Wine of the Dreamers by John D. MacDonald Page B

eight years going through forgotten spools and records of all the eternity of the Watchers.
    And for eight years he spent every dream in the second world, and the early dreams were always wasted when they began in some primitive place of jungle or desert,because usually then the dream would end before he could move from mind to mind a sufficient distance to reach some city where there would be libraries and laboratories. Many of the dreams were wasted in small villages until he learned the knack of thrusting upward as strongly as he could, floating in blackness, then thrusting downward and reaching out for the sense of other presences. Then as he learned the geography of the second world, he learned how to identify the area where the dream first took him, and thrust in a chosen direction for an estimated distance. Then only the first hour of ten might be wasted, but for the remainder he would be reading, through skilled and professional minds, the texts and papers on astronomy, physics, mathematics, electronics, history.…
    At last the answer came to him, shockingly, abruptly. He realized he had known it for some time but had not been able to accept it because it required such a total inversion, a turning inside out and outside in of all previous beliefs.
    The answer was as blinding as a flash of intense light.
    It was as unanswerable, as unarguable, as death itself.

SEVEN
    Raul Kinson knew that he had to share his new knowledge with Leesa. They had grown apart since she had been permitted to dream.
    He found her with a group of the younger adults. He watched her from the doorway. She had achieved the popularity, the leadership, that had been denied him. Though all thought her ugly, she was a source of constant pleasure and amusement to them.
    No one could match the diabolical cleverness and inventiveness of her mind once she had taken over the haplessbody of some poor citizen of world one or two. And no one could tell the dream exploits more entertainingly.
    Discontent, he knew, had driven her down the more obscure pathways of the dreams, had made her vie with the others in the excesses of the dreams. She had gathered around her a group that attempted to outdo her, and always failed.
    Raul listened, feeling sick at heart. In their game, each member of the group gave a short summary of their latest dream. If the group shouted approval, they would tell it in detail.
    A woman said, “On the second world I found a host body on a boat. A great brute of a man. It was a small boat. I threw everyone overboard and then jumped myself. The food was left on the table. The other dream creatures will be sadly confused.”
    The woman pouted as no one showed disapproval. A man said, “I became the one who guides one of the big machines which go through the air. I left the controls and locked the door and stood with my back against it and watched the faces of the passengers as the machine fell strongly to the ground.”
    They looked at Leesa for approval. Her smile was bitter and her laugh lifted harshly over the laughter of the others. She said, “Because in the last dream I caused a great accident, you all must try to do the same thing. This last dream of mine was a small thing, but it amused me greatly.”
    “Tell us, Leesa. Tell us!”
    “I slipped very gently into the mind of a great man of world two. A very powerful man, full of years and dignity. Over the entire ten hours of my dream, I made him count all objects aloud. The vehicles on the street, the cracks in the sidewalk, the windows in buildings. I made him count aloud and did not permit him to do anything except count aloud. His friends, his family, his co-workers, they were all horrified. The man of dignity counted until his voice was a hoarse whisper. He crawled around on his ancient knees and counted the tiles in the floor.Doctors drugged him and I kept control of the old man’s mind and kept him counting aloud. It was most amusing.”
    They screamed with laughter.