Dreamscape with variants....

It must have been around the time he was on variant E before he realised what was going on. He was on a train platform, the time of day not so ascertainable, as it was just grey. He knew he had to get to Grado, although he couldn't imagine why, it was the only place in Italy that had thoroughly bored him.

But there was no denying it: there was the sign after all, blue neon letters with a red border. And he thought, that's wrong, it looks like a cinema theater exit sign you'd put over the doors. This one read 'Italy'. He thought that strange as well, as it was in the wrong language, but it didn't upset him.

A voice over the loudspeakers explained the car he'd reserved had been decoupled but would be arriving soon... but it turned into a warning that there was a bomb on board, and the platforms were to be cleared immediately.

So he ran to get outside the station. Everyone did, as fast as they could, although he only heard their shouts and the sound of their feet on the marble. He was focused on the huge rectangle of light at the station's entrance, which meant escape. There was a muffled explosion behind him.

And he was immediately in variant F: back on the platform, but on another, although it looked the same outwardly. And the same sign, 'Italy' hanging improbably out over the tracks. And the waiting was making him impatient. He muttering 'Gradno', instead of Grado. It was an insult, his local dialect of 'just barely', which he had labeled that vacation.

Out of nowhere, a white drone appeared, looking like a huge angry mosquito, and it was manned, except he couldn't see who was inside. There was a long white bar which had pressed him down to the ground, leaving him no room to wriggle out from under it. It didn't hurt. He was just annoyed. No one was coming to help, but inwardly, he shrugged, because he knew: there would be other variants, and their number was infinite. So he just felt.... resigned to it.


Don't ask me what this means, because I do not know.