Proof of instant dream memory by digression

I have positive
conclusive
experiential dream proof

(without getting into the whole
dream - I'm told that's a bit boorish)

that Yes, Virginia, dream recollection
creates instantaneous past
which in the dream

is real.
And:
has roots.

Just like it was there before.
To be succinct, as a minor incident
in an otherwise more or less eventful
dream (fading already, washed away
in big sips of hot coffee) my wallet

got stolen and was returned to me.

But I looked into it
and a lot of the stuff
was missing! And then
she
started throwing stuff (my hero in the dream!
Who'd seen the thief and immediately accosted
her and recovered it!) at me. She threw

pieces of stuff.

All the stuff. Real
wallet stuff! PLUS,
other stuff - treasured keepsakes,
a little red and gold-colored metal
covered medal of Neil Finn among
them - stuff I instantly knew and filed
away: "Whew! That's not lost." But

I categorically never had half
that stuff in my wallet! It was

impromptu backstory business,
and just-so hum-ho convincing.

I didn't even notice the fakes until
I awoke, and it was a minor detail.
So naturally I questioned the rest.

I was like:

...Did I know that girl once?
Did we dance and talk each other's
ear off all night at a wedding reception
when I was 19 or 20?

Was she in fact my cousin? 

YES.

The girl, my dream hero, throwing
wallet stuff at me was real, but grown 
now, and old. Well, about how old. 
Me old, we old. Pleasantly in sync
for someone I never saw again, and 
cannot for the life of me name (wouldn't 
anyway - what she does in my dream 
decades after the night in question is
her business!). I remember that night 

I had lost or broken my glasses in the 
days before, so 
she had a glow, and 
she didn't know I wore glasses, 
but right up close I could see her 
freckles and all 
distinct and clear. 

She was real, and I hope and presume 
still is. The wallet stuff,
some of it,
was not!

It just goes to show you,
- Oh I hadn't known at the time
she was my cousin! In the real event, 
then - such a time. That news broke
the moment wide open, came
as a semi-crushing blow
upon a semi-crush still wet
from the egg, yet fledgling
and spoiling to bolt worms
and split the nest,

lemme tell ya

- or from my side it all was. And
for once, 
I am about dead sure,
from the other side: 
likewise. 

I mean come on. This girl, whoever's 
cousin she may have been and by 
however many steps removed, 

was as honest as the night was long, 
to that I'll swear if not vow. 

Point is, the wallet stuff was some
real some not, and both had equal
validity and reality-weight in the dream.
Each dream thing there, its backstory
radiating back into rooted known-
without-thinking experience, like
her. It was all same gravity,
same physics,

in dream logic,
and if we could bottle
that blithe sure acceptance
for the government to dole out
in sips and glugs: "Uh-Oh." It wasn't
that we were first or second cousin.

But still.

Gauche.

It would have defined our relatedtionship for sure.

We would've felt like Catholic hillbillies

or something