Moonwatcher

EXT. RAILWAY STATION - TWILIGHT

I'm on the ground level of a two-tiered train station. The platform is covered with crunchy cinders.

CLOSEUP on a SOLAR ECLIPSE. The lower left sliver of the Sun is just showing on a black background, as if photographed through a solar filter. Just the Sun, no earthshine on the Moon. (Day residue: I attended an amateur astronomy lecture last night in reality.)

ME
Wait, am I dreaming? Yes!

CUT TO: My point of view, watching the eclipse. The sky is clear, calm, and cool. My vision is exceptionally sharp--unlike most of my lucid dreams, which seem no clearer than an ordinary dream visually (the only difference being my conscious state).

Now the Moon is in a gibbous phase. But the Sun (which has shrunk to about half size) is still being eclipsed as before--by its own Moon! So now there are two moons, one near and one far, with the Sun farther yet. WHO KNOWS what light source is illuminating the gibbous Moon! The incongruity delights me. I remember an earlier, nonlucid dream some months ago in which a solar and lunar eclipse were taking place simultaneously. I gladly accept such nonlocal logic in nonlinear time.

I note that if I shuffle several feet to one side or the other, a great deal of parallax results: I can eclipse or uneclipse the Sun simply by walking back and forth on the platform. This implies that the Sun and moons must be quite close indeed, and very small--or else that I and the train station are extremely large. Because the three heavenly bodies are beyond the atmosphere.

Lucidity having been achieved, I remember my plan of action--formed in waking life--and speak directly to my dream, making a preposterous request in the hope that it will be granted in reality. (It's worth a try!)

I begin to awaken. As the vibrant dream energy dissipates, a black-and-orange blob persists in my vision. If I close my eyes tightly I can still see it for a while as I wake up in my bed. It's about the size of a silver dollar held at arm's length. It seems to be in my left eye, but I can't prove it. I study its contours and hypothesize that I am seeing my optic nerve, but that is only a guess. (Or is it a picture of a tiny brain?)

It was 6:50 AM when I awoke. As I walked to breakfast later this morning I saw the waning crescent Moon, its phase resembling the sliver of Sun eclipsed in the dream. Remarkable coincidence. (Sun, Moon...no difference.) Despite my interest in astronomy I had lost track of the Moon this week. Did my dream calibrate with the lunar phase this morning? Make of this what you will.