dream

something had been bugging me between my teeth for a long time, something stuck in there. it didn't really hurt, but it just nagged, and my tongue kept running over it... i kept trying to pick it out, but hadn't had too much luck.
suddenly one day, it just popped out - but it was a shell and it was huge! (well, huge for the space it had occupied between my teeth!) it was a lovely ivory color, with swirls of brown decorating it, and the pattern swirled along with the body of the shell. i could only see its color and swirls after i'd wiped all the blood and other gunk off of it.
i took it to a room full of people from the past - i wanted to show my mom. but when i got near her with my shell, it slipped through my fingers and dropped into the sand, and when i looked down, there were thousands of other shells there too.
i became frantic, and fell onto my hands and knees, sifting, searching, scrambling through the sand looking for the shell that had come from my mouth.
i grabbed and inspected ones that seemed similar to my shell, but had a heart-sinking feeling that i would never find my shell.
finally, it was in my hand! i turned to show my mom, while sobbing with relief at finding my shell, and really the relief i felt was showing it to her and telling her where it had come from, because after all, it was a very unusual thing to have stuck between my teeth...
i had the feeling of a child who had been lacking in comfort for too long, needy and almost begging for touch and affirmation... something...
i woke then...