I dreamt that my beloved and I found ourselves in a lush world that was a cross between a country like Malaysia or Indonesia and science fiction. The people there were short and dark. They had large, dark eyes. But there was another race living among them, which was even shorter and darker. They appeared to be slightly demented, too. Most of them performed simple menial jobs. We seemed to be tourists, but we were to stay for a long while. Thus we had an advisor, whose job was to make sure that we enjoyed ourselves in this tropical world. His English was pretty good. I remember him talking to us in a small and dark room with rattan walls about something we could get to eat or drink. It was delicious, he told us, but it also cost a mint. We had no idea what he was talking about, but it seemed to be some sort of drug. Later on we were offered some water that was coming out of a stone fountain. I remember two tall glasses filled with cold water and stalks of different plants. The stalks were taller than the glasses, and so I took one out of my glass and started munching on it. It was quite hard to chew. Its taste was somewhere between sour and bitter. I also remember feeling a bit funny in my head. But one of our minders, a young woman who spoke only rudimentary English, rushed to us at once and explained that the plants were not for eating. Once again it seemed that the plants we were offered were drugs of different kinds. The dream was so vivid and coherent that I felt annoyed when I was awoken by the alarm clock. My beloved had to go to work. “Don’t be annoyed,” she said gently. “Perhaps you would not remember a thing were you not awoken by the alarm clock.”