The Future Looks Bleak

(Cue the Buzzcocks’ “I Had a Dream Last Night”)

 

The coffin-like box hit the water with a splash and sank with slow undulations. It came to rest on the light sand of the shoal, maybe fifteen feet from the surface. Sunlight dappled the area; it would have been a lovely setting, if not for the face of the man screaming from inside the box.  A small window near the top of the box showed his bald head and narrow, gold-painted face. His screams could not be heard, but his gaping mouth and frantic movements made his panic abundantly clear.

 

Another man stood beside the coffin. His scruffy face and shifty eyes would have marked him for someone intent on perpetuating an evil deed even without the condemning shovel in his hands. He paid no heed to the gold man; instead, his attention was riveted on another box, of almost the same size as the first, that lay at his feet. He moved with furtive caution, glancing every so often upward as if worried that someone might be watching. He lifted the lid of the second box to reveal...watches. Dozens of them, lined in rows as in a showcase. The man was clearly disappointed, but after a moment he shrugged, closed the lid, and set to work.

 

For a moment, I was certain that he had a plan to rescue the gold man. Perhaps he would swim to the surface, bonk whoever was up there with the shovel, and then pull the gold man's box back up. My instincts proved to be wrong, however; the man started digging.

 

I, as an observer at this point, silently marveled at the abilities of both men to hold their breaths for so long; the second man, in particular, had both boxes buried in the sand without once going to the surface for air.

 

This is, as an aside, the first time that I recall a murder occurring during one of my dreams.

 

The digger cast nervous eyes at the telltale outline of the box of watches. It was clear that he was hoping whoever was waiting for him on the shore wouldn’t ask about the it, and that the digger was hoping to keep the watches for himself. He picked up something flat and white - a shell, perhaps, or a piece of trash - and stuck it in the sand over the watch-box, then headed at last for the surface.

 

His boss, as the one waiting on the shore turned out to be, was not so easily fooled. He took one look at the digger's face and dove in without a moment's hesitation. Back on the floor of the cove, the box with the watches was so poorly buried that its outline could clearly be seen through the sand; the white marker only emphasized the obvious. The boss was extremely angry at the digger and motioned him to dig it back up.

 

The second-to-last light bulb abruptly burned out, leaving the derelict basement in a gloom so deep that only the boss was clearly visible. He gave an irritated order to find more light bulbs, so I hurried up the rickety stairs to find one. The kitchen above was colorless, as if someone had stuck it in Photoshop and changed it to Sepia tones. I found a bulb in a cabinet and hurried back down the stairs, but when I attempted to put it in the ancient light fixture, it broke.

 

That's when I was wakened by a dog barking nearby.

 

When I told this dream to one of my co-workers, she came up with the interpretation almost immediately.  The gold and watches represent my retirement.  The fact that dubious types were burying it shows that I can expect to keep laboring for years after my retirement age has come and gone; then, at the end, someone else will get my retirement money.

 

That’s just great.