I Dreamed The Same Ward, The Same Bed, And The Same Nurse For Six Years

The dream: a ward with six beds, a window on the left with a broken blind that hangs at an angle, and a nurse with a plait who says, "You're very calm."

That is it. That is the whole dream. It is not frightening and I always woke up feeling perfectly all right.

I had it, on and off, for six years.

Last April I collapsed. It was my heart; it was serious; it is fixed now, thank you.

I was taken to a hospital in a city I do not live in, because that is where the ambulance was.

I came round in a ward with six beds. The blind on the left window hangs at an angle because the mechanism is broken; it has, I later learned, been like that for years, and there is a maintenance ticket about it that has become a running joke on that ward.

A nurse with a plait leaned over me, looked at the monitor, looked at me, and said: "You're very calm."

I said: "I know."

She said, "Most people aren't, first time."

I said, "It's not my first time."