The Feast of Dreams

An old woman lived in a very small house that didn’t have space for all the pots and pans and books and furniture she’d accrued over the years. In order to accommodate her many possessions, she’d moved half of everything to her nightly dreams, where there was more than enough room.
 
When the woman hosted a solstice feast, she first had to retrieve everything that she would require. The serving platter she found in a dream about gypsies. Ironically, she discovered the linen napkins in an anxiety dream about hosting. The good silverware was being used by a crew of pirates who were terrorizing the high seas. Finally, the woman located her gravy boat where she least expected it -- in a childhood dream of flight. It dipped and soared across a periwinkle sky, until she managed to snag it in a makeshift net.
 
Once she'd found everything she'd need, the woman was able to prepare her feast. But as soon as the first guest had arrived she realized what she’d forgotten: chairs. There was nowhere for anyone to sit. One by one they filed through her door, removed their coats, and stood uncomfortably around her dinner table. So the woman did the only thing she could think of.
 
She gave her neighbor a plate and told her to sit among the gypsies. Luckily, they proved to be a companionable caravan, singing and dancing while her neighbor supped.
 
Meanwhile, the woman’s best friend occupied her anxiety dream, which she, coincidentally, didn’t find the least bit anxious. Her own concerns were centered around impossible solutions to intractable problems.
 
The woman’s cousin -- the one who’d never married, because women found him to be too pliable -- joined the pirates. Despite their appearance, they were far more sympathetic than he might’ve expected.
 
Finally, the woman escorted a student to her childhood dream of flight. Immediately the student felt uncomfortable. She assumed it was expected of her to fly, but she didn’t want to, owing to a fear of heights -- so she took ever smaller bites, complimenting the woman on her use of ingredients, and continued to stall, until she noticed with great relief that her napkin had begun to twitch. And as they both watched it flew off to places unknown.