sweet dreams

I dreamt I was back in the art department with everyone...Katie Borden, Moerrik, Maryann, Vanessa, Dominic...and next door a painter friend was opening up a chocolate shop.
It was night. The streets were wet with a recent rain, the street lamps were letting off orbs of yellow, comforting light.
I helped her open her shop.
And went to the opening. A ton of people came. It was like a gallery opening reception, but the food wasn't free, and it was all varying forms of sugar.
Behind the cash registers were shelves to the ceiling filled with different forms of chocolate...chocolate bunnies, huge chunks of dark, milk, and white chocolate from enormous chocolate bars wrapped in cellophane, rows and rows of truffles, cups of chocolate filled with mousse or whipped cream, chocolate covered coffee beans and nuts in plastic bags tied with a bow. It was beautiful.
The walls were painted peach and the employees had matching one-piece jumper skirts taut around the waist with a belt. They had on white tights and had aprons where they put important things like money and pens.
The store was built on a slant. The registers and rows of chocolate goods were at the top, beside the glass doors. The booths were built on the slant, leading down to a desk in the back.
During the opening they had a game. Everyone horded around the back table, requesting something like airheads without wrapping and stacked into a "sandwhich." You asked for certain flavors, or a pre-invented 3 part combination named on the back board, like "love" or "bubble gum" or "orange sunrise." They mostly tasted sour and they were difficult to chew, sticking to my teeth making my face tired. But I was determined to buy a lot, so I did. I in fact bought and ate so many that I eventually won a prize. One of the employees took me to the side, where a small couch was sitting in the middle of a room. She told me we had to find the green teddy bear so that I could claim the prize. She picked up a gift bag resting on the couch and looked inside and under it. That was all the effort she was willing to make. She wasn't very altruistic. I decided that wasn't enough of a search, so I lifted the couch cushions and found it tucked under there, a small thread sewn to the pillow. I ripped it off.
She didn't actually know what the prize was, but I was happy to have it.

Then the shop was closing and I said I would surely be back. In my mind, I feared the shop wasn't going to make it. I assumed people would only be interested in the opening, then stop coming.
Moe and I were walking home together, up the hill from the shop. It was a difficult walk and it was cold and dark, but I realized I hadn't gone to see the gallery show just beside the shop, so we turned around heading back to see it.

Then I woke up, afraid I had actually had all of that sugar during the night. Thankfully not.