A dream in words

A mid aged man wearing a uniform enters into a house and is welcomed by his two daughters and his wife. The house seems to be set in the rural parts of Kerala, India. It looks like there is a festival that day. It's raining. One of the girls is on the phone with a TV music channel and the dad talks on the phone too. He happens to be an officer/scientist of very high importance in the Indian Government. He is interrupted by one of his assistants with an urgent phone call. He immediately stumbles and panics as he answers the call. The man rushes out of his house and leaves in his car. Hours later, he absconds. No one knows what happened to him.

A boy, less than ten years old, stands in a desert in front of a historic temple. (Location unknown and that boy happens to be me). He looks at the sky with awe as if he knows with certainty that something is about to happen. Soon enough, a jet/space ship like vehicle zooms in at a very high velocity. It's black in color, sharp, aero dynamic, tiny. The boy is still at the scene looking at this unknown object with no fear whatsoever. Suddenly the vehicle stops midair and drops the scientist to the ground. He dies. The boy doesn't even run towards the scientist as if he knew what was going to happen next. The body vanishes into thin air.

As the boy thinks about what just happened, he is joined by one of his friends (of about the same age). As they talk about something jovial and playful, the friend notices an artful design on the sand. The art looks so intricate, sturdy (doesn't move with the wind), of perfect shape and precision. It's just a big circle. Soon, the boys discover a swarm of bees continuing to add to the art. A few minutes later, there are eight ovals inside the circle on the edge. Each oval touches one another. Then, there is a concentric circle inside the big circle that also touches the eight ovals. Some more people gather. The crowd is in puzzled as the bees add more intricate details to the art. They have no clue about what is going on.

Suddenly a structure, like a foundation, grows from underneath the circle shaped art. A tree like object starts growing from the inner concentric circle. The eight ovals are now concave shaped and they would almost fit a small boy in it. The boy (me) knows something big is about to happen. He is scared. He wonders if he should leave. But he could not. Minutes later, a foul smelling liquid starts oozing off the tree. The outside of the tree starts glowing. Hundreds if not thousands of bees swarm the tree as if they were protecting something. The crowd grows bigger. Suddenly, the crowd is shocked.  A baby, about 6 feet tall, loose shaped, thin elastic skinned, grows out of one of the ovals. A baby, an Alien baby. Soon, the other ovals are filled with babies too. They are grey in color, rest upon goo. The crowd is shocked to see this and afraid of an alien invasion. But they don't seem to hurt this formation for fear of attack. They, somehow, realize the aliens are more powerful than they are.

The boy wants to have a closer look at the babies but is too scared of the swarm of bees. He sums up courage and has a closer look. Time almost stops around the boy; the bees stop flying for a moment, everything seems to be at stand still, people around him are frozen; then, one of the babies turns and looks at the boy. He is scared for his life. Time unfreezes and bees seem to get ready to attack the boy. He screams.... and finally there is an end to it.

The boy wakes up. It was a dream. I’m in my 20’s now, not a boy anymore in reality. I try to sleep again, but the intensity of the dream keeps me awake for a while as try to make sense of it. I, somehow, go back to sleep. In a state of half-awake half-asleep, I realize that the dream was a movie I watched recently. A movie on the lines of Avatar or Inception. I start thinking about wanting to read the book the movie was based on. I get excited about the book. I wake up in the morning and realize there is no such movie or book.  I tell my friends about this dream. After all it’s just a dream. It doesn’t mean anything.

As the day progresses, I get a call from my friend. He is shocked at what he just heard. “A scientist gone missing”. I can’t believe it. I recollect my dream and somehow reach the place where I saw a space ship drop the scientist from midair. My friends and I are on a bridge in the desert and trying to figure out where exactly the spot is. I realize I only have a few seconds before the scientist is dead. I figure out the exact location buried deep in my head. We run there and save the scientist as he is dropped. We are all shocked and scared as we know what’s coming next if the entire dream were to come true. As we walk back, we see an art on the sand. It’s happening all over again just like in my dream. Bees are developing the art and a foundation rises and a tree grows and glows and alien babies are formed and bees are about to attack me and then…..

I wake up again; only this time I’m actually awake. (Or am I?!) I try to go back to sleep wishing the dream would continue, but it doesn’t.