So the interesting news of the moment is that last night I WAS ABDUCTED BY ALIENS. I now am one of the zanies, the loonies, the tabloid stars who believe in this madness. It was a benign enough dream: in an airplane I was traveling w/only, I think, 4 other people. We were flying to Japan. P.F. said that when we got there he wanted to go see Jim Croce. He seemed so serious and good and a  pleasure to be with that I hopped on his bandwagon, joined his brigade. Pat said good, the others agreed, except for the taciturn, surly shadowed driver of this air-bus: someone’s dad for sure (Sebastian’s?…)

THEN: we were coming into Japan, through the clouds. I could see the lights of the coast below us. It seemed remarkable that we had crossed the Pacific already. Someone said we could see South America. I was confused, surprised, because I didn’t know Japan was part of South America, but pleased because I had never been to SA before. Things were quite confused at this point: I felt sticky + exhausted like after a long flight. I was backwards in my seat. The girl in the seat behind mine had her palm on my face, not unkindly; perhaps she was attracted to me? – and I allowed it to remain there. Her mother told me she was an air conditioner repair person (the daughter). I said I was a sort of repair person too (of what, I still don’t know.). Then I remembered that… no then they asked if I was a student. First I said no, then I remembered dimly that I was. I mentioned the workshop, curious if it would impress them, but people were leaving in the aisles, collecting baggage to disembark and we were blocked and I’m not sure she heard me. Then, blam! I was back in my bed, wide awake, confused. Then the weird anxiety came creeping in and sent my heart to a-hammering. Then I knew: that was no airplane!

There was an intermediate part where I was being asked questions: had to do w/skateboarding: numbers, size, maneuvers. I was trying to demonstrate a kickflip but couldn’t grip the board correctly. There was talk of business deals – transcontinental – involving huge sums of cash: 40,000 or 40,000,000 someone wanted to know. It was raining in Japan. That’s why western culture would dominate: it was a dry place. I mentioned the ice caps melting, the water rising. We would go out and party in Tokyo and see Jim Croce.

All of this, I know now, of course, was not a dream, per se, but an hallucination courteously provided to protect me from freaking out about aliens and whatnot, since my delicate human psyche could not have withstood the trauma otherwise. They were asking for #s for statistics because they’re collecting data, much like Big Brother, all part of their ultimate plan and intention to—