Dream: the man by the volcanic later\

This dream starts at a volcanic crater lake. Tall misty mountains stand in a ring around a body of deep blue water, the kind of deep blue that feels like the lake has no depth. I get into the water and it is quite cold, though the air temperature is warm. Within a few metres from the shore, I cannot see the bottom and it is like being suspended in space.

I drift on my back – there is no current at all so I hardly move. There are no clouds in the sky, just another shade of blue, completely still like the water. Some other people come into the water and I greet them. I swim out further alone and when I look back, two of them have pushed a couch into the water and are reading on the couch.

Wow, that is really the new definition of reading by the water. I think to myself. I swim over to see how the couch doesn’t sink. I conclude that the salt must be so strong in the water that even the weight of a couch with two adults can be supported.

After a while I get out of the water, feeling rather happy and relaxed. I walk up the road to an old block of apartments and go up the stairs. On the first floor, I turn right and the corner apartment is mine. The door is open, and my heart immediately starts to race. I tiptoe to the spot of sunlight that the door is letting through, and look inside with my pounding heart in my ears. Nothing looks astray from the door, so I go inside. All the front windows facing the lake are open with pale coloured curtains swishing in the wind.

Suddenly the door slams behind me, the noise making my heart jump out of my chest. I turn around and there is a man – I instinctively know he is an ex though I don’t recognise him. He looks horribly unkempt, with a rough unshaven face, unwashed hair and dirt all over his body. He is wearing a grey singlet which is heavily stained. He lunges towards me with an awful smile on his face, and I step back, bumping into the couch in front of the window. The stink of stale cigarettes hits me like a wave and I want to vomit.

Hey honey, I was just in the area and thought I’d pop in to see how you were doing. He steps back and says. Just wanted to give you a kiss was all.

I feel nauseous with my heart still racing its own crazy rhythm in my ears. I cannot hear what he is babbling anymore, and all that is on my mind is how to escape – the window? Surely I’d hurt myself if I jumped out. The door? I think he’d locked it on the way in. I could try to hit him somewhere and floor him? As I am contemplating all this, a small voice in my head says that this was a critical mistake to date this man. Shushing my inner voice, my eyes drift to the couch, and somehow I know that is the answer.

I have to push the couch out the window to make it land on the water. I realise, and wake up.