Munmun(37)

“I will, thank you, ofcourse, the greatest things, you’re welcome,” I burbled like a maniac.

I guess another strange thing about bankers is the hoods and coats, muncolored coats and hoods everywhere, the pinks and creams of toys and cakes.

? ? ?

A bankdoctor interviewed me, asked me medical questions.

“Have you had dental work, crowns, fillings, molds,” he said, squinting into my little mouth.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Have you ever been to a dentist?” he asked.

“Nope,” I said.

“Okay great, and nothing artafishill in your body, no screws, stitches, pacemakers, bloodtunnels, anything like that,” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Has a doctor put any foreign objects in you, things that aren’t part of your body,” he said.

“Do doctors do that?” I asked.

“Not if they’re not supposed to,” said the winking bankdoctor.

“Firsttime, huh, congratulations,” warmed a nice banker outside the scaleroom, holding cute diagrams, “so here’s what happens, we’ll be giving you scalemeds, singing ritual songs, and then leaving you in a tub to fall asleep. Now because of the scalemeds, Dreamworld is going to seem a little strange to you. For one thing, your dreambody will be changing scale.”

“Wait, what, is that even possible,” I said.

“It’s what naturally happens when your body is changing scale here in Lifeanddeath,” instructed the banker. “One more thing, your dreaming will be completely solitarry, meaning alone, you are not going to encounter any other dreamers.”

“Holy crap,” I said.

“It can upset and even harm dreamers to see other dreamers change scale in Dreamworld,” taught the banker, “believeitornot, in some cases that spectacle can make people go insane forever, it’s so unsettling and deestaybullizing. Fortunately there is a med called solodream that can wall you off from every other dreamer, so dontworry! We’ll give you a ton of it, it’s completely harmless, no known sideeffects, it’s kept Dreamworld safe from scaling dreamers for many years.”

I was quiet and infact couldn’t really believeitornot.

“Meds change dreams?” I asked eventually.

“In ways we don’t even know about!” cried this cheerfull banker. “Anyway have fun!”

I watched silently as the bankers prepped the tub, thinking about solodream and scaledream, I mean what the heck, how many other worldshaping things do I not even know exist.

“What do you think of the underbank,” asked another nice banker finally.

My blown mind tried to think of a joke.

“Did you guys all mean to dress the same today or was it an accident,” I said.

“Ha ha ha ha ha,” she said without really laughing.

“Is this an insane and crazy place to work,” I said.

“Half the time, it’s wonderfull,” she said.

“What about the other half,” I said.

“Don’t worry about that half if you don’t have to,” she winked.

Finally the tub was ready, empty but with the hoses hooked up and everything, and it all went as planned, the bankers handed me a thimble of bitter tea with scalemeds, hummed and sang quiet banksongs while I sipped it, then they left the room.

Hanging on a hook was my future robe, a robe for someone halfscale, huge to my little eyes.

I stripped naked and left my old clothes on the ground. The tubdoor opened and I walked out into the middle and lay down on my back.

The tubdoor closed, I was one lonely grape in a bowl. The lights cooled, dimmed, died, and I was in blackness.

Warm jelly crept up to me, touched my fingers, calves, sides, slid under me, and lifted me up into Dreamworld.





DREAMWORLD


But it wasn’t Dreamworld, or else it was but everyone was awake, or dead, because it was a Dreamworld for only me, alone.

I swam up through the ground from the underbank and saw a stadium above me. But a little one like a toy, I was already huge. I hooped through it like a dolphin but no one was there, big or little, no one in the stands or streets.

I was big and blowing up bigger and bigger like a balloon, the strangest feeling, everyone knows in Dreamworld you can’t change your size.

But I was huger every minute in the empty city. I plucked houses off the hills like fruit, rolled myself in cloud, stepped off the coast to pinch and drag some islands, bit the sun. No one saw me, no one stopped me, no one helped.

Soon I was so big, I graduated through the sky and was in the ink of space, the worldplanet shrinking into me like a melting stone. I tried to make more dreamstuff, a world I couldn’t outgrow, tried to dream a huger earth under my feet, but all I could do was touch and grab the stuff that was already there, drizzly comets, powdery stars.

Warner, I said soundlessly, can you not control your dreamstuff or what, what’s the freaking problem, plunge out of the sky and back into Lossy Indica like an amazing bird, readysetgo, but no Lossy Indica appeared below me, no Yewess even.

So I reached out and started pulling the guts out of this nothingness around me.

There was groaning and whispering and in my fists was something that wasn’t nothing, almost but notquite, wisps, strands, vapors.