Is this a dream?

Squeezed together in the movie theater, the guy next to me shoveling popcorn into his face. Mechanical.

Shovel. Shovel.

The theater, busting at the seams full of people. On the screen whole cities collapsing in on themselves.

Is this a dream?

If you want to remember your dreams, if you want to wake up inside a dream, they tell you to ask yourself, constantly, while you’re awake, “Is this a dream?”

A dream inside a dream inside a dream.

The theory is, if you condition yourself to always ask if it’s a dream, sooner or later you’ll ask when you’re actually in a dream. Once you answer it, you’re awake. In the dream.

Inside the dream that is Inception, the rules are slightly different but close enough to make you think. Make you question your reality for a minute. This reality.

Is this a dream?

Popcorn Shovel Machine next to me burps, the guy next to him keeps getting up, walking in front of me while the laws of physics bend onscreen. And everything feels so real. Like in a dream. Before you wake up.

After the movie, my car is parked way back in the lot behind the theater. It’s just me. Alone in the darkness I wonder if me walking to my car is a dream. How do I know this is the real? What if the dreams are real, what if my fingers tap tap right now are really the dream? Will I ever wake up?

For a minute I’m paranoid. Helpless. Then I smile, because whether or not I’m awake, this is all I know. Because this, whatever it may be, is all there is.

Is this a dream?

Not anymore.