ALL IN A DREAM, NOW REAL

I was still talking to my audience of great minds, whereas, now feeling dizzy and sleepy. I was having what I thought to be a sensation, someone calling me and tapping from behind to get my attention. However, I did not respond to the tap, because I am avoiding any form of distraction, interrupting me from communicating to my audience of great minds, who already have my attention. I ignore the tapping; however, the tapping persist, nevertheless, making me skip while talking. I could hear the swaying trees outside and the lashing of the harmattan breeze tapping the windowpane and the zinc roofing, uttering a horrendous sound like from a nearby windmill furiously. Amazingly, when I turn exhaustively on the podium with my eyes very heavy with sleep and already doddering like a drunkard, even as I try fighting off sleep, knowing that I am dozing off in sleep. It is as if I woke up from a deep sleep, but am sleeping. I mean, I wake up, and realize my wife tapping me, ah! She calls out to me, sweetie! I hear the call coming from afar, echoing into my ears. Wake up! Wake up! It is morning! Are you not going to work today? She asks. I stretch like an elastic string, curve back like a prawn, yawns, with moans and mumbles, and opens my eyes! I need a moment to shed the sleep from my mind and the hallucinations of the darkness bid manner to the moment, transferring, from the generation of an impulse to things more static and tangible. In a moment, I will be clever to receive the sunshine, to see the secret message revealed in my mind as the imageries of pictures shades. For today, it will emanate by the restraint of a mild start, then, I will snooze underwing like a moth. I for one will exist here shortly, I will wake up, you will grasp. I wake as if it is an emergency, my heart beats fast, with buzzing in my brain, and together they are as panic with jump-leads. Only now, my brain is as a flat battery, the exertions of the night being a marathon of erratic problem solving, talking to an audience of great minds, the scientists, sages and philosophers.

At this moment, I feel as if I am on a relic, not from soda, but the visions, or do, I call it a dream or hallucination, demanding an answer? I saw my first daughter, Enninad still sleeping at her corner of the bed, while my second daughter Enivid, just by my side, also sleeping and stretching toward me, thinking I am her mum. She lays her head on my chest, calls out in her usual way, mummy! I have observed, whenever she calls out in this manner and cry out, it is an indication that she needs a suck. She is one and still sucking. As if I am having a high fever, I cannot believe and did not want to believe at all that my entire encounter was all but a dream.

A dream…? I asked myself, how could this be?

This cannot be! How can it be? I was now speaking to myself because right in my mind, it is not a dream since it is very real. I pick up my phone, discover some miss calls, it is a call from one of my student and I am to have a class with them by 9.00 am. I quickly dash into the bathroom, as my wife has already kept my bathing water in the bathroom for me. I rush the shower, dashes out of the bathroom, apply my body cream, spray some little deodorant, and dress up. After which, holding my wife’s hand, we offer a short prayer. Looking at the time, it is now 7.30 am, I step out of the house, off, and I depart, straight to the office.

The thought of the experience I have had that ends up like a dream, keeps coming to my mind at every passing second, and it is so strong and fresh, still, how could this not be real, but a dream? While on the way to the office, I stop by the ATM to make some withdrawal, since I have an insufficient fund, but have very little, in my bank account. Stepping forward to the First Bank ATM, I saw the advertisement display on the screen, saying, “You can reach your dream, no dream is unreachable” and the music keeps playing, “there is no barrier to reaching your dream if only you can press on”. I pause for some seconds; I did not even know someone is behind me, waiting to use the ATM also. He notices that I am not yet using the machine, but just standing right in the front of the machine, lost in thought, so he motions forward and asks, what is the problem? Are you having challenges? In response I say, “Not at all”, and he says, “But I notice that you have not inserted your card into the machine yet”, Oh! Sorry about that, I am kind of overwhelmed with something. By what? He asks me to know, and in response, I say, “Never mind, I am fine”. I quickly insert my card and enter my pin, to check my account balance, and discover an amount of money so huge that almost leaves me to brain dead. I did not receive any credit alert, how comes some 3,000, 000 USD, the equivalent of 1, 147, 500, 000 nairas is reflecting as my account balance? I withdraw ten thousand nairas from my account, quickly dash out of the ATM stand and look for somewhere nearby to sit and find out what is happening. While I step out, saw the time, it is now 8:00 am, thinking about what is happening to me, as I am already beginning to feel very weird and feverish as if something is playing pranks with my mind because of the entire encounter is driving me eccentric. I log in to my bank app, and its displays, FirstBank since 1894. The Quick Actions options pop up as Transfer, Buy airtime, Qr payment and Balance enquiry. I enter my password and tap, and the app starts processing (logging in…) but taking a very long time to connect to my transaction history. I check my network signal and discover the coverage to be strong, I check my data and discover I still have data, but the process is still taking a very long time. I have to borrow extra data, to ensure the process, so I did and return to the app, but not still connecting. I restart the app and log in again and it connects, so I continue, by tapping to check my transaction details, no history shows any form of credit alert of such amount of money in my account. Then why do I have this huge amount of money in my account? This bothers me so much because I could not imagine it. I notice there is a notification on my phone and a text message. I check the notification; and discover it is an email, however with a strange message that I cannot read because of the encryption. I also check my text inbox and notice a code, so I copied, click on the email and I was asked to enter a code. I paste the copied code; and immediately, the message opens up. However, the message is from the Council of the Great. How?

