Dream -Binding Beads, Meaningless Prayers & Gun Violence

“Most of my dreams start like vignette and today was no different.  I was getting dressed up in semi-formal wear to go out to dinner.  My husband had offered to take me out to a nice dinner as friends and to catch up on what’s been going on in each other’s lives.  I was a little excited as I hadn’t been out on a date (be it with friends or anyone else) in months.  I was looking forward to having an adult conversation and not having any immediate concern for the children.   I had chosen to wear this beautiful black wrap dress and matching ballerina flats.  My hair was twisted into a neat high bun and I wore then earrings he’d bought me for Mother’s Day.

He arrived right on time to pick me up.  He was dressed in black slacks, black dress shoes and a white collared dress shirt (not sure if we’d previously coordinated our outfits or if it was a coincidence that we matched).  He drove me to this restaurant downtown that we’d never been to but had heard wonderful reviews over (in real life this restaurant to my knowledge doesn’t exist). It was night time at least past nine o’clock when we arrived, and for whatever reason this restaurant was in a renovated warehouse.  Due to the lack of parking the main entrance was in the back and you had to walk through an alley to reach the back door which was really the front door.

Once through the doors we walked instantly into a full bar room.  Think of the exact same layout as Cheer’s except no one was in this bar room except for the bartender who appeared to be making private drinks for the tables inside the restaurant.  To get to the restaurant we had to walk through this bar room and up a set of concrete steps to a heavy wooden door.  Once the door was opened, we were in a lounge area.  The floor was white ceramic tile with black leather chairs assorted in pairs, in what appeared to be the wide area of a back room to where the tables were. There weren’t many people in this area only a few people were smoking cigars or having drinks. From this point there weren’t any more doors just hallways.  Some of the people sensed the confusion on my face and said for us to continue walking down the hallway and gestured for us to walk straight ahead.

We walked down this long hallway for about 50ft.  The area then opened up into another expansive area.  To my right I could see intimate tables with white table cloths and people eating at them, but they were casually dressed.  We appeared to be over dressed.  Along the far-right side of the room, there were more tables with a wall made of double pained glass.    In between the glass were wide wooden blinds that were opened.  Through the opening I could see a full-scale night club that had so many people packed inside of it that it looked to be a rave.   We were level with the DJ and could see his full setup.  When looking down and around we could see all of the people below and some VIP’s on the same level as the DJ but only  to the left and front of him.  The only thing to the right of him was us, the window between us and a metal door.  Because this was a warehouse there wasn’t much instillation, just large thick brick for walls that provided a sound barrier to where I could only hear a light thumping of the music.  But I knew that once that metal door was opened that it would be too loud to hear myself talk without yelling.

I looked at my date with frustration and said, “I don’t want to eat here.  The only place to eat that isn’t full looks like the lounge area we just left from and I’m not eating back there either.  Plus, this is nothing like what we were told about.  We are overdressed.  This is like some casual place with weird areas conjoined.  This isn’t what I thought it was.  I’m ready to leave.”  At hearing this a young lady appeared from our left.  We hadn’t noticed the small opening from where she came from due to all of our attention being on the small dining area and the night club beyond the glass window. She said, “Oh, you’ll want to go to the restaurant on our other wing.”  She motioned towards the glass window, “It’s on the other side of the club. I can have someone escort you through the metal door to get there, but first we’ve got to get you tagged.”

I looked at her with irritation and more confusion.  Before I could speak, she said.  I have to get this bracelet on you.  You can’t be in here unless you’re 21.  She held out this bracelet that had clear beads alternating with black beads. If you looked closely at it, it looked like it had electronics running through each bead.  I said, “You guys don’t use invisible stamped ink or carnival bracelets?” She started laughing and said, “Oh no those proved to be too easy to duplicate. We’ve had too many incidents with minors entering, so we’ve found this to be the best device.”

I was already feeling uneasy and irritated, so I told her, “No.  We’re not getting the bracelets and we’re not staying; we’d just like to leave now.”  Her face then changed to bewilderment. “Ma’am, I don’t you understand.  You can’t go through any other areas of this building without this bracelet, not even to leave.  And if you refuse, we have to detain you and call for the authorities to come down, and investigate. Then they will have the option of releasing you or taking you down to the precinct for not abiding by our house rules.”

I turned to look at my date and he just shrugged with frustration and said, “Let’s get the bracelets so we can go.”  As she put the electronic device around my wrist, the two ends that were clear and snapped together. At the very moment the ends clicked together, then she pulled me by my wrist with the bracelet to an electronic device, permanently locking it into place.  The locking device looked like the ones they use on clothes and product sensors. She did the same with my husband.  At this point I was a little afraid.  I said, “How do we get this off?”

