lately i’ve been having dreams that are grounded in reality except for one very stupid fantastical thing.
last night, i dreamt that i was getting lunch with friends. one of my friends brought a colleague from work along. we had ordered ahead so we were waiting for our orders. while waiting, i asked my friend’s colleague their name and they said something i couldn’t quite hear. i asked again, and they proceeded to utter their name in the form of inhuman, hypnotic warbling. it sounded as if their voice was being processed through an effects chain. it felt like their name had scratched my soul. spiritually wounded but remaining polite, i reciprocated the introduction.
just as we became acquainted, our order numbers were called. still curious about this person’s name, i offered to go grab the orders from the counter in the hopes that i could read it off of their receipt. i found their order, and on the receipt was a name that looked like an oscilloscope display; fluorescent green lines squiggled and painted around where a name like “Joshua” or “Meredith” would normally be. taking a moment to process this, i grabbed the food and returned to our group, ending the dream.
ever since i woke up this morning, i haven’t stopped thinking about this made-up dream person and it has truly unsettled me. why did my brain make that up? was it drawing on my deep fear of forgetting people’s names upon introduction? if so, that is very rude and disrespectful of my brain.
i’m drinking coffee now and watching a scary show. it’s sunday and life is pretty good today.
