That’s how I got to building nightmares on a daily basis, and Bruno admitted that even he couldn’t understand why they were so effective. I told him that while with dreams you had to be creative and craft elaborate fantasies for people, nightmares were a whole different ball game. Nightmares had to be simple, because what really scares people are the most basic things in life: that they won’t have enough money to pay their bills, or that their wives will leave them. Those kinds of things.

“As long as the Ministry of Health keeps recommending us,” he said. He told me he had already gotten phone calls from a few HMOs, referring several new clients that needed effective nightmares to work through their issues.

“One of them is even named Debby. Funny, huh?”

“Yup,” I replied. I didn’t tell him it was my Debby. That I had asked her HMO to transfer her to us. I figured that since we saw so little of each other, at least I’d get to read her daily reports and see her dreams every night. Bruno got a new screen for her. She was beautiful on it. I made sure to produce fresh dreams for her every day, mostly involving new homes. Some had large backyards and others swimming pools, and even a big Jacuzzi she could stretch out in. One morning when I came home from work, she told me she had had a really nice dream, but couldn’t remember what it was about. It made me happy.

Toward the end of the quarter, Bruno told me not to put off Debby’s nightmares any longer. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but a small one would be better than letting Bruno build her a big, scary one. I tried thinking about her phobias, like cockroaches and flying, tried doodling a few options, but I soon stopped. I felt physically ill at the thought of doing something bad to my Debby. Hurting her like that. So instead, I just built her another nice dream, that we were living together in the highest penthouse in the city, taking in the view every evening, and were really happy.