just awoken, down the hall into the kitchen. Upon arriving in the kitchen I lean into the counter to stabilize myself. I turn and see House Person putting away dishes. She is dressed in a short black dress with a white croche over the front. There are two puffs of black fabric around her wrists. I crack up because she looks like a French maid. I tell her to always wear that outfit when doing kitchen work. She disagrees with my amusement. I lead her back to the group of people I had just come from and point out her outfit. I lightly slap her on the back.