Night of 9th January 2010

The shed is a roomy workshop like space, just like Doc Brown's workshop in Back to the Future III. And just like Back to the Future III we are in an historic western frontier setting/time. There are a few of us in the shed, and I'm aware that the others are shunning the negro. They are arguing about how to complete what it is that's to be done, and I, characteristically, decide I will go it alone. I position myself, however, close to the negro, moving away from the others - sending a passive signal that I'm happy to do what I'm doing with him (the negro). Although I'm not really sure what it is I'm supposed to do, or achieve - it is not initially apparent at any rate.

I'm then pan frying something. The negro is standing to my right, and I seem to be including him in the task although his participation is, at best, passive. The first pan fry is unsuccessful - the contents of the pan look like an omelet: circular, yellow - but somehow I haven't cooked the dish right and have to start again. I don't, however, discard the first attempt: I keep it on the worktop close to the cooking hob. The next attempt is a similar dish, but this time I'm using tomatoes, tinned plum tomatoes; I realize this as I'm shown an image of the completed dish in the pan. The same circular, yellow appearance is there, however, mixed in is the red of the tomatoes, which I can see have been crushed and appear, not as chunky pieces, but thinned strands. (this image seems to me as very similar to the painting in the museum dream some months ago)

I sense the negro is closer to me as this second attempt is completed, in fact, he is right next to me, shoulder to shoulder. I can't (in waking) recall his help, but I feel as though I want to credit him with having contributed (in the dream). I slide the completed dish out of the pan and onto the worktop. It overlaps the previous attempt. It seems like a pizza (strong enough to support its own structure, unlike an omelet which would fall apart if you picked it up). I realize the first attempt, which I now say was a cheese dish, or cheese infused dish, of some sort would pair up well with the second, and over lay the first on top of the second. It's this point that I credit the negro and tell him he can have, or be a partner in, the successful invention. In fact, I go further, and say that we could have a hamburger in it, wrapped in the middle. One appears there.
This being the old-west, we have created the first ever cheeseburger (I realize the creation in the dream is not, properly, a cheeseburger) and are set to be extremely rich and secure forever from the invention. I'm glad to have given this gift to the (hard done by) negro.

I have to go and see Darrell (an African-American acquaintance from waking life) at the hospital. I want to take him some gifts and wrap up the new culinary invention in a plastic bag which has some other items (forgotten) in it. I must take care to carry the bag carefully, so as not to destroy the cooking, and carry it like a waiter does a platter or round serving tray. The setting has become futuristic; but not futuristic as we'd imagine now, it's what "futuristic" would have been imagined to be by people from 30/40 years ago. I've come around a corner and I'm walking down the hill it turned onto. There are no cars on the streets and it seems like dusk. I'm on the right hand side of the two way street. I must be in a rush, or behind schedule, or eager to get there as soon as I can - as I think that I must take a cab to the hospital. There is a taxi pick up point just ahead, mid way down the hill, and what seems to be a car waiting there. I approach the car and lean down and intend to board it, only to see it is not a car but some kind of novelty or gift store fashioned out of a car chassis. It's purple and the the stock seems to be small gaudy flowers; there's an old Japanese man tending the store, but I don't talk to him, and he doesn't seem to respond to my presence. I realize the gift store was not exactly the pick up point and see the actual one just ahead. I arrive there, but still there are no cars on the road, no sign of any coming, and I notice the foot of the hill is actually very close. I decide to continue on foot, and can see people, hustle bustle, at the urban area the hill leads on to.
I'm in the urban area, which seems like downtown west-Shinjuku, a CBD area of Tokyo, and I'm waiting at a crosswalk. There are many people around, all waiting for the lights too. The lights change and we spill onto the road; as people pass the other way, I notice a couple of western women, who seem like up-market mothers in their late 30s, in the group. As we pass I over hear them talking in American accents - they speak of healthcare, insurance providers specifically, and the talk seems topical as America is currently trying to pass healthcare reform legislation.
I'm close to Darrell's hospital. I go in one of the big buildings (all the buildings are more or less skyscrapers) and people are coming this way and that - it seems like a busy shopping night or something - most of them are female. I'm now unsure if I've got the right place, and want to sit down and get my bearings. I see some cafeteria style seats and tables in a corner and make my way over.
There's an ashtray on the table with some stubbed out cigarettes in it. I'm a little shocked and relieved - shocked because most buildings are now non-smoking, and relieved because I'm a smoker. The seats look like ones you'd see on a tram or train: plastic moulded unibody attached to the floor/wall, with velour fabric. The body seems to be cream plastic, and the velour purple; although I also have an image of cream plastic with green velour (which makes me think of the Japanese bank SMBC) which may have been another building I mistakenly went into before this one.
Behind the seats + table, in the wall, there is a thin, oblong, hole or slit, with rounded edges (in fact they curve into each other) under which a card is slid - just like name card arrangement on the spine of ring binders, etc. I can't however recall what was written (or recall if I could actually read it in the dream). After seeing this slit, I sit.
At that moment another group of women has approached my position, and I think they are approaching me. However they stop just before me and seem uninterested in my presence. They are waiting for the elevator - which I now see is behind/next to the little corner of seats and tables where I am. This must be the way to the clinic where Darrell is. I wake.