Short story: An escalating dream

Tweet

John had a dream, that he called an escalating dream, in that it went from bad to worse, in its playing out to him. John was at work in his dream, but he was working in a different building, to his usual building. At lunchtime, on that day, John had been asked to go to another building to sort out some accounting crisis there in their office accounts. John was a wiz, at doing such things, so he was picked for this task, before the other workers, were even thought of once. John was driven to this office, on the other side of the town, by a taxi, and he worked hard to write down all of the mistakes that he had found on his notepad. This was, in his dream, before the advent of computers. At the end of the day, though, the boss in that division came over to check on John's work, and he sat down at John's desk to look over his notes. He had a cup of coffee with him, which he placed on the desk, only then to carelessly knock it over, all over John's notepad. John got upset with the guy, as he saw that his notes had been thoroughly soaked in coffee. He said, "Well, that little accident shows me that I have done enough for today. I will have another go at it tomorrow, my friend." And John, summarily left the building. He had been told that the train station was only a football kick, or two, from this office, and so he set out on foot to try to get there. He must have taken the wrong path though, as he soon found himself totally lost, in the backstreets of this part of the town. He saw a middle-aged couple, looking into a shop window, and so he asked them to point him to where the station was. They smiled, and said, "It's only five minutes walk from here." Then they stopped at a kiosk in the street, and they bought a coffee, and a pie, for themselves, and one for John too. John told them he was in a hurry, and he thanked them for the hospitality, but again asked them for directions to the station. They smiled again, and said, "Sit down, and enjoy this short refreshment. Hurrying, and scurrying around, only gives one ulcers." John sat down, gingerly, and ate his pie, and drank his coffee. After they had finished their eating, they went to the bus stop, and got on the next bus that came along, telling John to get on it too, as it will take him right past his station. But now, John was feeling apprehensive, as he sat on the bus, next to this couple. The bus drove on for ten minutes, and then stopped, and they went to get off. John got off too. He was angry, and he asked them, "Why did you steer me wrong like that?" They laughed, "Well, that little joke on you was the cost of the pie, and coffee, that we shouted you. Nothing in life is for nothing, you know." they told him. "It was well worth the cost, to see your face now." John walked off down the road again, feeling more lost than before, and then he absentmindedly walked across the road to the bus-stop, on the other side of the road, hoping to get the same bus back again, when it returned along this route. He was skedaddled by a fast-speeding hooligan, in a fast sports car, and killed, though. And then, he woke up, in his bed, shaking like the ants-pants. What a dream that was, he thought to himself. This dream perhaps shows to John, that life goes its own way, usually against you, and you need to allow for this, and stop going along blindly with life, in such a way that it then goes against you. John should have been warned by the spilt coffee at work, and not trusted this couple, but just moved on, and not accepted their poisoned hospitality like that. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com We need to keep awake to what life is really telling us, and not blindly just think that we know, and so go along with the flow, wrongly so.