Dream LXXXII

I was visiting voice actress Shelley Calene-Black. She lived near the bottom of a very pleasant tree-lined lane in an older part of a large city.

While there, I visited her younger brother's room. He was also a voice actor, and there was another, very large man there. We spoke of philosophical topics and the ways in which entertainment "worked." Finally, he stood up, put on a mask and said, "This has been very nice. Too bad you must all die."

He lowered a strange cloth net over the doorway, and the room sank down into the depths of the earth. The other man was quite terrified, but I was more annoyed than frightened. The cloth webbing made an excellent ladder, and I urged the large man to follow me but he was too far gone.

So I left him blubbering in the corner and climbed my way up to the door. I confronted Ms. Calene-Black about her brother, but she denied that he could possibly do such a thing. She agreed, though, that she would arrange a video camera in a car to see if any evidence, pro or con, could be gathered to straighten out the matter.

When the video tape came back, we watched it, and saw her brother run up to the car and leap on the hood, brandishing some small dolls. Ms. Calene-Black was mortified and offered a fulsome apology. I said it would be better to teach her brother not to do this, and she agreed.

Later that day, I waited until he went into his room, then I threw the switch that lowered the cloth net. The room sank about ten feet into the ground and I stood at the edge, looking down. "You shouldn't do that sort of thing to people," I said.

"You can't stop me," he replied.

"I think I can," I said, and I held out the three dolls I'd seen in the video.

He suddenly became very afraid. "Okay, I won't do it again!" he said.

"I don't believe you," I said. "You're answering far too quickly to be trustworthy. If you suffer a loss, on the other hand, then you'll know you could suffer the same loss unless you cease at once."

With that, I began pulling the dolls apart and tossing the small pieces down, one by one, starting with the feet. When I had destroyed one doll, and half-destroyed another, I brought the room back up and handed him the remains. "You don't have enough dolls now," I said.