The Fredösphere

What a beautiful dream I had last night.

We were in Coldwater, touring a restored Victorian mansion.  Has it been a while since you've been to Coldwater?  Let me remind you:  of the many small towns in Michigan with interesting 80-100 year old homes, Coldwater is a standout.  As you drive down Main Street, you see so many magnificent specimens of every variety of the Victorian styles:  your Italianates, your Queen Annes, your Gothic and Greek revivals, your Neoclassicals.  If you take a quick detour down the side streets, you see many more, some neglected, some restored.  My dream was based on the home pictured here:  the Wing House, with its raised basement and an unusual arcade, which is maintained by the local historical society.

In the dream, the house we toured was haunted, naturally, by a woman.  I found myself caught up in solving the mystery of her violent, untimely death.  I seemed to be able to find creepy clues that all others had overlooked:  a message etched in a window that could be read only when the light hit it a certain way, and a photo of the woman and her bizarre brother, pictured with a slash cleaving him top to bottom.  (What did that evil sign mean -- that he was schizophrenic?  We'll never find out.)  The house seemed to be lousy with trap doors and secret passageways.  Once I was startled by the woman's body, lying in a bed, suddenly sitting up.  Ha, ha! -- because it was merely an animatronic display, built by the historical society to frighten and amuse us.

Then in my dream we left the house and toured the town.  Everywhere I looked, the narrow streets were packed with an dense, old-growth forest of Second Empire mansions, tall and dark and displaying a sinister nobility.  The streets were overrun with cable cars.  It was gorgeous (but a nightmare for car owners).

Well, I'll never adequately convey the spooky mood of that dream -- as is always the case.  You'll just have to take my word for it that dreaming a full-fledged whodunit was a blast.  Rarely has waking to the corporeal word been such a disappointment.  That's what you people are to me:  a let-down.  Please don't take it personally.