Person B: “I’ve had this … whats it called … - fable - in my head for a while now.”

Person A: “What’s it about?”

Person B: “It’s a short fable, and I don’t even like it, but that hasn’t stopped it from living rent free in my head.”

Person A: “Hmm.”

Person B: “It’s about this man, who lives alone, at a lonely work, with no real friends, and he starts getting these bad dreams. He never remembers what the dreams are, but he knows they’re bad because he always wakes up from them in a cold sweat and breathing heavy, with a lingering negative afterthought. He keeps having these dreams, but he doesn’t get closer to finding out what they are, but he fixates on them, because that’s is all he can do in his boring life. After some time, he starts to drink more, and does more risky stuff to make him feel better before he started having these negative dreams. He starts smoking, and doing other drugs, until eventually, he gets to his lowest point. It’s only then when he starts having deja vu, and when he wakes up from his dreams, he remembers them as the same dreams he had from the start. And he comes to the realization that the dreams he had were showing him what his reality is now.”

Person A: “Interesting.”

Person B: “We don’t know what happens to him, the writing wasn’t finished. The last line ends mid sentence. When the author that wrote this died, they found some of his drafts, this being one of them, and published them.”

Person A: “What author? I might have heard of them.”

Person B: “I … forget his name. It was something kind of complicated.”

Person A: “That’s ok.”

Person B: “I’ll look it up when I get home.”

Person A: “Why don’t you like the story?”

Person B: “Oh, it just makes me feel … uncomfy. Hits a bit too deep, I guess. I thought about it alot, and at first, you might think the dreams are a sort of fate, or sign, saying this man was bound to spiral into insanity, like most fables use as the theme. But I don’t think so. I mean, you have to think outside the bounds of the story, and realize this man went through school, and had family, and ended up as the lonely adult that he is now. It’s only then you realize why he started having those dreams. It was fear. Fear of being alone, and knowing what happens to people who stay alone, while also likely feeling his parents concern for his loneliness. He didn’t talk to anyone about this fear, so it just kept getting worse and worse. The fable shows how strong and lasting of an emotion fear is, and how big it can grow from small roots, enough to take a man down. But, we can never know for certain, because we’ll never know the ending.”

Person A: “Well said.”

Person B: “Thank you.”

Person A: “That’s also why it’s important to have friends.”

Person B: “Yeah, at least one.”