I was at the back door to Stephen's parents house, it looked just like it always had when I was a kid, metal framed with sepia tinted, leaf fogged glass. I knocked but didn't await answer and walked straight in, not customary at all in Ireland. Nt at my firends houses anyway. I walked in to be confronted with some building work in progress. Stephen and his cousin Kieran, cousins to eachother and my two oldest friends, were working on an attic conversion. We barely acknowledged each others presence which is normal, a brief hello simply enough. One of them asked me to pass them up three thick sheets of wooden panelling. I can remember this being a bit of a struggle as I could barely life the two outside ones for fear of dropping the middle one but they got the other end easily enough. I looked down to see some random stuff that had been cleared from the attic behind some dust sheets and ladders. I picked up a large shoe box that contained several folders with all our names on them. I opened mine and it was full of childhood photos. Well, they were more like photos of memories as none of these were photos I could ever recall viewing previously. I saw pictures of me and my brother in various metal shirts, with our parents, old friends and deceased family pets. Then behind all the pictures was an envelop containing various school ties I'd had throughout primary and secondary school, elasticated ones from early school days and other traditional ties. The whole time I was aware this was a dream as I was fully aware of everything, yet it never felt like it was, even though the pictures weren't actually real and the scenario fictitious.
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