The man had a disturbing dream.
He finally recognized that his
two adversaries, obstructionists

to his progress were his own
parents. His father obstructed
by turning away and not being

helpful at all; his mother by
constantly interfering in a most
negative and obnoxious way.

His father disappeared and his
mother just sat obstinately in
a chair while the man shook her

vigorously. A woman in the
neighborhood liked the man’s
bicycle and wanted the buy it.

The man said no. The dream
moved down the street. The
man was following a group of

people from the neighborhood
and he was looking for one
person in particular, a woman

of mysterious identity who slid
off the road and entered a nether-
world. In the man’s pursuit of

the woman, he met an old friend
who, in life, had become a hermit
of sorts before his death. In

the dream, the old friend had
everything he had in life —
a TV, computer, a website and

a blog. Then the man saw in a
dark, dank, shadowy corner, three
emaciated men. One had been

flayed and he was recovering
from a blood-letting into a pot.
The second man was being strung

upside down by he third man who
began the blood-letting into the
pot by flaying the bound man.

The man heard the bound man say
he enjoyed giving blood and then
the man heard the screams as he

left the underworld and awoke
without ever encountering the
mysterious woman. The man

decided it was better to get up
rather than remain in bed sweating
and tossing and turning. The man

recalled having cut his thumb on
a cheese knife and having just
seen a biography of Edgar Allen

Poe. Ah, the man thought, —
all the sins of omission and
commission and lasting effects.