There is one nightmare I often have. Some kind of emergency (an accident or a fire, for example) happens, so I want to call the emergency number 112 and for some reason I can't because I just can't dial properly or the phone won't connect or whatever. Last night I dreamt a very disturbing variation of this nightmare.
I am walking along one of the main streets in my hometown. When I come to a bus stop I see a man lying on the ground on the other side of the street. He seems to be unconscious. He lies on his side, his face is very pale and he seems to be wet. Saliva is running out of his mouth. I can't see it properly since he lies some distance away. Nobody around him seems to care about him at all, he is just lying there, apparently unnoticed.
Suddenly I see why nobody is interested in him: around him are a few dubious guys, lingering on the street, all big and burly. They are drunk and I can guess a connection between them and the unconscious guy. Maybe he has been drinking with them, or he did an overdose, or maybe the guys beat him up. The other people seem to be afraid of the burly guys and stay away. I'm getting quite angry because I want to help the poor man.
I have my cell phone on me and decide to call the emergency line. But instead of the hotline I get an automatic system which tells me that the prices for calling the emergency line from cell phones have risen from 12 something to 13 something and that I should call from a phone booth instead. What the hell? I'm getting angrier. Calling the emergency line is supposed to be free of charge but whatever, I'd pay whatever they want, I want to get the emergency hotline.
There is a phone booth in sight, a little bit further down the street, but I decide to call my mom from my cell phone and tell her to call the emergency hotline from home. I call her and tell her hastily to call the emergency line. I try to remember the WH questions you are supposed to answer on such a line. I tell her there's one man unconscious at the bus stop... which bus stop is it? I should know, this is my hometown, but I can't come up with the name. So I run around with the cell phone, trying to see some name on the bus stop. Finally I see the name:
