Bad Dreams

I had a bad dream last night. I dreamt that both of my brothers were dead, and I was cooking hamburgers for a bunch of people I didn't know. It was strange. I knew it wasn't real during the dream, but I woke up with this deep ache in my stomach which dissipated when I remember that they are both quite alive and well. And then my cell phone rang and again that something twisted my stomach into a knot. It was my friend calling about Trinidad.

Usually dreams don't stick with me long after I wake up. Even the bad dreams evaporate in the morning sun, but this one stuck with me for some reason. I have snapshots of this dream almost as vivid as if I'd seen them in real life or on TV. There are only a handful of dreams that have stuck with me like that. There's one where I'm late to my own wedding, I show up in pajamas, and I don't recognize the groom; but what girl hasn't had that dream? There's another one where I'm standing on one of the dining room chairs in Virginia and I'm surrounded by snakes (like in Indiana Jones). But I don't remember those grabbing me like that physically, to the point where I feel sick and have a horrible urge to cry. It was strange. Very strange. And why am I cooking hamburgers in this dream?