Orange dreams

Last night, I had a dream involving oranges...

I dreamt that I was living in a small village by the sea, and I had to sell oranges for a living. I traded my oranges to the fishmonger for fish, to the cheese lady for cheese, to the clothier for cloth, and so on. One of the oranges I kept for my own consumption (and I kept it because it was smaller than the others and not likely to be worth as much), and I saved it in my icebox to keep it cool.

One dark, stormy night I came home to my tiny cottage exhausted, hungry, and very sad (I think someone in the village had died, and I think I might have been returning from a funeral, as I was all dressed in black and I'd come from the local chapel). I didn't have much food left, so I got out my last little orange for a late supper.

As I was peeling back the thin layer of zest from the orange and placing them in a small wooden bowl, something small and round fell on the table with an audible "ping." Consumed with curiosity, I picked up the object, feeling the cold, hard, metallic bauble between my fingertips. I lit a candle to get a closer look, and seeing what I took to be smudges or tarnish, I pulled out my handkerchief and began polishing the object, trying to discover what was inscribed in the metal. My toil came to no avail, so I threw the bits of orange peel out the window, set the bauble aside in a chipped tea cup on the windowsill and went to bed.

In the morning, there was a distinct smell of oranges coming from my kitchen. I went in and looked in the teacup to check on the bauble...and I saw the tiniest little orange tree growing there! As the weeks passed, the tree grew very quickly, producing a dozen oranges in a day. I checked the first few oranges to see if they carried the same mysterious bauble, but they seemed to be normal, healthy oranges. I sold the rest of the crop at market and received a fine price for them.

This good fortune continued for several months, until I came home one afternoon to find the door to my humble cottage forced open, and my orange tree gone. I promptly fell into poverty, as I hadn't been keeping up my normal orange trees, and I found myself taking up residence in the local jail.

One night, a small metal object rolled into my cell, sprouted legs, and began conversing with me about the weather. The bauble casually mentioned that he would give me three wishes in exchange for my help. I wished myself out of the jail but found myself at the bottom of a well, where I had to dig and dig and dig but there would never be any way out...and the bauble was above me, cackling wickedly. I remember feeling very wretched and disheartened...and then my alarm went off. I was very happy to not be at the bottom of a well.

I'm hungry for oranges now.