S E V E N
All would be well
Could we but give us wholly to the dreams
—W. B. Yeats
"How do you mean, 'meet up' with each other?"
Term was over, the students had all gone home, summer was delivering its promise. Lee and Ella had abandoned their plans for combing the Mediterranean beaches of the Aegean islands; the plump faces of German and American tourists went unflattered by Honora's quick pencil sketches; and Brad's medical tomes lay unstudied on the shelf.
The sash windows of Burns's lounge were pushed up to admit the sweet summer air. Lee held out a hand for one of Ella's hand-rolled liquorice-paper cigarettes which he had taken to smoking, and Ella grudgingly passed him the one she had just been about to light for herself. Honora reclined in a heavy armchair, her cotton dress sticking to her moist skin as she fanned herself with an Erich Fromm paperback she had plucked from the professor's shelves. Brad looked on glumly with his eyebrows raised in the expression of barely tolerant boredom that he had cultivated of late.
"I mean exactly that: arrange a meeting, a rendezvous between the four of you at some pre-arranged location, just as you would in normal waking life."
"Can it be done?" Ella, not looking up from her tobacco.
"It's already been done," Burns said impatiently, "many times, under laboratory conditions."
"If it's such a well-trodden path," said Brad, "why are we bothering to do it?"
Burns, looking tired, rested his head against the wings of his armchair. "I don't care to continually justify my interests; if you want my rationalizations then you'll have to earn them. If you do manage to rendezvous in dreamtime"—Burns used the new language, the conspiratorial argot of this small cell of lucid dreamers, dreamside dreamtime dreamwork dreamthought dreamspeak, to reaffirm his membership of the group—"then exchange a phrase, a song or a proverb. Something you can bring back as an objective correlative. Confirmation. Words that will become real things in waking time. That's all for tonight. Thank you."
He rose and escorted them to the door.
"Tetchy." Brad spoke against the background of a pulsating pub jukebox. "Very tetchy."
"You have that effect on people," said Ella. "In any case, it's time to move this thing into a different gear. Let's agree a rendezvous point, a meeting location which we could head for during dreaming. L. P. says others have done it, so why don't we give it a serious shot? We all manage to shift locations in dreamtime; let's agree on a place to meet."
"There's a difference," Brad muttered, "between shifting locations inside our own dreams and in bringing four different dreams together."
"It can work; I know it. I just know it." Honora surprised them with her enthusiasm. "Have faith. Just choose a place."
They all stared back at her, and for the first time Ella recognized the attraction which the Irish girl held for the two men. She saw them watching as Honora shyly averted her eyes and lifted her glass to her mouth. Honora was the one who talked least about the dreaming, who was the least inclined to speculate, but Ella sensed that she was also the one who dreamed deepest. She spoke as if she knew the coinage in that strange, different country. Ella warmed towards her and felt saddened by a simultaneous pang of jealousy.
"Honora's right," she said, breaking the spell, "we've got to believe it to be possible. If you've got any more doubts, Brad, keep them to yourself."
"Choose a place," Honora repeated.
Brad tapped the table in front of him. "This pub, preferably after hours when we can help ourselves."
"Be serious."
"I am being serious!!"
They walked home across the park. A full moon sat low in the sky. They walked past the tennis courts and along the row of cherry trees that some weeks ago had hung heavy with pink blossom. Brad aimed a full-throated howl at the appalled moon.
"This would be a good place to meet in dreamtime!" Ella still had strong associations for the place, as, she knew, did Lee.
"Are you sure?" said Lee.
"What's so special about this place?" Brad wanted a more dramatic setting.
"It's easier to make an outdoor scene appear than it is to shift to an indoor location."
"Is it hell," said Brad.
"Anyway this place has a certain intensity."
"Maybe it has for you two," he smirked. "It certainly does nothing for me."
"What do you mean by 'intensity'?" Honora wanted to know.
"It probably means they f*cked here," said Brad. "But that's no help to us two."
"The place suits me," shrugged Honora. "Seems as good as any."
So a plan was formed and the group went their separate ways, hoping to meet there again, but in very different circumstances.
Brad insisted on walking Honora home, against all her protests. Ella saw Lee watching them go.
"Poor Honora," he said.
"Yes."
The night was hot. They propped the windows open with text books, but even then the air was close and uncomfortable, making sleep difficult. They lay on the mattress, discussing the night ahead. What would be the possibilities if they did rendezvous in dream-time? Excitement kept them awake. Eventually, sleep took them.
Lee awoke with Ella leaning over him. Did you dream? Did you go there?"
“No," Lee still dazed, blinking stupidly, "I didn't even dream."
"Me neither. Nothing."
"Maybe we tried too hard." "Maybe."