Nightmare

I had a dream. I began a new job in a company that did some kind of product design, but I was never sure what the really company did. I didn't seem to have an office or desk and just filled my day with meetings and idle conversations with the other people working there. They didn't seem to do anything and just walked around looking self-important. At the end of the week they gave me a paycheck and a smile. I shoved it into my wallet without even looking. Just then there was an announcement that we were to go across the street to the big media center for a corporate meeting - we were just a branch of a smaller corporation. I guessed that they were going to connect all the brances via teleconference. I went through the metal detector and put my tiny computer on the conveyor belt. Exiting the metal detector a guard looked at my electronic watch, which I'd forgot to put on the conveyor, and said, "You know you can download a whole spreasheet onto that and then go out and sell it?" I said, "Where can I go to sell spreadsheets?" as if there were a streetcorner in the bad part of town where spreadsheets are sold like drugs. He just chuckled. By now I'd been separated from my co-workers and just jumped into an elevator, the inside all shiny black metal, and followed two women hoping it would take me to the right place. I searched my mind to try to remember if I'd seen them at the office. I got no clues from their chatter. I followed them into what seemed to be the kind of place they might hold meetings. I didn't recognize any of my co-workers there and realized that I really didn't know what they looked like. People seemed to be playing Virtual Reality games and I began to feel I was in the wrong place. A woman came over to help as I looked lost. Actually I was trying my best to look lost in hopes that someone would help me. She asked what company I was with and I said that I really don't remember. I babbled something like "I think it's called 'R Industries' but I can't be sure." Then I thought of the paycheck in my wallet. Surely the name of the firm is on the check, but found that my wallet was gone.

Just then I awoke. Perhaps this was because my dream had painted me into a corner in which there was no way out.

Did Franz Kafka have such dreams?