Dream 2

April 28, 2013

In this society, you can record the dreams that you dream at night using a special machine. You also can sell your dreams to some 'Dream Rental Shops'.
A customer came into one of these rental shops and said to the clerk, "I'd like to sell some of my dreams which I have carefully selected. They are my five best." He gave his memory card to the clerk and the clerk said to him to wait in the shop for several minutes during the review process.
Several minutes later, there was an announcement that the dream check was finished. The customer got up and went over the counter. The clerk looked uncomfortable and told him, "They are five dollars." The customer shouted, "What! Are my five best dreams worth only five dollars each?" The clerk looked even more uncomfortable and said, "I'm sorry but they are five dollars in total."
The customer was speechless, but after a while he said, "When I browsed in

your shop, I found that there are some expensive rental fee dreams. How much did the owner of those dreams earn for those dreams?" The clerk hesitated for a moment but answered, "This is a business secret but I would say that some of them are more than one thousand dollars." "What! So, what's the difference between those expensive dreams and my cheap..." The clerk said, "Expensive dreams have impact; being suspenseful, touching, sexy, even educational. Compared to them, your dreams are kind of boring."
The customer glared at the clerk, "B..but who dreams those types of well-made dreams? I don't think that we common people can dream such good dreams." The clerk replied, "They are actors or actresses, writers, musicians, company executives, doctors, athletes..." The customer said, "They are either celebrities or rich people. Do you think that we common people don't have the right to dream expensive dreams? Even in dream world, we are inferior!" The clerk said, "Of course not, of course not." The customer said, "Tell me some examples then." "Excuse me?" the clerk asked. The customer became more irritated, "You said that there are some of non-VIP type of people who dream expensive dreams. Who are they?" The clerk said, "They are ... oh, yes, the owner of the second most expensive dream last year was a gangster, that was the cruelest dream I've ever seen."
The customer got angry, "Do you want me to be a criminal? Ok..." The customer was about to push down one of the shelves. The clerk was upset, "Wait! Wait! I remember another example. In this case, the owner of the third most expensive dream last year was a common man." "Who was he and what kind of dream did he have?" the customer asked. The clerk said, "He was a husband who was afraid of his wife. And in his dream he was escaping from his wife. That was the most suspenseful dream I've ever seen."
The customer sighed.

*timid: shy and easily frightened (C)