Teleology Take 1

'I had a very strange dream last night', he said as he
sat down with the group.They were seated around a
table, the light seemingly coming from nowhere, mild
daylight shadows lurking.*

'Well first, I had a dream about a friend of mine. One
I haven't seen in some time. When I saw him - in the
dream - he threw earthworms at me.'*

He leaned back in his chair, smiling at how curious
his statement had been. Most of them - there were only
five or six - sat on the chairs, but one was sitting
on the edge of the table, casually.*

'Now I - well I don't hate earthworms, but I don't
like to have them an closer than I can help. They're
slimy creatures, but I have a grisly fascination with
their .... worminess, and the way they move.'*

They were listening in silence, hardly moving except
for occasional shifts in posture. He wasn't certain if
he was pleased or not by that - but atleast none of
them had left. Or had they? He wsn't quite sure how
many of them were there - he didn't bother to turn his
head to count.*

'Now I didn't like that and got away, and after
removing all the earthworms, went about again. Then I
saw him again - we were in a lawn or garden and he was
picking an earthworm from somewhere - from a plant I
think, atleast not from the ground. I went up to him
to ask him why he had thrown earthworms at me, and not
to do it again.'*

They lounged like lizards. Well, he would provoke a
discussion - when he had finished the story. The whole
story.*

'And then, before I could say much, without saying a
word, he started throwing them at me again. And I was
repulsed and disgusted and withdrew. And the thing was
- there was his attitude too, half smiling as if he
was teasing me, but half in contempt, as if he despised
me.'*

He paused. They sat in reptilian silence which spoke,
'Is that all?'*

'Well, after that I woke up and went to the bathroom.*


Now I would normally have expected, a dream of rain or
oceans and waterfalls, and that would explain my
waking with a need to go to the bathroom. But
earthworms?*

Why that friend - perhaps because I hadn't written to
him in many months, and had recently though about him
in passing.*

Why earthworms? Well it was the rainy season, and the
earthworms were crawling up into the bathrooms.
Perhaps they were symbolic of the rains and of
bathrooms. Perhaps the throwing reflected my disgust
with them and with leeches, which are also annelids.'*

'But - let that pass - the strange part was when I
went back to sleep, for then I dreamed that I had was
telling my dream to a group of .... well, friends,
though I didn't really know who was there. And I
eventually realized it, and then....'*

He paused because he suddenly realised that if he
looked at anyone's face, he saw rather bland
undistinguished features, which shifted, so he could
never identify - he realized he didn't know anyone's
name.*

At that point a young man stood up, and his features
were shifting quickly, like the reflections off
ripples in a pond, and you could see that he was
greatly disturbed.*

'Excuse me,' said the young man, 'but do I know any of
you?'*

Then he knew what was happening, and he felt himself
fade into nothingness as the young man rippled out of
existence. The rest sat with the faces of forgotten
gods, bored, stone, uncaring.*