So i’m coming home (from work, maybe?) when I see one of those time & temperature displays. Instead of displaying the current outside temperature, I see that this one is displaying “Old Basement” or something like that. Definitely meant for me, and only me, and rising. I decide to drive past the house where I used to live (which I recognized as still belonging to me), and I see that there’s a large amount of smoke coming from the dryer vent, the basement.

So I stop, knock on the neighbor’s door across the street to call 911. The mother lets me in, the kids both go to see if they can see the fire. I call 911, but have difficulty reaching the appropriate company. The message is pre-recorded, press 1 for this, press 2 for that, and so on, and the choices are unclear, so I begin guessing, poorly. I am struck by the niceness of the phone I am given, the mother’s cell, displaying “MOMMIE’S CELL” as the banner.

As I continue struggling with the phone call, the fire gets worse. It is clear that the house will soon be engulfed. I see the flames clearly now, spreading out of the basement windows, now licking at the front porch over the basement. The mother or father says to me “Looks like you’ve lost it,” meaning the house.

I wake up, and go to the bathroom. I’ve left a candle burning on the kitchen counter. Yes, the hair on the back of my neck is sticking up a bit still.

Strange things about this dream:

• I don’t remember exactly what the T&T display read, but it was obviously meant just for me.
• I recognize the house as the house we used to live in, but we haven’t owned it for years. There is no basement in the house. In the dream, the house was still owned by me, but we weren’t living there, it was empty.
• I do not recognize the family at all, but they knew me as the (former) owner of the house.
• I can very vaguely remember some of the 911 call choices, but they were all bad.