Does Sheep Man Dream of Collecting Sheep?

“Of course,” I said.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Excuse me?”

“Of course I understand what you’re doing, and it’s not that I blame you. After all, this isn’t a bad kind of dream.”

“That’s the way it is with dreams. They get easier with time. Like most dreams, it’s a stretch of time, but really it’s a lot shorter than it looks. And the more it seems, the more …”

The Sheep Man was silent, and his arms stretched out around my neck.

“Let’s go to the library,” I said. “I’d like to write something down, something about ‘everything’, and some easy stuff for me to do.”

“Fine. If you’d like to come help out with some rest …”

We went to the library, and set out chairs.

“First of all,” he said, “we’ll make coffee.”

“I don’t mind,” I said. “Don’t worry. I’ll make it over for you to read in the morning.”

“I think I can use some help.”

“I will,” I said. “But first let’s talk about the way you spent last night.”

The Sheep Man nodded without speaking a word.

“One thing you probably don’t be able to explain,” I said. “It’s not a real dream. It’s just a dream.”

“That’s not what it’s really. It’s not a dream. The more it’s explained, the less it sounds like a dream. Just like it’s not a dream.”

“So what’s the difference?”

“The difference is that it’s not a dream. You can call it not a dream or something else.”

“I’ve never been sure,” I said. “This is something that happened sometime in the past. It was quite long ago. But if you think about it, it’s one that happened a long, long time ago.”

“Yes, there’s something that you’ve forgotten. And that’s a lot to come to the point, so let’s have another cup of coffee and talk about it some more.”

“You and the Sheep Man were close friends. You really know each other, don’t you?”

“Well,” the Sheep Man said, “we had a lot of stuff go over at the beginning of the year, and some business with you.”

“Business?”

“You know. The Sheep Man is a good friend.”

“Oh, yes,” I said. “Business.”

“Well, then,” said the Sheep Man. “What business was it of yours?”

“About my last night. I tried to return the goods. There wasn’t any business. Just as I said, there’s not a real business connection. You know how that?”

“Not so bad.”

“That’s right. I don’t know anything about it. I don’t even know that there’s any connection between me and my surroundings.”

“There’s a connection. There’s a connection.”

“I know. What I need to do is to go back there and collect the sheep.”

The Sheep Man nodded. “Exactly. We do that. Why? Why? What for?”

“What are you waiting for?” I said.

“I’m not waiting for anything. It’s just that you’re so wrapped up in your work and all this time that I just can’t find time to look at you.”

“Oh, well, then, do what you want to do.”

I said nothing.

“First I need to collect the sheep.”

“Collect the sheep?”

“No, no.”

[END TRANSMISSION]

Editor’s Notes

Edits

Changed punctuation at the end for finality. It originally ended with a comma”

GPT-2 Settings

I used a higher temperature than normal, wanting to get some good weirdness out of it. It did not disappoint.

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