Sounds like the recreation of some fall ritual from the ancient times! That was a doozy for sure.
I've been at a conference of the tree people all weekend, and last night after I returned I had this dream, Sorry it's a bit long.
I was going for a job interview at a very old-fashioned office where the secretaries were all seated at large desks arranged around a central area, with offices around the perimeter. Everyone in the office was dressed in dowdy suits and clunky shoes with crisp white shirts. However, I was naked and walked through the aisles protecting my front with two large interoffice envelopes, the kind you could use over and over with closures of string wound around two paper circles. I didn't seem to be nonplussed by my uncovered state too much; this happens sometimes in my dreams and I've gotten used to it.
Eventually, I asked some of the ladies in the office if they had any extra clothes and shoes they could lend me and they all did. So, I was suitably dressed for the interview in the style of the office. The interview was more like a series of tasks that knights are given to win the princess's hand. One test was that a man came into the office and no one could figure out why he was there. He insisted that he had an appointment and sat down in the lobby, folding his suit jacket on his knee.
I was asked to greet him, keep him calm, and find out more information. I came to him and he stood respectfully. We shook hands and then sat down again. I asked his name and he said it was Mr. Vertrain. Very courteously I asked, "And what is your business with us here today, Mr. Vertrain?" Without speaking, he handed me a job application form which he had filled out with the name of Paul Verity at the top. So I asked, "Mr Verity, what job are you applying for?" He said he didn't know.
I relayed this information back to a group of people who were huddled around a desk in the central bullpen. Their response was to give me another charge: a small child who was wandering among the desks. I took her out to the lobby where a low table stood in a corner, with some wooden blocks and puzzles on it. She quickly sat down and started playing. Going back to Mr. Verity, I tried to get more information from him. The office workers had said that there were no more open jobs, but I didn't tell him that. His answers were puzzling and didn't give me any clues.
Since we were not making any progress I offered to give him a tour of the office. The child came along as well. The office workers didn't give us any attention, as if they were only projections on a screen. The girl danced and twirled around us and Paul listened intently to my descriptions which were entirely made up. We came to an empty office with two large windows that were open. "And this would be your office," I said with a flourish. Rather than being pleased he seemed to be somewhat disconcerted.
A couple rushed in, with papers, books and coats in their arms. "We've been looking for you," they cried. "We have a book for you." They handed me an old-fashioned leather-bound book and rushed out again. I excused myself from the room, leaving the child under the supervision of Verity. She was sitting quietly in a chair so it didn't seem to be a big challenge. I left them regarding each other quietly.
I went into another empty office which had a safe with an open door. The book in my hands had several scraps of paper sticking out of it at odd angles as if the previous reader wanted to mark the place of important passages. I decided to clean the book up before handing it over to management. I began to open the book in my hands and take out the scraps, putting them in the pocket of my suit jacket. Juggling the book, I came to the last marked passage and saw that the center of the pages had been cut out and a mechanism like a clockworks had been inserted, with the paper scrap sticking out of it. It was a bomb! With lightning fast thinking, I weighed whether to put it into the safe or to throw it out the window. I decided to throw it out the window but first I looked out and below to see if there were people. Although there weren't any I called out "Get away, it's a bomb!" and then threw the book out but didn't see it land. I closed the window and turned around. At last the people in the office were paying attention. I went back to the corner office but Verity and the child had left. One of the office workers came up to me and said, "Congratulations, you have the job."
