Short Story: George's dream of going back to school, let him finally re-school himself

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George was dreaming that he was told to go back to school, as a mature age student, right back into primary school, into grade 1, or prep, it seemed. George went to the school, and he walked along the long linoed corridor, looking for a timetable of the class times on a wall there somewhere, but not finding anything, he went into the classroom, that he thought was his one. Everyone was gathered there now for some reason anyway, it seemed. George was running a bit late, and all of the other students (all young kids) were all already seated at their desks. George saw an empty spot, up near the front, on the right side of the room, which seemed more like a large gathering school hall, next to a red-headed young boy. George sat on the right of the two seated small desk, and he fitted in there somehow, even though he was an adult. The class was about to start, it seemed to George. The red-headed boy showed George his books, of which George did not have any of his own. The boy doesn't yet know how to read in this grade level yet, it seems, but George points to the pictures in one of his books, and he tells him that the writing describes the pictures, giving more information about them, and their story. A lady teacher then comes in, and she comes up to George, being the only mature age student there, and she asks George who he is, and what is he doing there. George tells her that he is a new mature age student here. She goes out, and she comes back with a small pile of kid's books, fiction pieces for George. All small stapled booklets, about 6 of them, and a notepad too. Then the headmistress comes in, and she comes over to George, telling him that they must interview him first in her office to make sure if maybe he is really a disguised serial killer, or something like that, and she laughs, candidly/crookedly/deridely, as she says this. "We need to check your answers on a personality test first," she told George. George went into her office, and he asked her if she is the head-mistress of the school. She said, "Yes." George told her that he used to go to this same school, many years ago, and that he was pleased to see that it is still going, even now. (In real life, it is not though. This was the old Southwood primary school, where George really went as a boy, for several years, but it is now being used as a college, for training fledgling trainee ministers, for the Salvation Army) George looks at her face, and she looks strange as she has sultanas stuck all over her face, covering small red blisters, or boils, rashes, pimples, blotch marks etc. It was hard for George to tell exactly what they were, or why she had them there. A strange dream indeed. Why did George return to his former school? What was the significance of him sitting next to the red-headed boy? Who was the helpful school teacher? Who was the nasty headmistress? What were the sultanas on her face all about? Dreams often depict linkages between things, that are not now linked, (to us that is, right now, we do not see the linkage, that is really there) and here George is being shown that books are always linked to images, and this new learning should go with him, whenever he reads. George should see the images that arise from words, representatively from those words. People in our dreams show us aspects of our own personality that annoy others in the way they have annoyed us in the dream. Here the sultanas show George that he is put off by appearances, and he overvalues good looks, and he is annoyed by people testing him, and making jokes at his expense. Raisins and sultanas appearing in dreams also indicate that the dream is set in the past, that George perhaps has trust issues with people in his past, someone has put him down, and not respected him for who he was. When George woke up, he realised that this headmistress was actually his mother, who was a strict old bird, who always used to pick on him, whenever he chirped up, with any of his own ideas. He now knew why he often felt discouraged, and that he must let go of the past, and embrace who he is now, and not live anymore as the past version of himself, where he still saw himself as being a little boy, subject to discipline, from everyone who he met. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com George's school desk. George felt comfortable at the small desk, even though he was way too big for it. In life, he felt the opposite, uncomfortable, and too small, as himself, in his life.