Last night's dream, suddenly remembered.
Memory is strange, particularly when it's dreams that are being remembered.
I was re-reading William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. Specifically, about Cayce's father and the morning of September 11th, when he disappears. All at once, one of last night's dreams returned to memory.
I am in the shopping complex beneath the World Trade Center. Thinking about it now, I think that space is accurately rendered in my dream. The complex is busy, but not as busy as I remember it being on a weekday morning.
It is just before 8:00AM. I am the only person on site who knows what is about to happen.
The situation is bizarre, but not to me in the dream.
I think carefully about what to do. I think about someone I know who works in one of the towers. I consider calling her, but I know that absent my intervention, she evacuates safely. This feels important; that I change as little as possible that will affect her survival.
(In reality, I am asleep in a bed in the Red Roof Inn in Maumee, Ohio, just outside Toledo. And I know no one who is in the towers that morning.)
As I look through the offerings at the newspaper/bookstore, I consider my options. I do not actually remember what time the aircraft will hit. I may have a few minutes, I may have more. I don't know. I finally decide not to call her, or anyone else.
I am remarkably calm.
I consider PATH and the subway, and decide (wrongly) that the thing to do is to take the subway north to Penn Station, and then take a train to New Jersey. I feel I should do this before anyone else does.
(Thinking about it now, I can't figure out why I don't take PATH directly to Newark. But as I said, in reality I am in Ohio. And why am I going to New Jersey, anyway?)
I go down to the subway and stand in a curiously empty subway station for what seems like a very, very long time. The station has a curving platform and a high ceiling. Remembering the dream now, it's clear that this is not a memory of the actual station.
At some point, there is a loud noise. No other passengers appear. No train arrives. I remain calm, although I do begin to feel I have made a serious mistake.
I wake up.
I go to the bathroom, still quite calm, dream sequence still vivid. Then I go back to sleep.
In the morning, the entire dream is forgotten.
I was re-reading William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. Specifically, about Cayce's father and the morning of September 11th, when he disappears. All at once, one of last night's dreams returned to memory.
I am in the shopping complex beneath the World Trade Center. Thinking about it now, I think that space is accurately rendered in my dream. The complex is busy, but not as busy as I remember it being on a weekday morning.
It is just before 8:00AM. I am the only person on site who knows what is about to happen.
The situation is bizarre, but not to me in the dream.
I think carefully about what to do. I think about someone I know who works in one of the towers. I consider calling her, but I know that absent my intervention, she evacuates safely. This feels important; that I change as little as possible that will affect her survival.
(In reality, I am asleep in a bed in the Red Roof Inn in Maumee, Ohio, just outside Toledo. And I know no one who is in the towers that morning.)
As I look through the offerings at the newspaper/bookstore, I consider my options. I do not actually remember what time the aircraft will hit. I may have a few minutes, I may have more. I don't know. I finally decide not to call her, or anyone else.
I am remarkably calm.
I consider PATH and the subway, and decide (wrongly) that the thing to do is to take the subway north to Penn Station, and then take a train to New Jersey. I feel I should do this before anyone else does.
(Thinking about it now, I can't figure out why I don't take PATH directly to Newark. But as I said, in reality I am in Ohio. And why am I going to New Jersey, anyway?)
I go down to the subway and stand in a curiously empty subway station for what seems like a very, very long time. The station has a curving platform and a high ceiling. Remembering the dream now, it's clear that this is not a memory of the actual station.
At some point, there is a loud noise. No other passengers appear. No train arrives. I remain calm, although I do begin to feel I have made a serious mistake.
I wake up.
I go to the bathroom, still quite calm, dream sequence still vivid. Then I go back to sleep.
In the morning, the entire dream is forgotten.
