A strange dream

I had a strange dream yesterday.

I was in a car with Fr and SP. Fr was driving, but I can’t remember if I was next to him or at the back. He was heading towards a reservoir/river and was supposed to brake in time, just at the edge. We were laughing in the car, like we always do in real life anyway, seemingly oblivious of any dangers.

Recalling the dream, it’s as if I’m describing a scene right out of a movie. It's like I'm watching one of those scenes where the camera inevitably settles on the jovial faces of the people, while the laughter and voices are made deliberately fuzzy to create a dispersed effect, so that an imminent sense of foreboding builds up.

But back to the dream.

You should have guessed by now that Fr didn’t stop the car in time. The car just dived into the water and because it happened so quickly, there wasn’t time to register any shock. So yes, I actually dreamt that I was inside a sinking car.

It’s nothing morbid though, for none of us drowned or died. Or at least I don’t recall anyone of us dying.

And here's the uncanny thing about such weird dreams: You remember them so vividly after you awake – right down to minute details like one’s expression – so vividly that they seemed almost real sometimes. And then you amaze at how you could ever dream of them in the first place. So many times, so many such unbelievable dreams. But dreamed we did.

The moment I – in the dream – realized that the car was sinking into the water, I instinctively reached for the door and opened it effortlessly. I didn't have any problem escaping; it was as if the scene was destined to play out the way it did, that I would be inside a submerging car but would have the means to extricate myself. Only half the car had gone into the water then. Which means, no, we haven’t reached the river bed.

And the weird dream then took a weird twist at this point of time. I distinctly recall that it wasn’t long before I realized the car wasn’t sinking; it had actually bumped up against a surface. Apparently there was some sort of a land just ahead of where it fell into the river. So it ended up that the car wasn't going to sink after all.

To tell the truth, I can’t remember where and what Fr and SP were doing all this while. (As with so many dreams, there are other people who appear only momentarily. They are like the supporting cast; try as you might, you can only recall that they appeared. Beyond that, they don't seem to make any noticeable progress.)

I only knew that I – the one living out the dream – was (capable of being) amazed and felt the incident farcical. I don’t know, but it could be that my conscious self was registering these emotions. All the same, it could be my subconsciousness being transported into somewhere, something akin to living a dream within a dream, that sort of thing. (Shit, i think i am not making any human sense.)

But I do remember with great clarity this weird dream. Perhaps having taken Fr’s car that same day had somehow induced the dream. Or perhaps it’s just a symptom of my overwrought mind. At least I didn’t dream of myself being trapped in a car, drowning and whimpering for the last catches of breath.

That would not just be a weird dream. It would be unimaginably and distastefully weird.