Rich and I began unloading the cart and stocking its contents in the kitchen. The women soon rose and dressed as we rearranged the room as it had been. I lit the grill and for dinner we ate two cans of beef stew and two of split pea soup. We’d found a convenience store and loaded up on all the things that don’t go bad, sugar, oatmeal, coffee, cans of corned beef, tuna, sardines which we could eat cold. We didn’t touch the food cubes that were ready. Without the dream state they were tasteless.
Then Mary began, “Tina and I have been talking a great deal and if you two could move the bed from her unit into this one we’d feel a lot safer, all of us sleeping in here together for the night. We’ve already checked the measurements and if you remove the one nightstand it will fit right in snug between our bed and the wall”.
Both Rich and I were caught off guard. After a pause Rich said, “but what about privacy?”
“That’s just it” Mary continued. “We don’t think there should be any need of that between the four of us. We should consider ourselves one unit now and share everything and stick closely together. Tina and I have already begun. I consider her my sister, more than that, I love her”.
Tina continued, “I love Mary too and want to sleep beside her every night, just like last night”.
“Do you mean in her arms and making love?” I asked, astonished. “Don’t you think that would be a little awkward with the four of us in one bed?”
“No” Mary replied. “We mean to share, share everything, the both of us with the both of you. I’m deeply in love with her and you also and for that reason I want you to lie with her tonight and I’ll lie with Rich. I know you want her. You told me so the other day, your dream girl. And I saw the way you were looking at me, Rich, when I was getting my hair cut. Wouldn’t you want to spend a sliver of the night with me in your arms. This would all be by mutual consent and tie us all the closer together with sex as the bond. We women would have two defenders in all dangers instead of one. Tina agrees with me and is more than willing, just as I am, eager in fact”.
Rich scratched his head. “So this is like some old fashioned wife swapping, is that it? Or do you expect Jack and I will be hugging and kissing too, just like you two. I don’t go that way and never will, not even in dreamworlds”.
“Neither will I” I added indignantly.
Tina put one hand to her mouth laughing uncontrollably. The other she placed on Rich’s shoulder, almost to steady herself, as if she might fall off her chair.
“No, you fools. We never imagined that. I want to sleep with Tina. But I also want you at my side through the night. We’ll always sleep in the middle and be discreet in our lovemaking. You two prudes will be six feet apart. But to make it fair, to join our union, we thought it best that I sleep with Rich one night and you the next, when we have sex, near dawn. Tina will provide the same. We know your needs and this whole thing would fall apart if we started acting like Lesbians. That's what we’ve been talking about all day. Don’t you think this is a better plan than sneaking off to another bed in the middle of the night and jealousies and lies and tiptoeing and fears of getting caught. This will be the union of all our affections, we women sharing our bodies with the both of you in return for your consent for us to share between ourselves, every night in bed”.
I spoke up, “Mary, first you tell me that you’re in love with Tina and in the next sentence that you want me to have sex with her. Isn’t this pretzel logic? It certainly isn’t linear. But I’m glad you two have hit it off, so to speak and if Rich is agreeable and out of my deep love for you I’m willing to try it out one night, or several, to see if it works. What about you Rich?”
“I guess I could force myself to take a roll with Mary. But I don’t know how I’d feel about you on top of Tina both moaning and groaning three feet away. Mary, you’ll have to try hard to take my mind off that”.
“I think I might be able to divert your attention”.
With this she stood up, put her arm around Rich’s neck and gave him a long, wet kiss, while Tina did the same to me. This put an end to the discussion, to all discussion, to all thought almost because in a few minutes Rich and I found ourselves in the position we’d been in all day, obeying their commands, in the other unit trying to pry the bed off the floor to move it. It had been nailed in place and we had to use our hatchets to free it loose. We felt like two lackeys, two day laborers on one level, yet like two supremely blessed men on another.
In another half hour we the nightstand removed, the light ripped out and discarded. Just as they said the bed fit perfectly between the wall and the other. It squeezed in tight, just like we would in a few hours. The women managed the sheets and pillows while Rich and I sat at the table to rest and gaze upon the pair at work.
I felt a slight degree of apprehension or awkwardness in the air and to ease this feeling I retrieved the bottle of Scotch in the corner. It was still three-quarters full. We now had cups and I poured four large, equal portions. The ladies joined us and I proposed a toast, to the success of our strange nuptial union of course. We sipped and talked.
Since we’d avoided all talk of our worldly status this day I asked the girls what they discovered in their pilgrimage into dreamland last night. Mary said nothing and Tina looked down, as if ashamed and finally said, “I’m sorry Jack. But we really didn’t carry out the mission you gave us. The first pyramid we visited hand in hand we smoked opium together on a couch. Then we started kissing and fell in love and spent the rest of the night between the perfumed pillows and the warm waters of the pools beside us, talking to no one. But tonight we’ll focus and visit many locals to see if there really is a depopulation, which there must be, from that one glimpse outside that I viewed this morning”.
“I’m worried” Rich added. “Your nightly visits to the dreamscape might be dangerous. Something is killing people or ordering them to kill themselves. We’ve seen so many corpses today while you were tanning. They didn’t seem recent. Something terrible must have changed a few years ago. I don’t know. I expect we’ll be safe here tonight. See if you can sense any differences in alter life. The suicide we found and the dead in this building make me think that someone in control can just order a dreamer to off themselves or set up some scenario where they do it blindly. We're all blind in our sleep, and definitely not in control of our dreams”.
Tina stepped in, “When I was first in college I used to be what they call a ‘lucid dreamer’. I had dreams so vivid they seemed real. It wasn’t every night but a few times a month. I remember my dorm mate waking up when I had one, kicking my sheets and rolling about. She thought I was having an epileptic fit and was about to call for help when I calmed down. The next morning I told her what is was. But the curious thing is that several times I was in a near death scenario in these dreams and every time, when I was about to fall off some cliff or be struck by some vehicle, just before impact, I woke up. We can’t die in our own dreams. I read an article that if we do, we actually die in our sleep and if this is the case it might be true that a manipulator of our augmented dreams would be able to kill thousands of us in a single pyramid, in a dream earthquake, as it crashes down on us”.
This vivid conjecture pierced my heart. “Mary, Tina, this might be true. I want this to be the last night you go there. Be careful. Tomorrow morning we’ll give you the jolt we took. We’re all going to live in this real world, however destroyed. At least it’s something we can touch and understand”.
As I said this the last nightstand light went out. The room was pure dark. I felt Tina’s hands lift me from my chair and guide me towards the bed. She undid my shirt and pressed her bare chest against mine as she beckoned me down to the pillow. I was putty in her arms. We made love, as did Rich and Mary a few feet away. I fell asleep in hers, in nirvana.
