Very Bad Dream

I briefly mentioned the fact that there have been multiple episodes of arson in my town...it is becoming increasingly upsetting. People's homes have been destroyed... some have been injured or even killed.

While I have been worried about this all along, it is only recently that it has started to cause me more serious anxiety. I guess these worries are getting the best of me because last night I had a horrible dream that our house was the target.

(I need to mention that in my dreams, things never look like they do in real life. There is always something different about the physical surroundings- maybe that is my subconscious trying to create a little space between dream and reality?)

In real life, we live in a row house (fancy name=townhouse but ours was built at a time when it was a row house). In my dream, we lived in a single family home with a garage. The arsonists- I think there were 3 or 4 of them- were trying to set fire to a trash can that was in our garage.

This is similar to reality because the most recent fires have been set in trash cans on people's porches. We don't have a garage but we do have a screened in back porch and this is the area where I fear a fire would be set if our house was indeed targeted.

All I really remember is that I opened the garage door and these people came in and blatantly tried to start a fire. I wanted to kick them out but I was scared. They backed down briefly but then it was like I was a prisoner in my own home. I woke up in mid-dream and was terrified. I forced myself to stay awake so I could shake it off -if I go back to sleep too quickly, I will resume the same dream. I didn't sleep very well for the remainder of the night because I kept thinking about the possibility of our house being a target & had to check on the boys to be sure that everyone was safe.

While it's hard for me to describe details to you, the dream was vivid and real at the time. I tend to dream that way. I also tend to rerun dreams and am hoping that this one doesn't come back-in a dream OR in real life.

A recent news article...with the town name edited out...
MY TOWN, PENNSYLVANIA - January 12, 2008-- MY TOWN has been hit with two more suspicous fires, both set on front porches early Monday morning.
The fires broke out at about 2:15 A.M.
One started on North C Street and quickly went to two alarms.
The other fire broke out about four blocks away, on the 200 block of MY STREET.
The second fire caused minor damage.
There are no reports of injuries at either house.

Since New Year's Day, there have already been five cases of arson in MY TOWN
The Fire Marshall is trying to determine if these latest cases should be added to the list.