They say your dreams spring out of your greatest fears or your greatest desires. Somedays I wake up from pretty messed up stuff and think, “Huh.” Sunday night was one of those.

In my dream I was trying to raise $800. And of course, I chose the lobby of my parents’ memory care facility to do my best thinking. I paced back and forth. Back and forth…thinking about that $800. And as I turned on my heel toward the front door, I saw a runner. An ancient white haired lady wearing clamdiggers and a pastel polyester top took off for the outside. She was breaking out. She had big plans. The much younger woman behind the front desk took off after her, scooped her under her arms and escorted back in, all as I watched from the middle of the lobby. The facility administrator led the runner back toward her room and a more cognizant, lucid resident watched from her dining table, clicking her tongue and shaking her headas if to say, Silly lady. Trying to take off again.

And then my million dollar idea came to me. We would invent, develop, manufacture, market, sell and install devices designed to weed out the memory care patients. Easy. It would be like a key pad device. And the lucid residents would know the code and how to use it, but the ones who should not be outside would be stymied by the device. Like childproofing for the Alzheimer’s patient.

In my dream, as this idea came to me, I jumped up and down, shouting, “This is it! This will solve EVERYTHING!”

I woke up just as the tongue clicker had turned her focus on me.

I told this dream to my husband tonight over dinner and described my mental prototype to him.

“Great idea,” he replied. “It really is a good idea. But I’ve got two words for you: FIRE HAZARD.”

It’s true.

You can’t lock people in.

That runner might just have enough left in her to strike a match. Also, there are probably easier ways to make $800.

Last night I dreamed about a giant two-headed baby, where each of the heads was a different race. It was terrifying.

Maybe there’s an essential oil for this. Or maybe just Nyquil.