Is it Really Only a Dream?

How do you define a nightmare?  I'm thinking that a good definition is a dream that is frightening.  That's a definition that immediately prompts a similar question, of course.  How do you define 'frightening'?  I expect most people would offer two general areas of life, invasion of which would be frightening.  The first would be bodily health and the second, rhyming with it, would be wealth ... or at least something to do with money.

OK, we've passed the first hurdle.  Without fear of contradiction, I can now describe the dream I had a few nights ago as a nightmare.  Given that I'm on a fixed income, i.e a state pension, topped up with a small amount of savings that I want to exhaust as slowly as possible, money is particularly important to me.  I try not to be extravagant in my spending and, if I find a possibly cheaper alternative to something that gives me the same benefit, then I do, at the very least, accord it some consideration.  Conversely, if I were confronted by a sudden increase in the cost of something I tend to think of as essential to the way I live my life, then I would be concerned and actively seek an alternative, while at the same time question whether I can live without whatever it was.

With these thoughts in mind, here's the prospect I was met with in my dream (or, as we have now decided, nightmare) earlier this week.  I looked at my phone and discovered an app that I hadn't seen before.  I'm naturally curious and - despite what those who know me might expect - I don't always think things through to the extent of independent research above personal exploration.  So the first thing I did on making this discovery was to press this new symbol, fully expecting a completely new display explaining what it was and offering a range of options to go further.

The display didn't change at all.  Oh, I thought, it's benign ... completely inactive, shouldn't be there; I'll ignore it.  Then I wanted to do something positive with the phone and opened another app.  It opened normally, with the exception of a small black square in one corner of the screen.  This displayed a number which, as I looked, increased by one unit every second ... rather like a clock.  I finished what I was doing and closed the phone.

Next time I opened it, the little black square was still there, but this time the number was significantly higher and was preceded by a $-sign.  Curiosity to the fore once more, I pressed the little black square and a new display appeared.  I suppose it had a product name at the head, but I ignored that and just read the narrative beneath.  'Thank you for subscribing to ... .' it read, 'We are pleased to confirm that your account is now active.  Your premium, calculated at 1 cent per second, will be debited from your bank on the 3rd of each month.'

I was at first puzzled.  Premium for what?  I don't know about you, but often in my dreams I'm reading something either on a screen or a page of a book; my mind goes over what I've read again and again and I want to scroll down (or turn the page) to see what comes next ... but often that doesn't happen.  This time it did and I learned that I could continue using my phone just as before, with no change to the apps available, or how they would serve me.  It was just that, under this new Premium Service that I had apparently unwittingly subscribed to, I would be charged 1 cent per second for the privilege of having my phone on.

As my mind began to do calculations, I realised just how expensive this would be.  Like many people, I suspect, I have my phone on constantly, so this charge would mount up quite quickly ... 60 cents a minute, $36 an hour, $864 a day, and - frighteningly - an eye-watering $315,000 a year.  Quite apart from the normal expenses of living, my savings would evaporate in no time at all!

Thankfully, I must have woken up at that point ... which is probably why I remember it to tell you about it now.  I often reflect on the dreams I recall and can see a snippet of this and a snatch of that that the relaxing brain has pulled together into a scarcely believable whole.  This one had me puzzled as I thought back over what I'd been doing recently.  The only conclusion I've come up with is the summation of a number of stories I've heard on the news lately: a whole variety of experiences that different people have narrated, but all with a common cause ... Brexit!