I dreamt that I was sitting on top of a grassy hill together with John Bennett, a colleague from the University of Reading, and discussing the map of the nearby village, the rooftops of which could be seen in the distance. John had a house there. I am not sure what the purpose of this discussion was, but he reacted to my comments in a way similar to Mike Joroff, my ex-colleague from MIT. “Interesting,” he would say from time to time, without ever explaining why my comments were interesting. Alternatively, he would just shake his head dubiously whenever he felt that my comments were off the mark. I made several wild guesses about the village, including its population, which I quickly calculated from an estimate of the number of houses in the village. Judging from John’s reactions, my guesses were pretty accurate.

Then he took me to his home. I remember a large and open house connected by a covered passage to a well-equipped gym with several pools. It appears that all the houses in the village were connected to the gym by similar covered passages. As it turned out, Lauren was John’s wife. We had split up some years before, and they got married soon afterwards. I remember being a bit uneasy about seeing her and John together. On the one hand, I was very much aware of her belonging to someone else; on the other, I felt that I should still be allowed to touch her and hold her as though nothing had changed between us. Somewhat surprisingly, at least from the point of view of my feelings toward her the last few days, I also felt attracted to her. She apparently felt the same way toward me; however, she remained aloof, albeit not cold. She was John’s wife now, and that was that.

Much of the dream had evaporated by the time I woke up, but I still had a vivid recollection of the swimming pools in the gym. There were at least three or four of them; they were of different sizes and shapes; and they were all interconnected. One of the pools was unusually long, wide, and deep. It was very blue, too. I was fascinated by the rich spectrum of color one could see in this shimmering body of water. Before I woke up, I remember seeing John jumping around naked by the side of one of the pools. He was just horsing around, and there was nothing erotic or even sensual in his behavior. However, I noticed that he was remarkably fit for his age. If I am not mistaken, the department celebrated his sixtieth birthday three or four years ago. I also remember seeing Lauren standing by a pool in a skimpy swimming suit. She, too, looked very slim and fit. When I woke up, it took me a while to free myself from a feeling that something rightfully mine was now in someone else’s hands.