A searing light then forced Herjuno to avert his eyes. When he turned back, he saw a woman seated on a litter that was being shouldered by an entourage of bare-chested young men. The litter featured a carved dragon’s head, topped by a diamond-studded crown. The woman was the most exquisite Herjuno had ever seen. He could smell the strands of jasmine that tied the ringlets of her shimmering hair. But it wasn’t hair. The shimmering came from the eyes of snakes, black, cold, slippery. She was wrapped in an emerald robe replete with crimson roses. Flower petals lay scattered about like lips in full bloom.

The woman clapped her hands twice. The young men lowered the litter, bowed their heads and then turned into fireflies. They flitted about before darting away and vanishing. Herjuno saw the man’s eyes open. The woman approached him and straddled his lap. His chin was raised and his eyes stared straight ahead. The woman stripped off her emerald robe, which slid to the floor. Herjuno held his breath.

Their lovemaking was magnificent. They coupled three times. A fourth. Herjuno didn’t want to budge. The woman knelt in front of the man. Herjuno felt himself soar high into the sky. From above, he observed the rain become a fountain. It soaked into the carpet of verdant rice fields, making them fertile.

Midnight. Herjuno woke. He glanced at his wife lying beside him in her frumpy nightgown. She was lying on her stomach, fast asleep. An anticlimax if ever there was one. The mattress beneath Herjuno was damp.

The following day, Herjuno called me. Could I meet him for lunch, so he could tell me his dream? Clearly he wanted to know its meaning. Herjuno was old-fashioned. He had grown up in a big city but belief in the occult ran in his family. I smiled away his anxiety. ‘It was just a sex dream, man. Not getting to unclog the pipes enough lately, huh?’

Herjuno punched my arm.

‘Or else you get off from watching other people do it. Or you’re longing for some wild sex. Threesomes. Orgies.’

He punched me again but this time laughed, too.

Privately, I thought the dream reflected the two years Herjuno had spent stuck in a dull marriage. The fountain that fertilised the fields represented a demand to spread his seed.

Herjuno’s marriage was a surprise, even to me, and we’ve been best friends since secondary school. ‘Shit happens, man.’ He shrugged when he told me.

‘My God, Jun…’ I tapped my forehead. ‘Don’t tell me this is what that test of yours has led to.’