Dream Talk

What brings you peace?

The question must have hung in the air for over a minute before I even started to consciously think about it. Of course, I had zoned out. This lady, sitting in front of me must have realised it and was surely not bothered by late responses. Must be in her job description. But then again, I heard the question again. This time, I had no way to avoid it. This insistence, maybe this was why I was paying this person over a thousand rupees a week behind the facade of therapy. She made sure I spoke about stuff. Or rather yet, simply spoke in general.

She must love her job. Sit quietly, gently keep prodding your patient until they agree to give in and talk to you about the most private stuff. Of course, it must not be easy knowing when to prod and when to just let things play out on their own. I guess the surroundings help a bit. Calming shades on the walls, soft jazz, or something similar.

“What brings you peace?” I heard the string of words for a third time. The slight edge told me she probably was running out of her infinite patience. I guess better not test her.

“Walking.” I said, without looking away from the ceiling I was staring at.

“Do you walk often then?”

“Five days a week.”

“Unless you’re going for a walk before or after you visit me, you go on a walk everyday that you are not here.”

“Great job, Sherlock.” I can’t help the sarcasm out of my voice. We didn’t actually have any animosity, just a playful banter we often found ourselves engaging in.

I heard her snicker. “And do you walk for long?”

I look down from the ceiling towards her. She wasn’t actively looking at me, but catching my movement, she too lifted her gaze from the notebook. “I take two round trips around the little hill behind the mall.”

She clipped the pen on the spine of the notebook. “That is a long walk.”

“It is almost nine thousand steps by my pace,”

“You don’t have a fitbit, not that I know of, so you count the steps when you walk?”

“Yeah,”

“So walking doesn’t really bring you peace, it’s the counting that you do that brings you peace.”

“Wrong. It is the singularity of thought in my head that brings me peace. Peace for me is when I am completely focused on one thing and one thing only. I like being able to follow a string to the end, so to speak.” I watch as she takes another note.

“That makes sense. So tell me, what else is it that you do when you’re thinking of only one thing?”

“Waking up.”

“You’re still having the dreams?”

“Less than before. But yes.”

“Is there anything different in the recent ones?”

“Not really, although the colours keep changing.”

“The colours?”

“The colours inside the cabin. I still dream of the cabin right after sunset, but the colours of things inside are different from before. The rug is usually blue, but these days it’s pink. The shelves are dark mahogany, but now they’re light balsa. The windows too are tinted.”

“What about the surroundings?”

“Dark, not very many things going on. The boat is somewhat dilapidated though now-a-days.”

“What boat?”

“The boat. I think I said that there’s a boat there. A small kayak like thing that can seat two”

“No. You never said anything about a boat.”

“Have I not?”

“No. I would have remembered. I guess the boat appeared recently. I would like for you to keep note of it.”

“Why?”

“I think you’re finally going to paddle your way out of that godforsaken lake cabin. Tell me, what else is different. And I want you to think carefully before you answer.”

“There’s nothing else really that’s different.” I said, then I remembered something else. “There’s a wolf.”

“A wolf?”

“Yeah, a greyish, dirty wolf. I saw it on the other side of the lake. It was looking at the cabin. I’ve never seen it before. Although I am pretty sure that the boat has been there since the beginning.”

“If you say the boat’s been there then it has been there. But the wolf is new, you say.”

“Yeah, definitely the first time I’ve seen it.”

“I don’t know how to interpret that. But I do think that the boat is significant.”

“More significant than an entire live wolf?”

“Yeah.”

Author’s Note

Sometimes we find ourselves in a pickle and the solution can be a total riddle. But often, the way out is just to take note of the most mundane details from all around us, and some other times, those mundane things are really just that. Mundane stuff.

What’s an interesting event that left you confused and yet the solution right there before your eyes. Share in the comments below. Or share your idea in a post of your own

Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash