Mike Humfreville - 12-21-2005 at 09:33 PM
The Dream
They?d been back in the States for several months and he put the bottles up and stopped cold and was feeling better with every new day. It took a few
days for him to accustom himself to the new habit but it was no big effort. His single symptom was a restlessness in his legs but he?d had that
forever from polio, he assumed, which he?d contracted in the 40?s. Not drinking just intensified his RLS a little over the top. But even that
lessened to normal after the first few days. Then it was life as usual, but without alcohol.
In the late summer they returned south to their house in the small fishing village. In that environment the alcohol began following again, slowly at
first and within no time he was back where he?d been months before. It wasn?t that his friends and neighbors in the village along the Sea of Cortez
drank a lot. It was just that it afforded him ample social opportunity and there always seemed to be a beer or a rum and Coke in hand. They
remained in the village for two months before they returned to the north. The last of those months he?d been feeling poorly, had demonstrated to
himself that he was drinking too much.
On return to the States he visited his doctor who told him it would improve his life if he toned down, or completely quit, at least for awhile, his
drinking. His doctor gave him some simple pill to help slow down the restless leg syndrome and help him get to sleep without booze. The pills didn?t
seem to do much and his legs would thrash at the sheets nightly. Then he took to having fantastic dreams.
For nights on end his half-awake mind would focus, on an event he semi-realized to be invented, on two 18-inch round 4-inch deep receptacles. These
were positioned beside him on his bed and magically heated from the mattress. The two cylindrical containers were filled with every item collected in
his life. They somehow fit there and were heated and his eyes bore into them and caused each item to collapse into ever smaller pieces of the
original objects. Eventually each and every item was nothing more than indistinguishable pulp. It was as though he was ridding his life of everything
in it before he was no longer part of the big picture, before he passed on to another plateau. But he lacked this knowledge, had no evidence, and it
was happening to him so he was, perhaps, the poorest judge of all.
The pills, which he continued for a week or so, may not have lessened his RLS, they may not have helped him sleep during the night, but they slowed
him down during the day, made him lethargic. He lay on the couch, always cold, covered with a thick quilt, while his wife and children were too warm
in their shared environment.
He stopped taking the pills. He still couldn?t sleep well at night, but that problem had existed for 50 years. A week or so after he quit taking the
medications his daylight hours were pretty much back to normal. His obvious bodily functions were normal. His appetite was gaining since he?d
stopped the treatment, in fact had improved to the point he was eating too much. Without the alcohol, his body was craving sugar and he was yumming
up the ice cream daily. He was beginning to feel good again.
Would he ever know that cause of his problems, the drinking, the not drinking, those damned pills that caused him to almost hallucinate? Most likely
they all played a part of the changes in his life. Perhaps age was just catching up to him and causing changes too. He guessed he?d never know for
sure. But for a time he?d just stay away from drink and medications newly introduced into his system. That could only be an improvement.
He knew he?d never understand the heated containers beside him in the bed. It made no sense but the concept stuck with him to this day. What did the
containers stand for? They obviously couldn?t contain everything in his life. He surely couldn?t evaporate these things with his eyes.
Sometimes we may dream something only once and remember it as recurring nightly over an extended period. But in fact it was only one night. In those
circumstances perhaps significance is added to the dream that it doesn?t deserve.
He?d likely never know the answer, but he would never stop asking.
Bedman - 12-23-2005 at 07:44 PM
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub
Hope to see you in a few days!!
Bedman
vandenberg - 12-23-2005 at 07:52 PM
Mike
Good" BOOZER " tale