The Shadow Friend

by Alex North

Charlie had told us the first thing we needed to do was keep a dream diary. After a week, we should read through the entries and look for patterns. That way, we would be more likely to recognize them in future, at which point we would realize we were dreaming and be able to take control.

I’m not a committed lucid dreamer, but I have dabbled over the years, and I can’t overestimate the importance of keeping a dream diary. Over time, you really do begin to notice patterns – themes and ideas that return over and over again. Here are two of mine. The first is that I frequently dream about being in a place that feels safe and secure, but which at some point I discover is not. I might be at home with all the doors and windows locked, for example – but then I’ll head down into the cellar and find a door open onto a hillside. The horror I feel at that point is absolute: I thought I was safe, but I wasn’t. I can understand the reasons for dreams around this theme. I have always been very careful about security, and the idea there could have been a secret way in the whole time is unnerving to me. The second of my recurring dreams is of being in a hotel room on the morning of my departure, panicking because I have left everything to the last minute and have too many things to pack – whole bookcases; clothes strewn everywhere; boxes of belongings – and nowhere near enough time to do it all in. What dreams like this one mean remain oblique to me, of course, although it’s possible my editors might be able to offer some suggestions...