My Dream November 23, 2020

I had a strange nightmare last night. In the dream, I was sleeping in bed, in an apartment. The apartment was home to myself, and several other middle eastern people (I'm not sure exactly where from). Some were men, and some women. They were around my age. The apartment was so small that some of us even shared the same bed platonically. We were in a fictional city located somewhere meant to be a representation of the middle east (but not really anything like it). Geographically it had a feeling of being south in a world with only north, and south directions. I think the desert near the city was in a dream I had many years ago. It was covered in dark skies with sunlight cracking off in the wrong direction for sunrise, or sunset. It was meant as a sunrise though.

I was sleeping well in the dream until I heard an explosion in the distance followed by a flash of light. I was very sleepy feeling, but at the same time concerned about what was happening.

The explosion had sounded like a bomb dropped from a WWII aircraft (or something of that nature). Like when a city gets bombarded. I wanted to get up, and find out what was going on, but I couldn't. Two of the people I was sharing a bed with were laying somewhat on top of me. Enough to have me pinned, and weighted down. The result felt somewhat like having sleep paralysis within a dream rather than actually having it. I could hear someone off to my left, in the next room, chanting, "Allah akba" (I'm probably not spelling that correctly). I began to think about the fact that I really didn't know these people well. I had only moved in recently (how recently was not clear, nore the reason for being there). I wondered, "What if they were terrorists!?" After a moment or so my sanity prevailed, and I realized that wasn't very likely. A lot of movies I've seen claim that "Allah akba" means "God is great". I don't know if that's true, but as far as I'm aware it is religious phrase, nothing hostile. At this point, I suspected the person chanting it was probably laying in bed, just like me, and was chanting it because they were afraid for themselves, and those they cared about. We were all in this the same. I heard another explosion in the distance. I wondered if it was a bit closer? I tried to move out from under the persons laying on me, and accidentally woke them.

At this point the dream took a temporary detour from its fearful tone to just being really awkward. Hinting I'd taken more than my fair share of the bed, I offered to move over to the right, to make room for the people sleeping on me, if they were scrunched. They claimed that there was no need. They were quite comfortable. It didn't come across as weird, or sexual. It was more that people living in overly shared spaces get scrunched together a lot. One of them realized I might be uncomfortable (since we were men), and offered for them to move over if I wasn't comfortable. I agreed that would nice, but made up a white lie about having a boney body, and so I got uncomfortable from sleeping in the same position for too long. I tried to emphasize that I had no issue with them personally, or sharing the bed. They moved off me, and no offense seemed to have been taken by the request. All in all, it was a very awkward conversation. The me aware of the dream was internally cringing. After this the dream turned back to a fearful tone.

Throughout the dream my heart had been racing, and now it was pounding faster than ever. I heard another explosion. Still distant, but definitely a bit closer. It was followed by the same flash of light. The explosion shook some of the dust from the rather dirty room. At this point I woke up.

This dream was unusual for several reasons. I rarely dream of deserty far off places. The apartment was the probably the most notable aspect. I've had dreams take place in lots of locations, but not with a sense of ownership, unless it's actually a place I own in real life. I lived in this apartment in the dream; I wasn't just randomly there. Another unusual thing, I was sleeping in the dream. This only happens with dreams that have a feeling of sleep paralysis within a dream, and in that sort of dream I would normally be in my real bed. This is the first dream I've ever had with any notion of terrorism that I can recall. Same goes for warplane bombings. Despite the concept of wartime planes the dream didn't seem to take place at that point in time. Everything was quite modern, but it felt more like it took place thousands of years ago. For me scary dreams usually have a sense of fear, but in this dream it was terror. The difference being, in a dream where I'm scared (aside from sleep paralysis) I always have options of escape; the last resort being to fly away. In this dream, no such thoughts ever even entered my mind. I just stayed in the apartment wondering about what was happening to the East. I know that's a contradiction of what I said earlier about there only being North, and South. What I mean in this case is that it was to my right, and that felt like East. Plus it is a dream so things don't have to make sense. Anyways, it was certainly an entertaining dream.

Author:James Daniel Marrs Ritchey
License:Ritchey Permissive License v10

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