I was in very good physical shape: I was living in the Bronx, and very often walked to Lower Manhattan. It was winter, and I just zoomed along over the snowy sidewalks.
Some of the unrealistic nature of the dream was that certain landmarks were in different places. For example, the Brooklyn Bridge was in the Bronx, and it was very different from the real Brooklyn Bridge. Much bigger, much broader. To start my walk from home in the Bronx to downtown Manhattan, I had to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge on a pedestrian walkway made of see-through iron mesh which crossed the bridge over the motor traffic. This walkway was four long city blocks long, because the bridge was four long city blocks wide.
Harvard University was in downtown Manhattan in the dream, instead of across the Charles River from downtown Boston, as it is in real life. After walking downtown from the Bronx, I liked to enter a certain Harvard building and walk all the way down a long ground-floor hall to the back of the building, where there was a huge marble staircase which went all the way to the top floor. There were six stories in this building, and each one was enormously high. The ceilings were thirty feet high on each floor. On each floor, bookcases lined the walls, going up to the ceilings, with huge rolling ladders affixed to the cases for access to the higher shelves.
This version of New York City was so huge and so complex that many versions of it were superimposed upon each other; as the dream went on, it became more and more clear that the many-universes theory of physics was partially manifesting itself in human perception there.
It was different times at the same time that it was 2019. I seemed to be younger, and much more physically vigorous, than I really am, although, at the same time, I was my real age, 58. I seemed much more like 19 or 20, in my physical appearance and condition. I was dating Jessica Lange. Although it was 2019, and New York City, and Jessica Lange was there, she was also back in the 1970's, and was also out of the city, filming the Pacific-island scenes of the version of King Kong which was released in 1976. And although it was 2019, Jessica Lange looked like she did in the 1970's.
Also, as a part of the many-universes manifestation, at the same time that King Kong was being filmed elsewhere, and Jessica Lange was both elsewhere and in NYC at the same time, the movie was also being filmed with several other actresses in Lang's role.
Also as a part of the many-universes thing, Jessica Lange and I both were and were not in a relationship. We were in a relationship in one dimension, but in other dimensions she was seeing other people. I was bothered by her other relationships, and I said so. Jessica said that I was being ridiculous, because those other relationships of hers were occurring in entirely different universes, so she wasn't even being promiscuous. She was monogamous with me, because I was the only one she was seeing in this dimension. Jessica pointed out that I could see as many other people in other dimensions as I wanted to, and that wouldn't mean that I was being promiscuous. She said the words "promiscuous" and "monogamous" with a certain mocking pronunciation. It was clear that, even if she had been seeing someone else in the same dimension or universe where she was seeing me, she wouldn't like it at all that I was so jealous and possessive.
Intellectually, I not only understood her position but agreed with it, and also agreed that jealousy is an ugly, un-constructive thing. Emotionally, however, I was still very upset. Moreover, even though it was separate dimensions, separate universes, I could still see everything she was doing with the other guys, just as clearly as if it were happening right in front of me in the same dimension.
Although Jessica and I were disagreeing about certain implications of philosophy and physics, at the same time, it was just another relationship which was difficult because the two people wanted different things from it. We went for long, long walks through the wintry, snowy city, holding hands and not saying much, both of us upset because we wanted to keep seeing each other, but we didn't know how to fix the problems we were having.
For some unexplained reason, Jessica and I both had full access to all of the employees' areas of the New York City Transit Authority. (This seems somewhat ironic to me now that I'm awake, because she and I walked a lot where other people would take a bus or train.) In the middle of a long walk, we went into a subway employees' office to warm up. We helped ourselves to coffee and put our feet up on desks. The employees greeted us in a very friendly fashion and made small talk with us. I whispered to Jessica that maybe my main problem was that she was so beautiful that it was literally driving me insane. Then we both started laughing and crying at the same time. Transit employees saw this and closed in on us with Kleenexes and hugs and kind words, and soon we got a grip on ourselves.
There was a brass box slightly larger than a matchbox, which was traveling back and forth between dimensions. Despite the many dimensions, there was only one of these boxes, and it always stayed the same. At the moment, I was holding it in my hands. It contained a very long, thin brass chain with a clip on the end, from which you might hang keys. All of a sudden, it occurred to me that, because there was only one of these boxes in all dimensions, it might be able to teach me something about multiple dimensions which Jessica and most other people already understood. I suddenly felt very happy. I gave Jessica a big hug. It was one of those winter hugs which are well-padded by many layers of winter clothes. Then I woke up.
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