I built a house in a redwood tree. I love our view. Hitler comes to see. So charmed, he steals our flat! Besotted. But I don't grieve--have a private laugh, for redwood-high, he's sure to be spotted by Allied spy planes. Arrogant, he discounts the risk. Eva's wiser--she says "I fear to live high. That view goes both ways. They'll see us, too." But Adolf's word is law. My wife and I lug scant gear back to our old home, trudging across the snowy flanks of Bavarian hills. And yet I smile: never been safe to draw Hitler's eye, and I'm sad to lose our treehome; still, the gamble paid! In the haze I see the first faint dart on high, as we settle in our old shack a mile away from Hitler's Roost. They'll burn him, now. And I am glad. For losing the ancient tree is sad, but the war'll end. That bastard's toast.

AFTERWORD, 2015

I never lived in Germany. I never fought Hitler. So who is he?

Well... this dream wasn't alone. I had a storm of such dreams in which I fought a Hitler type--a highly persuasive monster. But some dreams named him openly: Dr. William Ayres, a therapist my parents had sent me to as a kid. I didn't know why, but instinct told me not to trust him. I played dumb, immature, a sexless nerd. For three long years I was mouse to his cat.

But these nightmares were decades later! Why suddenly dream of him as a Hitler, needing exposure, deserving to burn?

In 2006, I learned why. By then, the good doctor was facing multiple indictments for molesting dozens of boys. Mostly not the kids sent by parents, like me--he went for the troubled kids the School District sent him, boys no one would believe. He had money, prestige and persuasive power; he brushed off their accusations for years. But at last his pattern became overwhelmingly clear.

I don't know if the timing's exact--if, back when I had this series of ugly dreams about little folks making sacrifices to bring down an arrogant, persuasive monster, the first brave kids were exposing him, facing his ridicule: "Projection, transference, false memories, lying, lawsuit-greed!" But I like to think so.

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