In my dream my sister and I are on holidays from boarding school. My sister is a cross between my daughter and my sister, the two flip about in my dream but I notice this only now as I write the dream down. In my dream their identity is stable.

We travel on an escalator in a fabric shop in search of material for a new doona or bedspread. Either we will buy the necessary material or we will buy the finished product, whichever we find that best resembles the colour my sister is after. She has a sample. It is a sea green colour more turquoise but one that is predominantly green not blue.

I have traveled here in this shop alone and I have some sense that I know my way about but everything seems to have changed and when we ask directions to the manufacturer’s counter from a fellow shopper within this huge department store, she tells us that it no longer exists.

We are standing at the foot of a straight ladder like staircase. I consider the possibility of going up but another shopper gets in before me and I give way to her. She must be in her mid fifties this woman and surprises me at her determination to climb this ladder even as in one hand she carries a heavy bag.

She manages to climb about ten stairs and I am close behind. Somehow I decide this trip is not worth it and I urge my sister/my daughter below to stay put. Then we walk down to the basement, where we come across a dark room called the bored room. We go inside and see a group of fellow students and one mother at a cafeteria style bar where they help themselves to coffee and ice cream.

No, I say to my daughter/sister we will not stop here. We do not need to stop here. We are not bored.