while sitting at the desk he began to wonder if his imagination had been stolen. he paused, tried to think of the last imaginative thought to pass through his mind, and sighed in disbelief. there were no imaginative thoughts to be found in recent memory.

the more he thought about this, the more it bothered him. it wasn't only his waking life that had been damaged somehow, it was his sleeping life too. there were no dreams anymore. straining, his brow beginning to show dampness, he still could not recall a recent dream. he was sleeping, he was quite sure, but did not recall any mental activity.

his job did not require any type of creative thinking, so he had been capable of going weeks without becoming aware of any problem. he felt the urge to vomit, worried over what must have happened to his brain. sudden compulsion made him want to go to a doctor immediately. the thought of living the rest of his life without an imagination began to terrify him, though he wasn't capable of conjuring a mental image of what this possible future would be like.

[07/25/03]