Doctor, doctor!  It laughs when I hurt.
                  -- Book of Job.

BOB:  Jesus....
HEATHER:  What's wrong?
BOB:  My head.
HEATHER:  What's wrong?
BOB:  I just... just....
HEATHER:  What?
BOB:  I just don't feel real.  All of a sudden.
HEATHER:  I know.  I get that way, too.
BOB:  I was trying to thinking of my past and, and it just doesn't feel real.  None of it.  In bed here.  I'm still half.  Half asleep, sorry.
HEATHER:  That's okay
BOB:  For just a second there.  I....
HEATHER:  I know.  When it happens to me, I try not to think about it.  I think it's just a function of memory.  Like deja vu.
BOB:  I hope so-- I--
HEATHER:  What else would it be?
BOB:  You just.
HEATHER:  What?
BOB:  It felt so real, not feeling real.
HEATHER:  But it's okay, now.
BOB:  You just.  Remember a little while ago?  When everything-- everything felt like this before.
HEATHER:  Yeah.  Sort of.  We were fighting, maybe?
BOB:  I don't know.  Don't you remember it?  I don't remember it clearly.  It's just a feeling.
HEATHER:  Not really, no.  Not clearly.  I know it happens, though.  Sort of.
BOB:  We were trying to remember our pasts.  I think.  And this was like that.
HEATHER:  I remember my past.
BOB:  I don't feel real.
HEATHER (laughing):  Trust me, you're real.
BOB:  Well, yeah.  Now.  Or at least we seem like we're real.  To ourselves.  But for just a second there, I felt so artificial.  Like I'm plug-and-play.  Like I'm a million places at one.  Like there are aspects of me in everything and that I was put in all these places by-- by....
HEATHER:  By what?
BOB:  I don't know.  The feeling's fading.  I'm feeling better now.  Sort of.  Just a feeling.
HEATHER:  Good.
BOB:  Like it's just a memory, now.  The feeling's fading now.
HEATHER:  Good.
BOB:  But, I just.  For a minute there I thought I was going to dissolve.  Become everything and everybody.  And then nothing.  Like I was some sort of puppet.
HEATHER:  You're still just half-asleep.  It's just the aftereffects of a dream.
BOB:  Yeah.  That's what it is.  Yeah.  I bet.
HEATHER:  Sometimes dreams can be powerful.  They do things to your neurochemistry.
BOB:  Yeah.  It was just a dream.  And an anxiety attack.  A bit of one.  That's all.
HEATHER:  Come on.  Let's get up.  Walk around a bit, clear your head.  If you're not on the edge of dreaming, you'll start to feel better.

Next:  Hermeneutics as war....
 

Epilogue 73f.
Epilogue 73d.
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