Nightmares

A few people have been writing blog posts about sleep issues and, especially, dreaming.

I don't tend to dream that often but when I do, boy are they long. They say that dreams are meant to be your subconscious mind rationalizing your feelings and events of the day, and trying to work out some meaning to it all.

Below is a dream I had about a year ago, back in October 2004. I do know that George Rennie is someone who works for my current company so obviously that's where I heard the name. Beauport sounds to me like it might be a version of Kingsport, which is a fictional town taken from H.P.Lovecraft's novels about the Cthulhu mythos. The rest of it is ... well... foreign to me.

The ending was very shocking for me and I woke up in a sweat. Now, for a long time, I've realised that once I know I've been dreaming, when I go back to sleep I can try and push the dream or nightmare into a more satisfactory conclusion - something that I can deal with that won't have me trying to work out where it all came from. So I have added a little note where the original ending was and the second ending was.

Have a read and see what you think...

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The dream starts with a man called George Renny, an American who walks into his home (in America) to find his wife ...erm... engaged in various lewd actions with another man. However, his wife and the stranger don't stop but continue with their passionate *cough* embrace. George feels his anger rising but just turns on his heels and leaves the house. Later, much later, his wife comes to look for him and tells him that she doesn't find him sexually arousing any more but that she has been trying to be a loving wife at home. George nods but tells her that he can't and won't put up with this and tells her he will be leaving soon. She replies that she can't stop thinking about the stranger that she has just been with and leaves.

Later - it has been a few weeks - and George finds himself in the French seaside town of Beauport. He is reading a paper and he sees the date is 1942 (this information is not apparent earlier). As he walks around the town he meets the various people, especially a young lady called Raquel who flirts with him. George reciprocates and they find themselves mutually attracted to each other.

Racquel tells George that he should'nt have come here though. The Germans have invaded France and have already "snatched" some people that have been outspoken to them. George replies that he isn't afraid, and as he's an American, they won't take him. I forget how but in the dream George agrees that he will go with her to a barn where she thinks the Germans have a few of the townsfolk.

As they travel to the barn, Raquel falls behind with a sprained ankle. She hobbles on but George tells her to wait here for him and he will go on and be back in an hour. However when he gets to the barn he gets captured by the Germans and one of them is a strangely Machiavellian-looking man with slick black hair and a finger-twirled mustache. For some reason this man brings dread to George. The man (I'll call him the Villain as he reappears later in the dream) tells George that he has been extraordinarily foolish and that he should not have come here. George looks around himself and then runs for the barn door.

He escapes and runs to Raquel, picking her up in his arms and runs to Beauport. There he tells her that the Germans are already on the outskirts of Beauport and that they must leave as soon as they are ready. Alas they are too late and German soldiers surround them. The Villain reappears and tells George that he will never leave Beauport...

Later George awakes and finds that he is in the barn again. He looks around but doesn't find anyone. As he walks back to the town, he notices some children playing by a water outlet and some of them bury themselves to hide from the others. As George rounds the corner, he meets the Villain waiting for him, who tells him he will never leave the town of Beauport.

George wakes again into another dream... and another... and another...

Years pass.

He's now an old man and a distinguished private detective who has just finished a recent case for some townsfolk of Beauport. As he reveals what has been happening in his case, the Villain reappears and congratulates him. George immediately feels dread at the sudden reappearance of this man after so long.

He suddenly whirls and jumps down the sandy dunes. As he runs he hears the Villain whistle for German guards to recapture him. George keeps running but suddenly he has a memory of the kids playing in the sand.

He stops and buries himself and the guards run past. George waits and waits and waits and falls asleep.
When he awakes he is still buried in the sand, so he waits a while longer and then gets up. Stumbling he walks along the beach before collapsing.

When he awakes, he's in a small fishing village where he's been found by a woman and looked after. Somehow, I am there but I'm from the British Embassy looking for missing people, etc. He tells me he is George Renny and when I check I find out he has been missing since 1942 - it's now 2004. He tells me his story so I immediately contact the authorities.

But then the villain reappears looking as he did in 1942. I realize then that somehow I'm dreaming George's dream as well. When I tell the Villain this, he replies that "You've always been at Beauport and you always will be".

---(this is the original ending and I was very shocked by it. But I decided to try and dream a different ending, and this is what happened when I fell asleep again)---

I faint at this shocking statement and awake to find myself in hospital. A friend is next to me and tells me I've been rambling some story about someone called George. I ask him a trivial question that I know no one else will know the answer to. He looks stumped. And I realize I have been dreaming...

I awake again to find myself in hospital. My friend is next to me and tells me I've been rambling some story about someone called George. I again ask him a trivial question that I know no one else will know the answer to. Again, he looks stumped. And once again, I realize I am dreaming.

When I awake next, I ask him a whole host of questions and he answers every one of them correctly. When I ask him about George, he says they found an old man dead next to me from natural causes and I've been in a coma for a few days.

When I ask him if they've identified him, my friends tells me no. They don't know who he is. Only I know.