Telephone

by Percival Everett

As I fell asleep, I knew I would dream, and I dreamed first that I knew why I dreamed, why humans dream. We dream, quite simply, so we know we’re not dead. Pure blankness, deep, unmoving darkness, would be so terrifying, so paralyzing that we would never wake up.

“You kill yourself because you don’t live in this world.”

The wisest know nothing.

I amused myself with the thought that people often make a point of declaring their uselessness in order to be helpful.