Four Dreams

I woke up giggling from one dream, and then realized that there had been four:

1. I was a professor and author in his 50s or 60s (think Jean-Luc Picard), staying in a Berlin apartment of some absent friends. A bookish, indistinct American woman wearing glasses and a sweater, who was a fan and in her late 20s or early 30s, came to see me, to get an autograph in her copy of my latest book. We closed the window, which had been letting in icy gusts of air from the night outside, and turned down the electric heater that had been working overtime to cope. I sensed that the woman dug me in that way. I signed the book "Thank you for your delightful visit, and for our new friendship." Then we were embracing and I slid my hand under her clothes and against the skin of her back. The hand traveled upward and anticipated a bra strap, but the dream ended before I encountered one.


2. I was at work and got a voice mail from my accountant. I went down the hall to use the cell phone to call him back. As I was walking, I slipped and fell, due to ALS weakness. I wasn't hurt, but a woman made an alarmed, caring comment. I sensed that I was a spectacle and a problem for other people due to my disability. I snuck into a conference room and fumbled with the cell phone, which was very confusing to operate, given that I was, in fact, asleep. Then I became sinister. I was not only different, but to others I was evil. "Droid," my friend from high school, who was grown up now and worked there too, came to the door of the conference room and made warning, disciplinary noises at me, because someone else had the room reserved. I walked out of the room and back down the hall, saying nothing to him, on the policy that I was not evil and did not have to respond to the fears of other people, since they were misunderstanding me. The other people in the office were very afraid, and I sensed that my high school pal was walking behind me with some ax or sledgehammer poised high, to deal me a mortal blow. But I sensed that he wasn't sure if he should. Some other guy we walked past made eye contact with my pal and nodded frightened encouragement to him to kill me.
   


3. I was both the two-year-old son and the father in a dream in which the dad was playing with our large white dog, using the cleaned and preserved snout of a black dog. "When ol' scruff, the neighbor dog, died a few years back, we saved his snout." The dad pretended to attack the white dog with the snout, and the white dog loved the game. I also loved it, and being two, I was consumed with giggles and laughter, rolling on my back just like the white dog. The mom was watching it all, amused.


4. I was an actor in a TV show like Star Trek, and the producers wanted to work my obvious ALS into the script. They wanted to name it for what it was, and have my character go through it. But then I told them that since my kids might watch the show and start asking questions about ALS, we should just make it some kind of weird science fiction affliction, nothing alarming.
   
   In the episode, our shuttle was spiraling out of control, about to crash into a planet, Three of us were on board, myself, another crew member, and the commander. The commander said that our drive system was coming back on line and that with any luck we would begin to ascend, right after narrowly missing a freeway onramp by "about" 10 feet. "That's too close!" the other crew member and I said. "Gentlemen, WE are ... ad-VEN-turers!" the commander admonished in mock heroic tones. I woke up giggling.