Our current existence seems to have become surreal. I can imagine having a toss-turned night where those bits of dreams come and go. Like this:
Everyone is wearing a mask ... well .. not everyone, and not all the time. There is scene in the dream where the protagonist is sitting at the breakfast table, frantically paging through the Daily Times, trying to find "The Guide," that will reveal the rules for today.
Masks always, but not necessarily in the open, yet maybe so. Depends on the distance. Definitely while waiting in line to get into the grocery store, where the dreamer finds himself. He has no idea what he's there to buy, but knows he must get it, before the shelves have emptied. Shoppers hustle out of the store, their shopping carts stuffed with dozens of 10-packs: toilet paper, paper towels, Kleenex.
In the next scene of the dream, he is trying to find a restaurant that will serve him. Every time he parks in the lot of a likely looking place, management closes the doors and hangs a sign: "curbside pick up only." But then, across the street, a cafe is setting up tables outside for dining. He waits his turn, but the staff ignores him in order to fumigate and wipe down every surface in sight.
He gives up and stumbles to a Home Depot, where he is accosted by a mask-wearing pan handler asking for hand sanitizer. He turns away as a scene at the entrance unfolds, where a customer is in a shouting match with a security guard: "you can't make me wear a mask, I know my rights!" Others waiting in line watch the events unfold, like antelope at a waterhole, as a lion attacks one of their own.
In the California version of the dream, the weather has turned very hot. Smoke obscures much as if it were fog, and white ash continually falls from the sky: the Devil's dandruff ... the dreamer thrashes, unable to breathe, and wakes to find himself drenched in sweat. A nightmare, then. He staggers to the kitchen. where his grandfather sits at the breakfast table, calling out from behind the newspaper, "it's all masks all the time today. Obey the Wednesday restrictions and remain 8 feet from everyone else. Don't speak unless spoken to. Remain calm and soon we will back to Code Yellow."
