A VARIENT ON THE FLYING DREAM

PATIENT: "Are you sure you want hear about this dream? It's kinda silly, and it doesn't make sense. I don't want to waste your time."

PSYCHIATRIST: "You're not wasting my time. Go ahead."

PATIENT: "Okay...here it is, but remember, you asked for it.

Okay, well, it was late afternoon in a city I'd never been in before. I had time to kill, so I figured I'd take a walk around...sort of get a feel for the place."

PATIENT: "People were just getting out of work. They poured out of the buildings and lined up at bus stops and turnstiles. Everybody was jostling everybody."

PATIENT: "I felt like I was getting in the way, so I looked for smaller streets to explore. I took shortcuts through alley ways."

PATIENT: "I knew enough about big cities to avoid the most dangerous looking places..."

PATIENT: "...but even normal streets struck me as a little odd. As it got darker and I got farther and farther into the labyrinth, I'd see fewer people. Oh, they were there, but I'd no sooner catch a glimpse of them than they'd turn a corner or walk into a door." 

PSYCHIATRIST: "So they were trying to avoid you?"

PATIENT: "Maybe, or maybe I was just out of sync with them."

PATIENT: "It was the same way with buses and subway cars. I'd arrive just when they were pulling out." 

PATIENT: "The whole time I had the feeling that I was being watched."

PATIENT: "But who'd want to watch me? I didn't even know these people."

PATIENT: "Later on I got tired of walking. Not only that, but I was hopelessly lost."

PATIENT: "That's when I stumbled on an old hotel with a restaurant on the bottom floor."

PATIENT: "There were people there, but they didn't think much of me. I could feel the hostility."

PATIENT: "But why, I kept thinking. What did I do to them?"

PATIENT: "I think they wanted to tear me apart, but were under some restraint that I didn't understand."

PATIENT: "It was all too much. In an effort to block it out, I buried my head in my hands."

PATIENT: "The instant I closed my eyes I heard a loud airplane engine and I flashed on a vivid image of an airplane flying over some kind of tundra. Don't ask me how, but somehow I knew that the plane was in trouble. It was out of gas and would have to make a landing in a field of trees." 

PATIENT: "I could also hear the ticking clock on the restaurant wall."

PATIENT: "The plane circled around once then came in low. The engines sputtered and stopped."

PATIENT: "It glided over tall pine trees. It was suicide to land in a place like this, but the pilot had no choice."

PATIENT: "As if things weren't bad enough, the landing gear got stuck halfway down. I could see the pine trees rushing up. I could hear screams. I had the sickening feeling that the fate of this plane would determine my own fate."

PSYCHIATRIST: "What happened?"

PATIENT: "What do you think happened? It was horrible."

PATIENT: "I looked up to see what was happening in the restaurant and I was amazed to see that everyone was positively jovial. It's as if they were relieved of a burden of some sort. They hadn't changed what they thought about me, though. I could see that."

PATIENT: "They surrounded me like it was a game they were playing, and I tried to reason with them. 'Look, I don't want to bother you, I just want to get back to the center of town. Does anybody here know where I can get a trolley?' "

PATIENT: "A crowd had gathered outside. "He wants a trolley! Get him a trolley!' they shouted.

PATIENT: "A flaming trolley was brought up."

PSYCHIATRIST: "Wait a minute! Hold the story there! Your hour's up and I have other patients."

PATIENT: "Huh? B-but what about my dream?"

PSYCHIATRIST: "It was a fine dream! We'll talk about it next time."

PATIENT: "But...but..."

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Aaaaaargh! If the deadline wasn't hard upon me, I'd have shelved this story because it's riddled with flaws. I started with two completely unrelated ideas that I thought I could fuse: one about someone who gets lost, and another about a crashing airplane. Geez, what was I thinking? Any ideas for how I could have saved this?