One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy

This was a very long dream chain. Maybe my longest ever.

It all starts with a hallucination. Or am I dreaming? I can never be too sure. I'm in bed, waiting for the transition. To my right, a female figure appears, but transparent. This is not an unusual for a hallucination. I check my body. No, I get the feeling that it's not safe to move yet. She moves closer and becomes more solid. My thoughts race. It's The Goddess, but I'm not dreaming yet, so I should be patient. She smiles at me. She's very pretty, as always. Tonight, she has straight auburn hair and pale skin. But mostly I notice her seductive red lips.

She is reading my thoughts. I don't know which thought triggers her reaction but her smile spreads wider and she whispers "For free." Puzzled and paralyzed, I don't know what to say. "What?" She smiles again and makes a clever gesture with her eyebrows. "Find me later?" My thoughts are still cloudy. I figure I'm probably dreaming now, but my dreambody doesn't feel ready yet. She disappears and I fall through. Typical.

I fall awake into The Field. It's a bright clear day. In the middle of the grass, already waiting for me, is an asphalt basketball court. Just a half court with no floor markings and a modest hoop with a wooden backboard and chain metal net. This was part of the plan I incubated. I want to dunk. Something I could never do in real life. A ball appears in my hands, and, as I get a feel for it, I can't help but remark that this is all a bit silly. I can do anything here in The Dreaming. I could go to The Moon or summon a beautiful woman. But what I really want to do is dunk a basketball. Simple pleasures, eh?

I do it once. It's... satisfactory. I try it a few different ways like backwards, and accepting a high bounce pass, and then an alley-oop. Yeah, it's kinda cool but maybe I was hoping for more. I suppose I'm still bothered by the idea that, even though I can do this in a dream, I could still never do it in real life, so I can't really know what it should feel like.

Oh well. It was something to do and by incubating the scene, it's quite vivid and stable, so that's good. I feel confident that I have a lot of time to work with. The basketball court disappears into the grass as I contemplate a new scene. Hmm, how about The Beach?

The Beach is another one of the stock scenes in my repertoire. Though, more so than the others, it's different every time so it's always a refreshing destination. Much like a real beach. I usually teleport to new scenes but tonight I figure I'll try terraforming the scene. I have to think for a moment how I will do it. I'm not actually that practiced at this kind of overt control. But let's give it a try.

I look down at the grass and imagine it turning into water. My experience with overt control is just to be a bit patient and allow it to happen slowly it if needs to. In other words, don't be discouraged if it doesn't happen instantly. Slowly, the water starts to come in puddles. It's like all my footprints from the basketball court have filled with water, making the ground a swampy swiss cheese. Hey, that's kinda interesting. Emboldened by this initial success, I look up to the horizon and see the puddles spread as far as I can see. And then, starting at the horizon and working back toward me, the water seeps between and fills in. It's as if the edge of the world just sunk into the ocean.

Aha, now we're cookin'. I'm still standing on grass but a vast body of water now extends before me. But this is supposed to be The Beach, so we need some sand, n'est pas? With a hand gesture, I sprinkle sand in front of me. And so a stretch of sandy ground extends in front of me a good 50 paces. That looks right. Now the still water has become a proper ocean with foaming crests and crashing waves.

Proud of my work so far, I start tinkering perhaps too much. I'm prone to that. I turn to the grassy field that remains behind me and start pulling up the ground to create hills. It just doesn't seem right to have grassland right next to the beach. That's not how it is in California anyway. But as I pull up the ground, it forms squarish blocks of dirt, still topped with flat grass. Like boxels. Hmm. I continue tinkering but it just won't look right. Eventually I realize I'm doing too much and stop myself. I turn back to The Beach. At least that part looks good, so let's enjoy it.

The Beach is now populated with some DCs. It looks like a real beach on a typical summer day. People in their swimsuits under their umbrellas. Swimmers and surfers out on the waves. Children delighting in the wet sand that appears as each tide recedes. Couples strolling together. And per usual, I ponder. They all look happy. I created them. I created all this. But I leave them alone. It's a pleasant scene to look at, but I'd rather not get involved. Is this what it's like to be God? To be so powerful, but always the outsider? Eternally suffering from ennui?

And then I remember that old passage: Shall the clay ask the potter: What makest thou? A good thought-ending cliché, to be sure. But it takes on a more subtle meaning when you've experienced being both the clay and the potter. Regardless, it rouses me from my introspection. It's a nice scene, but let's not dwell on it. Let's move on.

I fall into The Void and wonder where to go next. Not yet sure, I emerge at altitude above a mountainous landscape. I'm actually diving quite fast and I seem to be in the midst of a sandstorm. The air feels very sharp, if that makes sense. "Where are The Players?!" I yell, as if calling an SOS into a radio. Then the scene below become like a screen showing a tactical map. A computer-ish dot appears and flashes their location. I aim my descent toward it and soon land in a city scene.

It's a rough-looking city. Sort of retro-futuristic, like Logan's Run but with more edge. Blade Runner? Actually I've never seen it. I think I have, but what I am actually remembering is The Running Man. But whatever.

My memory of this section is hazy because there were so many vignettes, some too sexy to record. I'll just detail a few. I walk through the city, and as I encounter each group of DCs, I recognize one of them as one of The Players and they draw me into a short scene. And then on into the next one. All while in motion. Very Aaron Sorkin-like.

I recognize Arlo and he guides me into a bar and hands me a drink. "Where is everyone else?" Before I can take a sip, gunshots force everyone to the floor. I army-crawl out the back entrance and run into a mall.

Hurrying through the mall, I notice a bathroom to my right. A DC nods at me and winks. I recognize him as a Player and wink back. He leans his head toward the bathroom. A herd of women are walking in. Among them is a very tall one wearing a long trench coat. This is the target. The Player and I follow into the bathroom with me taking the lead. I look at my hand and make a pistol appear. In the bathroom, I find this tall woman and fire one shot at her mid-section. She doubles over and her trench coat opens, revealing that it's actually two short men stacked on top of each other, wearing an obvious wig and terrible makeup. I toss the pistol to the Player and he winks once more. "Nice shot, Hollywood." I continue on into another maze of hallways and doors.

I emerge into an outdoor space with no one around. Phew. A moment of pause. I'm exhausted. How long have I been dreaming? And where is this all going? It started with Her.... Near me is a bank of video telephones. I tap the screen on one and command "Call The Goddess." The screen shows what looks like a security camera angle, looking down on a busy restaurant kitchen. In view is The Goddess. This time she looks cartoonish, like an animation of cutouts of colored paper against a blurry black-and-white background. We talk, I'm not sure about what. I was supposed to find her. But she seems really busy in this kitchen and tells me we'll have to meet later.

Disappointed, I take in the scene around me again. Maybe I can find that restaurant that She is working at. But I see I'm at the edge of this city and just in the distance I see The Beach. I was there before. I'm going in circles. It's evening now and the sun is setting. There's just one pair of DCs left there; one of the same couples that I saw earlier. The man in light blue trunks. The woman in a salmon-pink two-piece. They face away from me, looking out toward the ocean. They don't move though. Maybe they aren't real. I mean, of course they aren't real because this is a dream. I mean, maybe they are statues. Or maybe I'm looking at a photograph. And now I notice palm trees. They really complete the scenic look. Damn, I forgot palm trees earlier.