Catfish in the Mercantile Bank lobby.
I am in the lobby of the Mercantile Bank and sometimes I am in line for the teller sometimes I am filing out paperwork at one of those raised tables in the lobby. There is four feet of muddy water everywhere. The ceiling is about 30 feet tall and the windows are five feet wide and 15 feet tall and they are all around the building. It is sunny out, the sun seems to be in the morning above the horizon and seems to be circling the building every couple of minutes, producing a lot of moving shadows, but also glare off of the gold and silver fixtures. The front door is one of those turnstiles. Not in the water because you have to walk in and go down some steps into the lobby. So we had to walk down into the water.
Everybody is going about their business like this is normal. But they understand that I do not think it is normal because they keep reassuring me that everything is ok. The people are not saying anything to me that could be meaningful. Everybody is dressed in 19th century dress attire, suites and such. My only big concern are my new hunting boots.
So I am standing in line in four foot of water, looking at the Teller behind black rod iron bars, early 19th century style. Then I realize that the Teller is a very well dressed, man-sized cat....what I call golden stripped cat. 19th century style clothes with a cigar smoking in an ashtray. There is one of those large 19th century golden cash registers there to the Teller's left. He is not in the water because other well dressed animals are walking around behind him....not in water....going about their jobs.
I notice a swirl in the water between me and the guy in front of me and suddenly a catfish's head pops out of the water looking at me. He has a smoking pipe in his mouth....that is apparently not affected by the water.
I say to him, "What are you doing here?
He replies, "What are you doing here? You do realize that you are standing in water and your wallet is wet?"
I instinctively touched my hip pocket, but then I know that my paycheck and everything was wet and I wondered if they were going to accept a wet check.
So while I was contemplating this the catfish goes back to swimming in a circles in front of me. He does not have clothes on. So I start thinking about what he could have to give to the Teller or where he would put anything that he would get from the Teller.
So I ask the catfish, "Where do you keep your money? Do you have a wallet?"
He looks at me like I am dumb and says, "It is in my stomach. Were else?" and he looks over at the Teller and says, "He scares me." ....a cat LOL
I just nod my head. So I stand there a while and eventually ask him, "What do you do with money?"
Again he looks at me like I am dumb and replies, "I keep it in the river bank."
I chuckle and reply, "No what do you spend it on?"
He replies, "Fish futures."
Again I chuckle and had to ask, "What is fish futures?"
He explains that it is wagers on the death of things.
I say, "What?"
He replies, "I eat dead things on the bottom of the river."
I cringe and say, "Yuck!"
And so he gets a little huffy and asks, "Oh really, what do you eat that is alive?"
I chuckle again and replied, "I guess not a lot."
He then says, "We are a lot a like, we both live off of death." And he seems to notice my clothes and asks, "Why aren't you wearing fancy clothes?"
I said, "I am not doing anything fancy."
He says, "Everything is fancy. And then he askes why people wash their clothes?"
"Cause we do not want to stink, I answered.
"Well you all stink anyway! I can smell everything. If you all did not wash your clothes, you all would stink and it would just be normal."
OK, I replied and then asked, "Why are you concerned about people washing their clothes?"
He replies, "They use clean water to wash their clothes. They are wasting clean water and they stink anyway."
There are other fish in the lobby. We never move in line and the catfish and I never get to the Teller....and the dream ends. I have had this dream reoccur.