Dream CXVII

I dreamt that I met a beautiful girl that I had seen at the gym where I work out.  She was leaving the apartment complex where my mother lived.  I caught her eye and asked her, "Do I know you?  I think I do."

She looked at me with a happy smile but sad eyes.  "My initials are these.  D.O.V."  She made the O with a smiley face, and when she looked back at me, her expression was a happy one.

"How can I help you?" I asked.

"Well, tell me what you're doing," she answered.  She pointed at the various pieces of electronic equipment that I had surrounding me.

I waved my hands at the equipment.  "I am digitizing old records and compact discs," I told her.  "I am trying to refine the digitizing process.  I hope, someday, to digitize memories so that they can always be experienced afresh."

"Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of memories?" she asked. "To make them ever bright and vibrant?  Isn't the point of memory that the vagueness of the images we have push us to recall the past in as close to the vibrancy of the present?"

"It is now," I said.  "But imagine if we had the choice.  I'm not saying we should replace one with the other.  Just that there should be a choice.  Memories are more than private reflections, they are part of the world."

She was silent for a moment, then she smiled at me.  "Maybe so.  I have some memories I would like examined, could you wait here a moment?"

"For you?" I said.  "Of course."

She disappeared into a jewelry shop.  I waited for some time, while the sun went down.  When the evening was almost complete, I realized she was not coming out of the store, and I started to move my equipment elsewhere.

That's when I checked my logs.  Somehow, I had her memories in my recording apparatus. 

I looked at the memories, just briefly.  They were filled with green and yellow images of jewelry. 

When other people approached me, I shut off the memories.  I didn't want anyone else to see them until I had showed them to her.  I knew she would emerge from the shop soon.  I stood, gazing at the store, and waited.