I dreamed that I was in a small beach bach with a colleague. It was on a road maybe a block or two back from the beach, on a corner with a fairly large, bare summer lawn. We were sitting at the table discussing a piece of writing - something adolescent, a letter or poem, or letter with a poem in it, handwritten, from one of us as a teenager? Or his ex-girlfriend or sister or something, written when he was a teenager?

It was comfortable and we talked as the evening came on without turning on the lights. there was maybe a touch of hesitation there, circling the content in the letter, a light desire to be closer. I heard my stepdad outside, singing or calling as he came up the steps. My colleague was freaked out, wondering if it would look strange that we were together in the dark but I was happy to hear him, happy he would be here, my family, and soon my husband would be home too. I went to open the door and put the light on. The light switch was one of those small old-style switches on a narrow base of a yellowing plastic. All the paintwork in the bach was old, white, amateur and homely.

My stepdad came in with my sister and I was so overjoyed to see her. I hugged her and picked her up and held her, and carried her around by holding her at her knees/thighs, her hanging back from my body a bit, sitting on my arms while we talked. She was about 14 years old and she'd been down at the beach playing and hanging out with her cousins and friends. She had shaved her head and looked quite androgynous. This made me happy - it was easier to relate to her somehow and I was relieved that she felt comfortable doing it to please herself.

Everyone came in and the place was quite crowded now, including my sister's pets, a friendly rottweiler and a young tiger about the same size, also dark and stocky. We were all talking and the tiger kept leaping up on the benches and tables, looking for food and sending papers flying. It was shooed down several times (I was scared to touch it) and then the two of them, dog and tiger, started running circles around the island bench in the kitchen, getting more and more frenzied, creating a whirlwind of chaos. They were so fast and powerful that I was scared to step into the circle to stop them but I knew they needed to be fed - my sister hadn't taken care of this. I wasn't doing it myself (I guess I didn't know what food they should have, and I was a bit scared of them, and it was her job?) but then I was my mother, and as my mother I stepped in through the whirlwind and moved to the pantry to get the feeding started.  I was talking to my sister too, including her in the job which was still hers.