Lend me your dream

Chapter 11 - The slap

Time had passed since Roxane's suicide, which had made me feel unworthy of my power related to dreams, given to me from birth. Valentin was right to trust me and help me to push my power's limits even further. I outdid myself and had an incredible ramp-up thanks to him, until I could forgo his advice, as my next missions demonstrated. I had gained such a control that nothing could be impossible to influence human beings' minds.

All is controlled by the mind, it is a supremely skilled manipulator which directs or disturbs our thoughts by juggling with unconsciousness and consciousness. It protects us because it keeps the experiences which are emotionally too disruptive into our subconscious, beyond our brains' insights. But it can also bring back what it contains if some events echo it, leading to alarm responses which give an impression of losing control of oneself. Then the risk of getting carried away with a self-destructive spiral becomes high.

I had the privilege of being able to establish a link with the human mind and thus perceiving its subconscious penchants. I could help others thanks to this luck, and it almost made me feel as if I were rising above human thought.

Every person in distress knew better than anyone about their trouble, under the condition of facing up to their own truth. I went deep inside each other's emotions and when they overwhelmed them, I could help to exceed them. People's behaviours revealed the tip of the iceberg and could be modified only if I paid attention to what they believed. My close collaboration with their minds gave me a wide view of who they were. I understood them better than themselves. I perceived the limits tied to their context of life or their values. I could push them to develop their qualities and abilities in order to get them back to feel at one with themselves, and therefore refocuse on the way to appreciate its riches... I showed them what should change. I was their guide. I felt powerful because of my gift. I sometimes felt like God.

I moved from one dream to the next and the minds in need seemed to voluntarily come forward. That's how I could provide assistance to Noé, for example. He was a dark-skinned boy in my class and was logically affected by unjust remarks and slurs related to this "difference". Let's simply consider the sun as an artist dispersing its rays on earth to color humans! The earth is round, the color shades hence are the result of the distance from the source. And the diversity makes this piece of art wonderful. But it still needs to respect our earth for appreciating its riches...

I managed to help Noé by using an original but effective method which consisted in the fact that the slanderers were beaten at their own game. Noé was nicknamed Chocapic (which refers to breakfast chocolate cereals) and the mockers didn't spare him with racist comments without any restraint and in his presence: "A Negro is going to rappel down" one said on the way to the restroom to poop, "It's getting dark" another one said when Noé was around, "Go back to your country"... Noé didn't dare to say anything, the only time I saw him retaliate by throwing his middle finger up, and he was immediately ridiculed: "Chocapic, what the hell are you doing? Why are you brandishing your Snickers?"... He pretended it made him laugh, to save the day, because he didn't want to give them the satisfaction of seeing him confused. Self-mockery would be the solution, I just needed to encourage Noé to go further in this area, I knew he could do it because he was one of those people able to laugh at themselves. He was unaware that it was the best way to get rid of his problems, but I was convinced of it. I had to show him, to teach him how to do it.

In the dream which enabled me to convince Noé to overact self-mockery to the utmost, Baptiste (well, yeah... him again) simply ate Chocapics cereals. But the message was clear: Noé had the feeling of being eaten by Baptiste or similar bastards who messed with him because of his skin color. To push the scene further, I formed Noé's face with the cereals remaining on the surface in the bowl and I could make the lips move to pronounce with an exaggerated caricatural African accent: "Awe you appy to feel cwunchy cagao cwaging unda' yoa' tooth?" Then, I made the face give a wink. My intervention wasn't rejected by Noé's mind because it reinforced the idea which was that he was mocked and belittled due to his origins.

He apparently remembered the dream because the following day, he dove into self-deprecating humour and seemed to have fun in this role he had newly adopted. I was a good teacher! And then, in the series "Baptiste is a dick": during basketball class in the morning, he collided with Noé in full action and they both fell. After an unconvincing "sorry", he regained his position on the field. Another jerk said "Hey, Baptiste, can't you stand? Are you drunk?". "Not my fault, I didn't see him, he is tone-on-tone", Baptiste retorted. "Fools are daring. That's how you recognize them." As Michel Audiard (a French screenwriter and film director) said. Noé hastened to intervene with the same accent as in the dream: "No pwoblem, jigaboo stwonga' as a baobab!" The hunted became the hunter, Baptiste didn't expect it. Noé's reaction quickly calmed down annoying people. That wasn't so fun to mock someone who already perfectly did it themselves. Clichés like bananas, the accent... Noé was resourceful enough to push the racists to get bored. Thanks to self-mockery, we can show an image of ourselves more authentic as human beings. But it requires taming our egos, which is linked to a more or less illusory depiction of ourselves, and which leads to judgement and self-judgement.

Noé was only one example, many others were lucky to benefit from my assistance. Dreams scrolled, and then, one Friday in April, an unusual dream put me back in my place. I thought to be almighty, and capable of ruling my little world, but that wasn't true!

I was in a glass elevator, from where I saw each floor's interior. During my meteoric ascension, I could see, stage by stage, many snippets of my entire life's dreams in fast motion. I rose even higher until I got to the top of this endless building, containing innumerable reminiscences collected through my power. Then, once at the top, the elevator stopped... I looked around, this last floor was on the roof, so high that clouds touched my glass cabin over me. I took a look down and saw all the people I had helped. Then, I turned my eyes to the sky. Roxane approached by swimming, stopped and stood up in front of the window. She looked straight in my eyes, I could guess disappointment on her face. Then she pressed a big red button adjoined to the elevator. A hatch opened under my feet, what jetted me in a long fall which seemed to never end. Each floor scrolled so fast that I only saw flash lights, a bit like in a train passing through a tunnel. And I awoke in fright!

How strange... Why did all these elements linked to my own story appear in someone else's dream? And who was hidden behind this dream? Valentin was the only person knowing as many details about my life. That probably was a work by our two mind's fusion! I couldn't wait to ask him.

My abrupt awakening up had stopped my night all of a sudden, which was short because it was only 12:30 A.M. I texted Valentin: "Hey there, are you asleep?"... "Not yet"... "Can we see each other in the park tomorrow in the morning? I need to talk to you"... "Yep! Good night, see you tomorrow".

Valentin wasn't asleep, so, there was one only possible explanation: for the first time in my life, I had my own dream! I helped minds in need, and that was the case of mine. Through its subliminal message, I was taught a good lesson of humility. The amplification of my gift's control drove me to invent a pedestal from which I placed myself above the people needing my help, as if I was better than them due to my access to their thoughts... I lost sight of my own weaknesses with this illusory vision of myself. I took this dream like a warning. My mind put me in front of Roxane to reactivate the memory of something emotionally intense in my own story, which had led to my downfall in the past. Maybe it was a good thing to be reminded of this truth before I isolated myself in a feeling of omnipotence which would have turned me away from the essential. Indeed, I had already made this mistake with Roxane. My mind let me know that I wasn't in touch with my inner values anymore. It efficiently wiped my pride off, and a period of doubt began, because I had the feeling not to be worthy of my power.