This dream took place on a planet similar to earth. Gravity seemed to exist in the same capacity and the air definitely seemed breathable, but the only two rational life forms on the entire planet occupied a microscopic plot of land relative to the total size of the planet. They were two human beings. Earthly, normal, mortal, aesthetically fixated, and motivated by confusing clumps of emotion that never seemed to coincide.

They lived in an old wooden house, with two stories and a long wooden porch that almost gave it the feel of an old-time saloon. Their yard was full of green grass, which grew in a perfect circle immediately around the perimeter of the house. The rest of the planet, or at least as far as they could see, was hard dirt and sand.

Neither of them had ever known anyone else, and for whatever reason they didn’t think to question it. Things were okay for them on their planet, and they never thought too much about the things they didn’t have. For them, certain things were so out of reach that reason would override want.

One afternoon the sun shone down as it always did, and two astronauts approached the old house.

“Just out of curiosity, what drives you to drink?” one astronaut asked the other, as they stepped onto the green grass surrounding the house and moved towards the sliding door in the back.

“Vulnerability, I guess,” he responded. “You?”

“Definitely tension,” his partner replied.

Immediately they both felt terrible for having revealed anything even remotely intimate to the other; they felt dirty, even ashamed. It was an acute sense of disgust more than anything, mixed with a certain resentment they now felt for each other, both feeling they had been taken advantage of in a way and then left out to dry.

No more than a few seconds after entering the house, the two astronauts lay dead on the living room floor. Their helmets were shattered, their bones were broken, and blood was seeping from the open neck of their suits. Our two lone planet-dwellers stood over them, each with a broken Louisville Slugger in hand. They hadn’t the slightest notion as to the severity of what had just taken place. Meanwhile, the astronauts slipped slowly from their bodies, having almost selfishly found peace in the knowledge that not another soul would hear their secrets.