Tomas Haldendreamed 3 days ago1 min read

Bus Replacement Service

Dreamed on August 6, 2026

Standing on the concourse at a station that was definitely not my station, waiting for a rail replacement bus. There was a sign with the departure time on it and the time kept being twelve minutes away no matter how long I stood there.

The man taking tickets was my old maths teacher, Mr Ferrand, who I have not thought about in twenty years. He didn't recognise me and I decided not to say anything, which felt like the correct social choice at the time.

The bus arrived eventually and it was a bus, completely ordinary, and I got on it, and then the dream continued for what felt like forty minutes of sitting on a bus. Nothing happened. I looked out of the window at a bypass. At one point I checked whether I had my wallet and I did.

I woke up more tired than when I went to sleep.

Waking up: Flat. Slightly cheated, as though I'd worked a shift in my sleep.
People recognised: Mr Ferrand
Places recognised: A station concourse

2 readings

Readings

2 perspectives

Edda Lindqvist2 days agoStructuralEmotional

I taught for thirty-one years, so let me say first that being remembered as a ticket inspector is not the insult it might sound like.

What I notice is that the time never moved. Twelve minutes, permanently. That's not a dream about delay — a dream about delay would eventually resolve into missing the bus, or catastrophe. Yours resolved into the most tedious possible outcome: the bus came, it was fine, and you sat on it.

If I were reading this as a perspective rather than a verdict, I'd say the dream took something ordinary from your waking life and refused to make it dramatic. Some dreams are simply reports. Not everything is a symbol.

I would ask, though, why Mr Ferrand didn't recognise you, and why you decided that was correct.

Resonated with the dreamer

Rafe Mkhize2 days agoSensory

The bit I can't get past is the wallet check. You were on a bus going nowhere in particular and you patted your pocket to make sure you still had your wallet.

That's a very awake gesture. Most dreams don't bother with it. It suggests a part of you was doing quiet maintenance the whole time — checking, accounting, making sure nothing had been lost while you weren't paying attention.

Maybe that's what the forty minutes were for. Not the journey, the checking.

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