The Dreams

Dream 97

Here was the office of the Secretariat, where I spent a lifetime before going on pension. Here, too, I had been companion to the cream of employees, in all of whose funerals Fate decreed that I take part.

I stared inside the room to see the youths who had succeeded us, and was nearly felled by the shock — for I found no one there but my old colleagues. I rushed inside, shouting, “God’s peace upon my dear ones!” with anticipation, confusion, and unease. Yet not one of them raised his head from his papers, and I withdrew back unto myself in frustration and despair.

When the time came to go, they left their places without any of them turning to look at me — not even the lovely lady translator. And so I found myself alone in the empty chamber.