La Boutique Obscure: 124 Dreams

No. 78: July 1971

The trip

I had learned long ago to jump from a certain height (for example from the top of a high beam). This time, I seem to be much higher, almost at the first story of the Eiffel Tower. Below I can clearly see the grass and sand grooves of a garden, and I’m convinced I’ll die if I jump. But finally I learn that I don’t have to jump from this height, just from a much lower beam, and for that matter not even jump from it, just cross it.

H.M. and I are on a boat from New York to Paris. This obviously takes much longer than flying, but it’s much more pleasant.

We’re going to show a film at a festival whose first half was in New York and whose second half is to be in Paris.

A fire breaks out in a cabin on the level below. H.M. and I rush down and save the passengers. We are the heroes of the day and the passengers honor us.

I return to my cabin. A steward is there. He makes me realize how pleasant it all is. He changes my towels and, seeing that I’m a little sweaty, dabs my face with a towel (one of the ones he’s collected to change).

I go to H.M.’s cabin. I learn that we are on the festival jury. The jury is called “the helical complex” and consists of 4 jurors: H.M. and myself, and two farmers who are just this moment coming into the cabin; they are from Villard-de-Lans, which H.M. knows well; one of them is “Lulu,” whom I know also (no doubt I was in school with him during the war), but the second is unknown to me even though his face looks familiar.