DREAMS

Still one of my favourite little writing pieces.

Freedom: “What are you doing?”

Vicarious: “Dreaming?”

Freedom: “Well stop! You know that’s wrong!”

Vicarious: “I know I’ve been told it’s wrong. I don’t know that it is.”

F: “But Father and Mother say your dreams are wrong. That you shouldn’t see what you see in your dreams.”

V: “Mother and Father are scared of what they do not understand. What I see gives me experience. It teaches me infinity. I learn and live through others because of my dreams.”

F: “Don’t you worry what they would all think if they knew you could see them in your dreams?”

V: “Don’t be so narrow-minded. This is a gift given to me. I shouldn’t deny it because of some notion of privacy. Besides, they don’t know I can see them. It’s not like I can hurt them. All I do is watch.”

F: “Yes. All you do is watch. What about your life? There are chores to be done, people to meet, friends to be made, dreams to be lived.”

V: “Those dreams aren’t real to me. What I dream is real. When I dream, I dream of billions of chores, billions of people meeting, billions of friends being made, and billions of dreams being lived. Nothing can compare to that. No one dream outweighs the dreams of billions.”

F: “You’re wrong, you know?”

V: “Oh really? Enlighten me, oh experienced one.”

F: “My dreams... My dreams, are more important than a billion-billion other dreams.”

V: “And why is that?”

F: “Because they are my dreams. I shape them with each choice and act I make. I do not know how they will be fulfilled, but I try, and I struggle, and I bleed for them. I do not do it to simply learn, or for others to simply watch. I do it for you, for Father and Mother, for those I love.”

V: “But that is so limited. When I close my eyes and dream, I look though their eyes; through the eyes they put on their streets; and the ones in their markets; and those on their flying machines; and some in unimaginable places in the spaces between where they all live. I see it all. And by seeing, I am everything.”    

F: “You’re frightening me.”

V: “Frightening you? You should marvel at my dreams. You should beg to hear them and learn through me of what is out there in what we call the unknown. I have seen horrors and joys, and pleasures and pains, all of which you and your dreams could never fathom or conjure.”

F: “And what good does it do you?”

V: “It makes me a god of knowledge and wisdom.”

F: “It makes you nothing. You stare at a mirror and you have no reflection. It is all to feed your wish to be important.”

V: “I am important! Do you not wish to be important?”

F: “Not like you do. I want to be smiled at and hugged to prove to me that I am important, and most of all I want to look in the mirror and see my reflection. I want to see myself smile with the knowledge I live my dreams. Without that evidence how can you know of your own importance?”

V: “I know. You refuse to understand. You can’t see what I see. You’ll never understand.”

F: “I know I cannot see what you see, but you could come and see what I see. Then you would understand me. All you have to do is try.”

V: “Why would I want to waste time and effort on that when I can watch all people try. I can watch them fail and I can watch them succeed. All from the comfort of my dreams.”

F: “I don’t think it will be enough for you.”

V: “What do you mean?”

F: “Eventually you will get bored and you will want to try. But you won’t try to see through your own eyes and live your own dreams, for you will have none. You will try to live theirs. They will not want you trying to live their dreams. When you finally show yourself they will be able see you’ve been watching, and they will hate you. They will not give you their dreams. They will hate you for not earning the right. It is their right to give their dreams freely.”

V: “...hmm...maybe so. But I will know all. I will know what to say and what to do so they do not suspect who I am. They will not see me, for they will only see their own reflection.”

F: “You underestimate them. They will know. And when they do they will take back their dreams and you will have none. And then you will be nothing because you have no dreams of your own.”

V: “I will dream again. It is of no consequence.”

F: “You won’t dream again. You can never go back after that. Not once they’ve seen you and know you’ve been in their dreams. They will know how to shut you out. It will be over for you and you’ll be lost forever.”

Vicarious: “You are jealous and trying to spoil my gift. Leave me alone to my dreams.”

Freedom: “Don’t you mean their dreams.”

Vicarious: “Yes, their dreams, but they are my dreams too, don’t forget that.”

Freedom: “I’m sorry you’ve chosen this way. I truly hope you learn. Maybe if you put things right they will forgive you. But I think not. I do not think we will see each other again. Well, maybe in our dreams. Goodbye, Big Brother.”