I decided to go back to uni, presumably for a master’s degree — in what, I don’t know. I picked some courses and showed up for a class. There were three offset, curving blackboards, none of which I could see. The class seemed to be about some odd book with mythological over-/undertones. I didn’t understand any of the professor’s questions, and he made fun of me openly for not being very bright. I couldn’t remember if I’d even read the book. His questions centered around a character. Finally, a girl came up with the answer he was looking for — the author’s clues led to the conclusion the character was a German with four legs and three noses. And this I should have known.

I had to dig around to figure out what my next class was — something about crafts! This was turning out to be a mistake. But I decided to go at least once. First, I ended up in a cafeteria, where I saw a very petite girl with striking brown eyes I’d seen before, perhaps in the earlier class. I thought she may have gone to U of C. Maybe this wasn’t a mistake. But crafts? I went outside. The university was a large frame house in a small town, called Schaumburg (actually, a charmless malled-over Chicago suburb), and it was in Minnesota. I felt more lost than ever and tried to find reassurance in the presence of the odd girl with the odd eyes.

And so I awoke.