I had a disturbing dream earlier this morning. I know it was the morning because it was 5 a.m. when my eyes opened. Here’s what happened:

I entered my dream going back to an Asian man’s house who I originally had sold something to from a yard sale we had. For some reason I wanted to see how his purchase was working out for him.

I knocked on the door and he looked surprised to see me. Immediately I could tell something was wrong and he accused me of selling him something that was broken.

The thing he was referring to was, in my mind, a Mr. Potato Head doll. He kept going on and on about how I should refund his money, but I disagreed because I sold it to him in perfect condition. I remember thinking in my dream that I would never dishonestly sell anyone anything that was broken. Outside of the dream world I pride myself on my honesty.

So in the backdrop of this dream I’m a groomsmen in my fiance’s sister’s wedding (which just happened in real life). I remember thinking that I should stop talking to this man and get on the road because I’ll be late. I kept looking at my watch which was digital. I kept thinking I had plenty of time reasoning, ‘it only takes an hour to get to Tri-Cities.’

Anyway, the man gets his wife to come into this room, which I think is a garage. We start talking about ways to make the Mr. Potato Head doll work. I think his wife wanted to use it for some kind of artistic purpose so I remember putting it up to the wall and saying that it worked perfectly as a piece of art. She just needed to paint it.

I never got a clear answer from her. I only remember her talking rapidly so that I couldn’t understand her. The whole time the man was getting more and more angry. Meanwhile his family was getting ready for dinner and he had to leave and I had to get on the road (I kept look at my watch and was getting dangerously close to being late for the wedding).

I remember briefly going into the man’s house and seeing his children running around and dinner being put on the table. Next I was back with the man haggling over the price. And we both kept saying it wasn’t worth arguing over because the item was only $5. But I always want to make things right with people so I offered him $3 back because I felt we were both wrong, but I would take the pay him more than 50/50 for goodwill.

Then he got really angry with me. I remember thinking how unreasonable this man was and how I was trying to do the right thing and make it right. Somehow I left the house and went back to my car. I had this overwhelming feeling of anxiety. I thought I should give him the full $5 back, but I was never in the neighborhood and it was going to be inconvenient for me to come back. I was convinced he was going to sue me so I went back to the house. By this time it was dark.

I knocked on the door because I wanted to tell the man I would completely refund his money. I could only see the inside of his house through these tiny glass windows on the door. I could tell he was eating dinner and didn’t want to be bothered. I knocked again. No answer. About that time I realized I needed to leave because I was going to be late. I looked at my watch and had 1 hour to get to the wedding. If I sped the whole way I would make it and only delay the wedding for a few minutes.

However, when I finally got into my car I noticed the clock inside read 7:03 pm and the wedding started at 7 pm. At that moment my heart sank into despair and I remember thinking how were they going to walk down the aisle with one less groomsmen. Then I kept repeating…’NO, NO, NO,’ over and over again in distress and then I woke up relieved that the events in my dream didn’t actually take place.

But I was left with this awful feeling that I was late for something that was beyond my control.

Update:
The interesting thing I just realized was that when I awoke at 5 a.m. this morning out of that dream I noticed my phone wasn’t by my bed where I usually keep it. My phone is my alarm clock. So I got up, found my phone, set the alarm to 7 a.m. and went back to sleep.