Illustration by Michael DiMilo
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, listens as the keeper lists a new area of complaint, that being the mysterious process by which dream subjects are selected and then produced. One might think with all the raw material the keeper has amassed he would not be plagued with a repeated dream that has him walking down Michigan Ave on his way to Tribune Tower, a place he was not particularly fond of and where he developed the clogged-artery makings of a serious heart attack.
Why not some enjoyable dream—the night he caught those big trout or stepped off the troop ship in San Francisco or saw Phyllis for the first time? There is so much rich material for a dream scheduler to work with.
The keeper recalls that old song, “When I grow too old to dream your love will live in my heart…..” Apparently if that happens to him the keeper will be walking down Michigan Avenue clogging up his arteries, but in the loving company of Phyllis, of course.
Photo by Bill Stokes