The Dreams

Dream 28

The wheel turned and turned, and the money came and went, as the young beauty served the drinks, and sometimes sandwiches, too. Then fortune smiled on me and I won a good sum of pounds, which seemed immense in our limited world.

Feeling slightly dizzy, I announced that I would withdraw — yet no one believed my reason for doing so. As I was leaving, one of the players accused the girl of revealing what cards they held. She grew furious — as did I — in reaction to this baseless charge. The accuser stood up, along with two others, tearing the girl’s clothes until she was practically naked. All the while, she screamed and threatened to inform the police about the apartment, where gambling and other forbidden things were going on. At this, they all returned quickly to their seats, as I helped the girl back into her clothes — then departed for my own apartment nearby.

I had just sat down to relax when the girl came to see me. She said the group was angry and that drunkenness had made them even angrier — they were threatening to storm my house and create an uproar in the whole quarter. She advised me to return my winnings as a solution to the problem. I argued that they would consider that a confession to a crime we had not committed. She replied that was less heinous than what they intended to do — so I deferred to her point of view, giving her the money. She took it and left.

The serenity of night returned — but I continued to expect a scandal or some other evil.