Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Would You Rather...?

I had a horrible half-dream last night, in that place between being awake and being asleep.  I got hit by a bus.  Sophie was fine--I was very heroic in making sure she was ok as I was gushing blood all over the place.  Things were serious enough that when I came to in a French hospital, my Mom was there, having used the insurance money for a bedside visit.

At this point, my dream took two different turns.  I ended up getting better in both of them, but with a bit of brain damage.

In the first ending, my brain damage manifest itself in the loss of all my secondary languages.  I could still speak English, but my German was all gone, not to mention the remnants of Dutch and Italian and the beginnings of French.  I was devastated, mainly about the German.  I was inconsolable.  I thought for a moment about started from scratch and learning everything all over again, but I lost all confidence.  I spent the remainder of my days slouched in a wheelchair in America, never venturing into another country ever again.

The second ending was more interesting but equally distressing.  I lost the ability to speak English.  I woke up and tried talking to Mom, but I couldn't understand anything she said!  I kept repeating "I can't understand you!  Why can't I understand you?!" in German and started crying.  She was a bit stressed out by the situation as well.  I saw before me a future of trying to learn English and never quite succeeding, never able to feel at home at home, never being able to communicate with my family ever again.
It was awful.

Though I still can't quite decide which I would rather have happen.  How about you?

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