Dream #4: Diamond Dream

This dream was submitted by Sarah. Kindly remember the guidelines in the right column when you are posting comments. Thanks!

I’m in a futuristic skyscraper. The building is brand new, and it’s all condos. High-powered elevators quickly carry people from floor to floor. However, there is concern among people waiting for the elevators that they’ll be mugged – apparently this is a common danger in condo buildings. So a safety device has been built into the elevator; a code you punch in brings the elevator extra quickly, and once the elevator doors are open, you’re safe – instruments inside the elevators detect trouble and stop it. There’s still a small gap of time when you need to be on your guard, though – the elevator doesn't come immediately, and though the building has other security features, they’re not fail-safe; it’s possible to get past them.

I’m concerned, because many of my neighbors in the building have grown lax in keeping their guard up until the elevator doors open. It used to be that a group of people waiting together knew to watch each other’s back, but they have so much faith in this new building’s high-tech security system that they've been lulled into complacency verging on foolhardiness – especially in the case of my best friend’s in-laws, who live on the same floor as me. (In real life I barely know these people.)

One day, I’m waiting at the elevator with the in-laws. They laugh and joke and clearly don’t worry about being watchful. I’m tense, making an extra show of keeping my eye out to see if they get the message. On the contrary they become even worse! Both are carrying fistfuls of diamonds in their pockets, and the father-in-law thinks this is hilarious – he’s been walking up and down city streets this way, without a care in the world, assuming that since nothing bad has happened yet, nothing bad will happen. I tell him I think he’s out of his mind, and this is very funny to him – he thinks I’m just a Nervous Nelly. He grabs a handful of diamonds from his pocket and holds them out for me to see. They’re beautiful, like no other diamonds I've seen, especially all glittering there together, like a handful of stars. I exclaim about how beautiful they are, and he insists on giving them to me, pushing them into my hand. I feel a mix of emotions: scared to death, protective of my friend’s in-laws, bowled over by their generosity, worried about offending them with my insistence that they be more careful. I shove the diamonds in my pocket to get them out of sight. Then the father-in-law takes another handful from his pocket and so does his wife – they are laughing over them and comparing them in the open. I keep warning them, but they refuse to worry.

And then I see bad news out of the corner of my eye – men dressed in black, all geared out like museum robbers in the movies. They surround us just as the elevator doors are opening. With the elevator doors open, they can’t harm us, but they don’t just leave us alone; they climb into the elevator with us. As we ride up from floor to floor, I’m frantic wondering what we’ll do when the elevator doors open again. I imagine us running down the dark hallway to our apartment doors. I know that the men in back are prepared to get past any light security that’s in the hallway, and also that I’ll need to look out for my friends’ in-laws, who clearly don’t understand the gravity of the situation. I feel tense and ready to act. But I can’t know what will happen until the doors actually open, so it’s impossible to formulate any sort of a plan.