Dreamer's Recall
By Jeff Carroll, first published in The City: A Cyberfunk Anthology
In a society where dreams are taboo, one man who has recurring dreams tries to find a place where he will fit in. He attends a therapy group, but there is something eerie about this bunch of people and Solar soon disappears.
Author
Published in
Year
Genres
Plot Summary
Solar, a simple office worker, has been having "night visions" every night. He sees himself as an agent trying to obtain secret plans for his organizations, fighting robots, having cool gadgets, all the works. His name is even changed from Solar to Faazon. Much more interesting than his job in the claims department right? Well, it never lasts long. When he wakes up he is back in his world filled with nothing but technology. There is no real outdoors, everything is just projected onto the wall, ceilings, or windows. Yet, Solar feels as though he has seen the real world, one outside of technology and he likes it. His girlfriend Essence, however, does not enjoy all this talk about dreams. She thinks this means he is not right in the head and even tries to persuade him to go seek help. Solar still tries to talk about his "night visions" but she brushes it off. Solar thinks about what having dreams mean. He begins to question if he's even normal. One day, he goes to the cafeteria at work, still thinking about his dream and overhears two women. One woman whispers to her friend that she is still having dreams and has found a group called Dreamers' ReCall. It is a group where people with dreams gather and discuss what they see. Perfect! Solar decides immediately that he has to travel to the other side of town and learn more about his dreams. When Solar gets there he sees a wide variety of people there he feels much more comfortable about his weird ability. The meeting begins with a man with a gray beard giving an introduction then opening up the floor for anyone to tell the group about their dream. The first one to go up is Solar's coworker, the one who spoke about it in the first place. She quickly tells about her dreams of being a veterinarian despite the fact that she hates animals. When she finishes, the man with the beard tells her to receive her reward for being a dreamer and she walks through the back door. Solar, being so excited about the meeting, goes home and tells Essence. She is not super thrilled about the meeting, but is happy because he's happy. Solar invites her to a meeting next week so he can talk about his dreams. When the two go to work, Solar makes the decision to thank the coworker for inadvertently telling him about the support group. He searches everywhere for her, the office, the cafeteria, even asks her friend. But no one has seen her all day. Solar does not think much about his missing coworker and figures that she is just having too much fun with her present, so he goes about his day. He becomes so excited about telling his dream that he sneaks off without Essence for the night. He returns to Dreamers' ReCall and decides to reveal his dream. At the end of his tale, he is escorted to through the back doors just like his coworker. It has been two weeks since anyone saw Solar. Including Essence. The night he disappeared she called him, went to his place, asked others about him until she finally called the police. As she was putting up missing posters of him, someone (or more like something) says that he saw Solar in a fast food joint. Essence rushes their to find him, but he looked different. As she was trying to talk to him, this man thought to be Solar looks at her in confusion. Another woman comes up to them and explains that this man's name is Alexis and that they are together. The couple leaves in confusion as Essence begins to cry.