America adjusts to the new normal

America adjusts to the new normal

fiction
edward w pritchard

It was more than a dream but less than reality. I was sleeping, dreaming maybe; as America adjusted to the new normal. Night after night I had the same recurrent dream.

Trite, blase perhaps but I had been placed on the Titanic for my dream metaphor and I always slowly awoke in my comfortable cabin to the gentle rocking of the waves. At first of course I ran about trying to tell someone. Give a warning about the iceberg. As I ran about on deck in the cold night air I was often arrested, thought to be mad for my suggestions about the state of affairs.

Later in my series of recurring dreams I held back with my warnings about the coming collision with the iceberg. Instead I studied the life boats. Carefully counted the number of seats on the life boats and sometimes drew charts and graphs of the situation. Later I methodically used my graphs and charts to create ratios; what per cent of the passengers would find a seat on a life boat after the collision with the ice berg that I seemed to be the only one that knew was coming. 

My recurrent dreams continued as I found myself on the Titanic a few hours before the collision with the iceberg that would sink the ship and kill thousands of people. Then I would seek to  find the children and families and assist them to get a good hot meal before the events of the night of  April 12, 1912 unfolded. I tried and tried to get the families to carry a few life preservers for the children but no one wanted to carry the bulky piles of superfluous materials about the ship.

Eventually I gave up with my warnings and humanitarian efforts and enjoyed the fine food and companionship aboard the majestic ship. Sometimes as I sat aboard Titanic waiting for 2:20 AM I looked into the eyes of someone; Do they know what will happen soon? I didn't ask, but it wasn't uncommon for me to buy such a person a drink or regale them with a short story.