I must answer a questionnaire that's not on paper, but like a museum tour--I walk through a cavernous maze, where each room is a diorama posing a weird hypothetical question. Here's the one I recall best:

In a dark room, a big model of a starship on a pedestal. She looks like the Enterprise. A sign on the wall: "You must fix this ship. Which dish will cure her?" On each wall, a shelf with a plate of food, only one of which will heal a starship.

Odd--they're so similar. Three are nearly identical--orange oily rice dishes on broad bowls (saucers?) with short wheat noodles mixed in, like Rice-a-Roni. If so, toxic for me--I can't have wheat. Maybe it sickens starships too? The fourth dish is a heap of starchy white stuff--polenta? mashed potatoes? I forget. But at least it's not wheat, so I pick it, though I wouldn't want it myself. To heal me, I'd want protein, greens, nuts & seeds...

Starship, starchy... hmm. And saucers...

NOTES IN THE MORNING

• Hypothetical questionnaire: huh?
• Starship: shamanic dreams, taking me to Strange New Worlds. If this seems farfetched, consider--the dream itself sets me the task of curing a sick client--a classic shamanic dream, if you ignore the slightly untraditional patient!
• Sick vessel needs healing: lately, the starship Dreamwork has been crippled by sleep shortage. Hard to reach other worlds on four hours a night. Unsure if it's stress, or too much thyroxine--my clinic sharply raised my dosage.
• Rice-a-Roni: TV ads in the 1960s had this jingle--"Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat!" Oh really? I'm an SF native, and I never met ANYONE who ate that stuff. Why's the dream dredge up that childhod memory? I was tired & in a hurry today so I just made rice noodles with vegs, eggs & tofu. No gluten, it makes me sick, but too starchy? Maybe.
• ACTION: sleep deprivation cripples my dreaming, but endangers my health too. So... no carbs this week. See if I sleep better. If not, cut back on thyroxine, see if that's it. Beyond THAT, I dunno. Beware cavernous buildings full of weird questionnaires?

I'm summoned for jury duty. Bike down to the cavernous courthouse. They've sped up the selection process--to shrink the pool of prospective jurors, lawyers used to spend days questioning us. Now, they give us an endless questionnaire full of weird hypotheticals!

What's the case involve? Rape, abduction, and knives. Brings up old memories of domestic abuse I suffered. I'm too traumatized by similar events to be objective--no way they'll want me on this jury. But I still have to answer, under oath... all answers being toxic!

Hours later, when I stumble out, emotionally exhausted, sick to my stomach, I have a different view of that dream of the weird questionnaire. Now it looks predictive as well as diagnostic. And at least vaguely aware it's seeing the future--it's set in a Star Trek future, after all!

Sleep deprivation harms my dreams. A wounded starship, but not derelict. Even crippled, she still crosses space and time.

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