Ariadne
I haven't slept much since I met her a week ago today. I take lots of morphine just to function. I take it in the morning for the energy to get out of bed, I take it throughout the day to stay focused, and I take it before bedtime so I can at least lie still with the hope that I might sleep.
Every night it is the same. Even though I'm exhausted and can't do anything, I can't sleep either. The closest I get is after lying still for a couple of hours, I start to fall into a state of sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is not a real sleep. It's not restful. My mind is always wide awake while my body enters a light sleep. At this point, I can't move even if I want to. I'm always in my cold, dark garret apartment. I look around and the room is exactly as it is in waking life. Then vivid hypnogogic imagery begins. Sometimes ghostly figures dressed in clothing from past centuries enter my room, oblivious to my presence. They go about like people in recordings of old movies. Sometimes there are giant spiders and strange insects. At this point, I realize I had better either wake up or make the dream change. It took me 2 hours to get to sleep, so I stay asleep and risk having a nightmare than lie awake the rest of the night.
Bradley
I live in a 300 year old building in the oldest part of the city. I work in a 900 year old building a few minutes away. All my life, I have wanted to live in such a setting. So here I am. The Institut was originally a médiéval monastary in the city center. This is the oldest part of the city and is near the Arènes de Lutèce (the Roman Arena). The Institut is surrounded by high walls, and the entrance is blocked by a gate and a guard house. Guards carrying machine guns stand around while another guard checks everybody's IDs. It has been this way since the Hebdo and Jewish Grocery Store Massacres.
Inside is a chapel, a central courtyard with gardens and fountains, and the cloister (a covered space made by line of columns encircling the central courtyard, a péristyle). Everything is made of marble. There are alcoves with artwork and statues. Mr. Death (I call him Bradley. Photo taken with cell phone camera.) is in one. He stands around 12 feet tall and is at the base of the stairs that lead to my office and lab. He's holding a full length scythe. In an alcove directly across from him is a Stone Angel. I didn't take a photo but she looks like something from Dr. Who but without fangs - the mouth is closed.
The monastary (built in the 11th century)was later taken over by an order of monks in the 13th century. It served as a theological and scientific research center of that era. Hot topics of research were alchemy, astrology, and gardening in the 12th century. More famously, the Curies worked here. So did Lavoisier, Pasteur, and others .....
The monastary cells, the former living quarters of the monks, have been turned into laboratories. My lab is in one of them. [Sorry for the weird spelling. I now use a French keyboard, and the layout and lettering are different. My spell checking software is set to French, and it keeps auto-correcting to French spellings unless I keep chaning it back and forth.]
It was built on the site of an older monastary whose chapel was a re-dedicated Roman temple which was built on the site of a prehistoric Celtic temple. As the monastary became famoous, it grew larger and monastary's needs grew. The needs of the temple and its monks and scholars were supported by artisans, cooks, laboroers who lived on the site. It was practically a small city within the walls independnet from the surrounding big city.
It was this way for centuries, until the Revolution. Then Napolean came to power and he wanted better medics to support his armies. The ancient temple was torn down, the monks were made to leave, and the rest of the monastary was repurposed as a Chemistry research college specializing in military science and improving the production of gun powder. In modern times, it was repurposed for the study neuroscience and neurological disease.
My job at the Institut is to set up and then run a state-of-the-art biomedical research lab in one of those cells. One of the good things about it is that I will have the privacy and slience taht was enjoyed by the ancient monks. Most labs here are full of poeple rushing around all over the place and bumoing into you. And talking. Somebody is always talking to you or at you. I often hide or pretend I still don't understand them.
Ariadne
As soon as I drift off to sleep, I get up off my sleeping pallet and float over to the window. It's a dream, so of course I can fly. I try to open the window but can't. I can never move, push, open, or pick up anything in these dreams. Instead, I float through the window glass and hover just outside, 7 stories above the courtyard garden. I can see that a rose bush is begining to bloom. My flat is near the Pantheon on a hill in the oldest part of the city. I look across the city, and the Eiffel Tower is the first thing that draws my eye. It is lit up with millions of tiny lights like a Christmas Tree. On top of it is a search light that scans the city, looking for something. I watch this for a monent. In the dream, it is moving very slowly, as though time were dilated. I am reminded of the Eye of Sauron on top of the Black Tower, Barad-dûr, in Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. In the book, Sauron is looking for the Ring using a search light type of eye. He needs the Ring to be complete. In the dream, I am looking for Ariadne, methodically scanning the city. In the dream, I need to find Ariadne to be complete.
I drift over and land on the top of the Eiffel tower and stand next to the search light. I look across the rest of the city. I look at the Jardin du Luxembourg , then the palaces near the Tower, beyond to the Bois de Boulogne just outside the city, then back close again to the Louvre. The Arc de triomphe stands out. North toward Notre Dame and across the lights of 1000s of houses adn aparptments and to the hills on the horizon. East to the Bois de Vinciennes. As I look in all directions, I start ot call her name. I hope my walls are thick and that my neighbors can't hear the madman calling.