Last night, I dreamed I was Serena Joy–the one played by Faye Dunaway in the movie adaptation. I was in my step-father’s dining room (lots of my dreams are set in his house). The Commander was dead, and Gilead was trying something new: it was dissolving all marriages and redistributing partners, to increase the chance of successful baby-making.
For some reason, I was going to be married off to a very young commander. I told a confidant that I suspected something would happen to make me a widow again soon after the wedding.
I woke up and told myself to remember this dream, so I could tell you about it today.
As I slipped back into sleep, Serena/I was retelling the dream story to help me remember it. Of course, it morphed into other things. I was all of a sudden Serena beset by suitors, other commanders who had always wished I was theirs instead of Fred’s.
I was trying to decide which suitor would allow me to be freest–for a woman in Gilead.
