I woke up like I usually do most mornings. I headed downstairs and start the coffee, then make my way back upstairs to get showered and dressed for work. When I get back downstairs, I’ll usually take some time to check some emails and news sites and just get my bearings before I start my day.
As I was glancing over emails, I saw one that was from me, with nothing but a subject line. It was sent at 4:30 in the morning, and the subject line read simply, “Camera.” I don’t know about you, but at 4:30 most mornings, I’ve been asleep for quite a while.
I sat for a second and then some of the previous night began to fill itself in. But just a little bit.
See, I have always been a really hard sleeper and for most of my life have been an avid sleep talker and occasional sleep walker.
As a man approaching my 50s, I do occasionally wake in the middle of the night (thanks, nature!), which is usually followed by a quick nature break and then a sojourn back to bed for a few more hours.
I recalled that in the middle of my previous sleep, during an evening biobreak, I had awoken from a dream and had to remind myself of … something.
Somewhere in between I’m guessing 4:29 and 4:30, I was awake enough to email myself that I needed to remember “camera,” but by 7 a.m., the reason why had totally evaporated.
I racked my brains for the better of the next day, I was trying to remember what I was telling myself. This has happened in other fashions over the years. Prior to email being on our phones, it was in the form of a notepad I used to keep by my bed. I would occasionally wake up and see a note from Sleeping Mike that read, like, “Pancake house” or “Bubble swan” or something equally weird.
At work, I told a few coworkers about this cryptic message mostly-sleeping me had sent. We went through various scenarios it could have been. One popular theory was that “camera” was an autocorrect for something. But what?!?! I mean, did I misspell “Camper”? “Canberra”? “Cambridge”?
I was at a loss. I spent the rest of the day spending way more time than I probably should have trying to figure out what it was about, but my brain was simply not going to unlock the mysteries of sleepy me.
And then a few days later, it all came rushing back to me. I took my car to one of those car wash places that also has free vacuums, which is one of our greatest inventions. As is my habit when I go to these places, I make a point of checking every nook and cranny to make sure I’ve got all of the unnecessary things out of my car. I opened a lid on a small area of my console, just to make sure I hadn’t stashed any old receipts or the like there. And out it tumbled. A receipt from a photo lab at a nearby pharmacy, where I had dropped off a disposable film camera weeks ago.
You see, I was going through a file cabinet at work and found this old camera from probably way before I worked for the organization. I decided to get it developed and see what mysteries it held. And this is where dream Mike entered the equation and decided to spice it up. I began to remember the dream, and the camera came back with amazing photos from some of the most significant events in history, many before a camera was invented. In my dream, there were shots of the pyramids being built, of Lincoln being inaugurated, of Gutenberg rolling out the first printed book. I was excited for all of about three seconds until my non-dream brain reminded me that this was probably a bunch of pictures of, like, a company Christmas party or something.
I’m glad the mystery was finally solved, and I am eager to get the pictures back. I know they will probably not be that exciting. But the fact that there’s a chance that it could be of the pyramids has my fingers crossed.
Mike Gibbons was born and raised in Aiken, S.C. A graduate of the University of Alabama, you can e-mail him at scmgibbons@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @StandardMike.