I cannot match Zeph's recent post of beguiling, eldritch dreams, so I've made a game of mine.

One of these events really happened. The rest are recent, bizarre dreams. I kept them personal, resisting the urge to post a second true event that was just some specific item from recent news.

I didn't want any of them to sound too unbelievable.

1. The war raged on. Our troops advanced, but a small group from the other side had positioned themselves on the hill and shot at us. I provided cover, after becoming convinced that bullets could not hit me. The delusion proved quite successful, until the end of the movement, when a bullet hit my lower leg. I had to convalesce in a home occupied by two young women (one of whom had medical training), the mother of one, and the daughter of one. The little girl was about nine. Later I walked back to town to pick up some supplies and get transport to the front. We could see it, just beyond the next town, in the form of distant explosions and drifting smoke.

2. I joined a game of 4 player chess, but complained that in this particular, peculiar variation two of us started with fewer pawns and pieces. The game boasted impressive, detailed pieces, gold and silver in colour. The chess champion on one side proved unsympathetic to my concerns, arrogant and dismissive in his attitude. In all fairness I was not playing entirely fair with them. The other shortchanged player was also me, using another account online to send messages. After I left, I heard someone sucker-punched the champion. He had, I reflected, a rather punchable face.

3. I biked around campus after deciding to enroll in some classes as a mature student. I even biked down the halls of an apartment building where most of the renters were current students of the more typical age. Since I was older, they asked me for advice on various matters, and what the place was like back in ye olden days.

4. I awoke before midnight to hear shouting outside my window. Six young women were practicing what appeared to be cheerleader routines in the middle of the street. They dispersed when the rain came.

5. A new technical school opened nearby, and I was invited to attend the ceremony, where everyone largely ignored COVID-related safety protocols.

6. The world experienced disastrous events. Some folks hoped to soldier on, while others planned to leave earth in a SpaceX space-ark. My brother and I assessed the viability of both options, and pondered how things might have been different. Social media and social/political divisions in the United States figured prominently in our sense of how the situation developed. A childhood friend whom I have not seen in this century joined us.

7. In an alternate reality, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated either before or after April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel. The killer was an insider, someone who had infiltrated his entourage. The specific date of his death had to be kept secret; the public had to believe he died a day later, or a ripple effect would lead to a global conflict in which many innocent people would die. My job was to hide his shoes, as mud traces on the soles would reveal the actual date of his death.