Though I tend not to remember many of my dreams after I have been awake for a few minutes, there was one a week or so ago that awakened me suddenly. Those are the kind that I usually remember.

Here it is:

I was being chased, along with my wife and a couple of friends, through a very old mansion, by something (I say "something", because my first thing that I remember is the chase scene - I don't know why or by whom).

We ran down the stairs, through a large arch doorway, and into a huge room filled with very old, faded, and worn burgundy leather furniture. The room was very dimly lit, but I could see another large arch doorway on the same side of the room as the first but about 20 feet away.

Suddenly, we heard footsteps running down the stairs, and we knew whoever was chasing us would soon be upon us. As we were trying to determine what we should do next, I heard a voice say "Don't worry - you'll be okay here".

I looked toward the voice, and saw a very old man seating in one of the faded leather armchairs holding up a plant misting bottle in his hand. As the chasing footsteps came closer, he sprayed whatever was in the bottle toward the doorway through which we had entered. Suddenly we could see the people chasing us through the doorway. As they attempted to run through the doorway, they bounced back as if they had just run into a large clear latex balloon that was covering the opening. After their initial attempt to enter, they went away.

At this time, I focused my attention on the old man sitting in the chair. I asked him who he was and what he was doing here. He didn't answer my question, but said that he had been in this room for two years and had always managed to keep the others out with his plant mister. He didn't know what was in the bottle or why it worked, but it never seemed to become emptier no matter how often he sprayed.

I asked how long the effect lasted - since we had been able to run into the room, I knew that it couldn't be permanent. He answered "Two hours". He had learned to sleep for only an hour at time. But now that there were more people than him in the room he would like to sleep the whole night thru. With that, he handed each of us a plant mister and went to sleep.

The rest of us made plans to sleep in shifts throughout the night - with that taken care of, I fell asleep.

I was suddenly awakened by loud voices and heavy footsteps. It was pitch black in the room so I couldn't see anyone else. I picked up my plant mister and began spraying wildly around the room.

At that point, I woke up in real life and will never know the outcome of my dream adventure.

[Editor's note: Great Stuff!]