PSYCHIATRIST: "Okay, tell me about this recurring dream that you just had. Don't leave anything out."
DREAMER: "Well, it started as it always does on a beach on a cold and overcast day. The place was almost empty, and I remember wondering where everyone else was. Even in the winter there should have been people walking their dogs. Where were they now?"
DREAMER: "Across the water I marveled at what appeared to be glaciers, but I also wondered how that could be. I mean, there weren't supposed to be glaciers this far South."
DREAMER: "Unable to take the cold any longer, I walked over to a nearby hotel, hoping to get warm in the lobby."
DREAMER: "An employee came to the door. He had a mocking, impudent face, and I could tell that he was going to turn me away, but a voice from inside told him to let me in. He reluctantly opened the door."
DREAMER: "Inside a man with a fedora beckoned me to get into an elevator with him."
DREAMER: "We went to the top floor in silence, and when the door opened...we were in a ballroom! People were dancing lethargically, as if they'd been doing it for a long time."
DREAMER: "The man in the hat pointed to a window."
DREAMER: "I looked outside but didn't see anything special. It was daytime and kids were playing in the street."
DREAMER: "I turned to ask the man what I was supposed to be seeing, but he was gone. It looked like he'd escaped onto the roof."
DREAMER: "I turned to the window again and this time everything had changed. It was dark outside. Somehow night had fallen, and the impossibly thick and expanding glacier I'd seen out at sea was now right outside the window, slowly and inexorably pushing cars and debris ahead of it. At the speed it was going it would only be a matter of hours before the town and everybody in it would be crushed. "
DREAMER: "In a panic I shouted to a man who was on the phone nearby. Nothing I said seemed to matter to him."
DREAMER: "I called to an old woman too, and got big belly laughs in return. She thought it was hilarious."
PATRONS: "Hey, quiet down over there! If you want to shout, go outside!"
BAND LEADER: "Yes, why don't you go? Nobody wants you here."
DREAMER: "I knew it wouldn't do any good to argue, so I made for the stairs."
DREAMER: "On the way down it occurred to me that I might not be the only person who didn't know about the glacier. I thought I'd warn the other people in the hotel, so I frantically knocked on doors. One opened by itself revealing a fat man screaming on a couch. I tried to reason with him but the more I talked, the louder he shrieked."
DREAMER: "Another door opened into a room of people who appeared to be waiting for something. They were indifferent to what I said about the glacier, and seemed to resent my presence."
DREAMER: "Other people just stared."
DREAMER: "The final door opened and revealed...revealed what? What kind of crazy place was this?"
DREAMER: "Out on the street it was dark and there was snow on the ground."
DREAMER: "No use trying to get my car. It was somewhere under the glacier now."
DREAMER: "In the distance I thought I heard a humming and churning noise. I didn't pay much attention at first."
DREAMER: "After a while the sound was deafening. Holding my ears I noticed a shaft of light methodically zig-zagging its way over the sidewalk. When I looked up to find the source I saw it... a round, mechanical thing in the sky, with a searchlight in one eye. It scanned the street, apparently looking for people. I hid behind a pillar til it passed."
DREAMER: "It's a good thing I did because round flying things were soon all over the streets, incinerating every human who couldn't hide fast enough."
DREAMER: "As if that wasn't bad enough, groups of predatory human spotters began to emerge from nearby buildings and joined the hunt. Whenever they spotted a fleeing man they blew a whistle, which summoned the killing machines. How could people do that to their own kind?"
DREAMER: "I saw a group of men on their hands and knees looking at something, and ran over to them to warn them. I did everything to get their attention but to no avail. They were absorbed in watching something in the ice right under their feet."
DREAMER: "I looked down, and sure enough there really was something down there. I know it doesn't make sense, but there were...there were live women under there... and they were beckoning to the men on the surface. "
DREAMER: "These were no ordinary women. Most were stunningly beautiful and they flirted like sirens. A few had the sentimental appearance of beloved and long-dead mothers and sisters. Every man saw the unique woman that he yearned for."
Finally one of the men, unable to restrain himself any longer, reached out and clasped the hand of one of the women.
DREAMER: "He was immediately pulled under the ice and drowned..."
DREAMER: "...as I was a moment later. I remember looking up at the hole in the ice as my lungs filled with freezing water. As it always does in these dreams the hole filled with light as killing machines leaned down and watched me with impersonal interest. I guess with all that thrashing around I put on a pretty good show. "
DREAMER: "And that's it! That's the point where I always wake up. What does it mean? Am I going crazy?"
PSYCHIATRIST: "Crazy? No, no. Not crazy. We'll talk about it next week. I do have to remind you though, that the magazines in the waiting room are for all my patients, and if you continue to take them home I'll have to charge you for them."
THE END
BTW: Many thanks to the excellent blog, "Shadowplay," which is where I got most of these pictures.