I had an encounter, woke up to discover it was a dream and now, I have received a literal message from the same people I encountered in what I realize to be a dream, am I not still dreaming?

What is happening to me? I ask myself.

I quickly pick up my phone and dial my wife’s number, wait for it connects and she picks up, sweetie, “you forget your laptop”, she says. How? I ask in curiosity being sure that I did pick. What was I even holding when I left home? I cannot believe I did pick my laptop, because, in my mind, I am holding my laptop…

Ah... but what am I even holding?

What is happening to me? I ask myself…,

What I call to tell my wife, I did not remember, I just say, “I love you baby” and end the call. Immediately the call ends, I now recall what I am supposed to tell her.

I realize after much investigation that the encrypted email message holds the information of how the money in my account got in. Some group of philosophers and scientists have read some of my articles on Facebook and have been covertly following me up without my awareness. I post some articles regarding our present-day predicaments, so that catches their attention, hence, they want me to explain and make clear my statements, which they find very interesting, however, unconventional. I google search to see if I can find any information about them. From my search, I was able to gather the information that they are elites of the Council of the Great, renowned men of knowledge and great inventions and their major objectives aims at cultivating humanity. I leave straight for the office from where I sat trying to figure out what is happening after I had left the ATM. However, when I arrive at my office, I open my office door, enters and relax into my seat, for some second, completely lost in my thoughts, after which I connect my apple iMac system. Immediately I boot the system, and enter my password, the displaying message on my screen reads, “You are under our watch”. I shut down the system, pick my phone, call my class rep, and ask him to see me in my office. When he arrives, looking at the time it is now 8:45 am just 15 minutes left for me to have a class with them.

Good morning sir, Sam greeted me. How are you, Samuel? I respond as he replies to me, “I am fine sir, but sir! I had a dream about you”. A dream? A dream about me? I ask in curiosity to know what the dream could be again. Tell me about the dream please, and he attempts talking, while interrupts and I ask him to sit down because he is been standing. He says, “In my dream, I saw some strange men, very strange looking men like ancient scientists and philosophers, but the amazing thing, is that you are in their midst, teaching them”. “What I heard you saying, is not the conventional knowledge at all, it is something new,”….

Why is this happening to me?

Everything is just happening strange to me in recent time. I interrupt Samuel to communicate my intention for asking him to see me. “I cannot make it to the class today,” I say to him, for the reason that I am not in my right state of mind. Therefore, I will not be having the class with you guys today”. I ask him to pass the message across to the class. I am going home now because I need to rest. Despite the fact, I could even finish my statement, my phone starts ringing and the number before my eyes is 999. I did not pick, I just ask Samuel to go, reschedule the class and inform me when next we will have the class. It fascinates me to see anomalous number 999 calling me. Samuel dashing out of my office, immediately, my phone starts ringing again and it is the same number, with my eyes gazing in astonishment, I pick up the call and I heard the voice from the other side of the call sounding very hoarse, a very weird and terrifying voice. Divine, “You do not know who is talking and do not try to figure out because of you…