“Out of sky? This can’t be. The sky is infinite.” “No, sir. What we once thought was infinite is now presumed to be not longer than roughly 75 thousand miles.” “But we’ve traveled further than that into space.” “Farther, sir. We’re talking about distance, so it would be farther, not further.” “So what does ‘further’ mean?” “Further is for more abstract things. Not calculatable distances.” “Oh. So what are we going to do about the sky situation?” “We’re not sure, sir. That’s why I’m here. We might have to embargo dreams.” “But people love to dream. I’m sure you have dreams of your own.” “Not any more, sir. I cut back on my dreams to save some room in the sky. I’ve urged most of my friends to do the same. But there still isn’t enough room.” “Can we build more sky?” “Scientists are working on it, but it might take years, decades, centuries, even.” “What about buying some sky from the Russians?” “Maybe ten years ago they would have sold some, but times have changed. The Russians need sky again. Probably more than we do.” “But I’m confused. I still don’t understand how we could just run out of sky. Like I said, we’ve been further than that in space.” “Farther. And space is different than sky, sir. Most dreams can’t break through the atmospheric pressure as it is. And the few dreams that can break the atmosphere need lots of sky to do so. And we simply don’t have any more sky. Barring an embargo on dreams, our only hope is to dig.” “Dig?” “Bury the dreams. Eulogize them. Tell the people, ‘look. We’re really sorry. It was a lovely dream. Really, it was. But it just can’t stay in the sky.’ People will understand.” “Will they?” “They’ll have to, sir.” “You can’t force a person to let their dreams die. That’s not how dreams work.” “But you can’t force the sky to hold more dreams. That’s not how the sky works.” “Well then fuck the sky. Let’s get a new sky. Or just let the dreams fall and spill out over the earth, flow over waterfalls, between cracks in the sidewalk, throughout this great continent!” “You’re dreaming, sir. You’re making things worse.”
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