almost

…as we’re passing through the room, I stop and take note of our surroundings: The concrete walls of the service tunnel, the exposed pipes . . . it’s all so familiar.

Then I have it. In a flash of recognition, I turn to my companions — he is tall and dark skinned, she is waif-like and pale — and say “This is exactly what the places I dream about look like. Exactly.”

They share a glance with each other and roll their eyes.

We continue on through the door.

It is only later (much later) that I realize that I almost had it. I almost had a moment of awareness there in the dream.

But what really gets me is the realization that the other people in my dream knew I was dreaming, even through I didn’t.

They knew. And they thought I was a fool.