Normally sleep is only disturbed by dreams, but
one night I was surprised by something much more tangible.
I was shifting position, half asleep, when I suddenly realized:
that I was not alone. Somebody else was also here, and very near...
I jumped out of bed, startling the stranger also sleeping there.
But apart from initial shock, he seemed much less surprised than me.
Which puzzled me, since I now realized that this was not my bed,
not my sleeping room either, not my apartment at all.
And when I looked out of the windows, I didn't recognize the city either! Where was I..?
He tried to explain, and finally I had to accept that this was not even my own planet.
I was not the first person to suddenly appear, out of the blue at a random location,
merely the latest entry. The media no longer reported every single case,
only the most spectacular. He switched television on,
and we watched two recent entries:
One unlucky person had appeared inside a hollow tree,
and had to be cut out, confused but otherwise unharmed...
Another was a lot less lucky; appearing in a place already occupied by a giant sea turtle.
This collision forced the two creatures to become one; they fused at a genetic level,
and the hybrid looked decidedly weird; a real alien. Not at home in any world...
I spent the rest of that day wandering around, in the company of friendly but curious strangers.
Nobody knew why this was happening, what caused it, or how long it would go on.
I suddenly had an idea: this transition only happened when people slept.
I aired my theory, but I'll never know if it made sense to them; suddenly
I felt drowsy, falling asleep, reality shifted, and I woke up. Again.
This time in my own bed, and alone.
I was back home.
Again..?
Mads Dam, 2009