Before she could open her mouth, a tall stout black man dressed in a snow coat brushed next to us from behind and said, “Don’t worry about it shorty I got you.  Follow me.” He was basically pushing us forward towards two double swinging doors (think like the type at hospitals) and talking to us at the same time ignoring everything the young lady was trying to say to us.

Once he pushed us through the doors, we entered into another massive room that had cream linoleum flooring and on the right side was approximately 20 long tables setup for old style paper bingo.  There were a bunch of senior citizens intently playing and only glanced up at us as we entered the space. Our new acquaintance kept walking and said, “Keep up, I’ll get you out of here, don’t worry.”

We hurriedly sprinted across the room coming to a wooden door that lead downstairs. Then through another door that lead to an open area that looked like the remnants of an old school barbershop that may be also housed a convenience store now.  There were younger African Americans in this smaller space, but not many, at tops 6 people.  Once we were in this space the guy who lead us through all the rooms of this warehouse. He dug into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a special bolt cutting device. He grabbed our arms and cut off the bracelets and let them hit the floor.  He said, “See Shorty, I told you I’d get you out. You’re free, there’s the door.  Now yawl be-careful.”  With that he walked off and started talking to a friend like all that had just happened was nothing.

Once I got my barring’s I realized that we were back on the ground level and were at the front entrance of the warehouse that looked desolate as we passed by earlier.

We were about 50ft from the door when I realized why. The full glass door and the quad-window had limo tint on them. While it was well lit with florescent lighting it look dark as midnight from the outside. I grabbed my dates hand and we started towards the door in a hurry.  We were about 5ft from the door when I stopped in my tracks.  There was a young black man kneeling in a a squat position between the door and the window. He had on a black shirt tucked into black jeans, with black socks and black shoes on. He was at the bottom of the window peeping out, as if he was looking at something, or waiting to see someone. No one else in the room seemed to notice him or his odd behavior. What made me stop in my tracks wasn’t his posture, it wasn’t even that he had his left hand on the wall and his right hand behind him resting beside his butt.  It was the silver gun poking out of his jeans resting in the middle of his back in combination with all of the other weird behavior.

I said to my husband in a whispered tone, “Stop, something is wrong, check out that due, and why is he hiding and peeping outside, when no one can see inside?”  Just then I heard, “Pop, Pop, Pop!” It was gun going off outside bursting through the front window.  We all hit the floor, and the popping noise became noises, and the noises sounded like machine guns. Glass shattered all around us. I peeped up to see the guy who had been kneeling and waiting. He was now shooting out of the large holes in the window into the darkness outside, and some of the other men inside had joined in. The bullets were flying too fast, both high and low that as I laid flat on my tummy, I could feel bullets moving over me. My husband was to my right and a young lady with a 6-month-old was to my left.

I started praying feverishly out loud saying, “Lord, I love you. Please forgive me of my sins, please forgive me of my transgressions and trespasses against you myself and others. Lord if it is my time, please take care of my children.  Protect them dear Lord. Lord if it is my time please find me worthy to enter your house your Kingdom in Heav–“ before I could continue my prayer, I stopped because the young lady’s prayer next to me was so loud and vulgar that I couldn’t continue.  I heard her wailing, and screaming over the bullets even and she angered me!  She was screaming, “Lord Jesus where the fu@$k are you?  MuthaFu^&ker save us! God damn it, make these bullets and sh@t stop! Jesus save me, save my damn baby! Where are you?” And just more rants along those lines.  I didn’t realize that in my anger I began to pull up onto my knees as the bullets still rung out.  I was shouting back at her, “He doesn’t hear you!  He doesn’t hear you!  He’s not listening to you!  I was repeatedly screaming with anger and tears in my eyes, “He doesn’t hear you!”. At some point I realized, that I was now fully standing over her and her child, screaming at the top of my lungs and the room was dead silent besides my husband, whispering in my ear to stop crying and yelling.  That the shooting had stopped and we needed to leave. Everyone was looking at me.  The young lady’s face was filled with both arrogance and fear as I glared back at her holding her infant.  The guy in the snow coat gently lead me to the bullet shattered door and said it was now safe to leave. We walked out on the street.  Not a soul was in sight. It was dark and the asphalt looked like it had rained. We started to walk back to the car in silence and I woke up.

Relevant Scriptures:

Regarding War Matthew 24:6

Regarding  Bondage —  Galatians 5:1

Regarding Prayers — Psalm 66:16-20  Jeremiah 11:11 John 9:31 Proverbs 28:9 Proverbs 15:29 1 Peter 3:12 Isaiah 59:2