Lost Dreams of the PseudoWar

Dexter McThorfan played war games as a kid.  Before the internet, this meant board games, most notably those created by Avalon Hill.  These included:  Third Reich, the Russian Front, Panzer Leader, Panzer Blitz, Squad Leader, Cross of Iron, you get the drift.  Dexter and his other teenage friends would stay up all night playing these games.

As time progressed, the board games disappeared giving way to computer games and later Internet games.    

With all these games going through his mind, it came as no surprise that Dexter had a reoccurring dream that he was a German solider during World War II.   At least once a week.  Well into his middle age.

In his dreams, he was always very brave, but there was always an awareness on his part that he was fighting a losing struggle.   No matter what he did, the end would be the same.   He didn't begrudge the end in any way, because even though he was driving the best tanks of the war, or shooting the best bazookas, he knew that his side could not win because they were monsters.   But he wasn't a monster.   He was just very brave, and very clever in the battlefield.

 In his most recent dream, he was on the front line near Normandy wearing an old-style German helmet with the Kaiser's spike on the top.  He was frustrated with his position because he knew that in the very near future, he would be  overwhelmed by the upcoming Allied invasion.   But he was captured and spent his time as a POW in England.

While he was a POW, he learned to speak English.   Actually, he learned to speak English fluently, because after all, in his waking life, Dexter spoke English and not German.  Then he escaped his camp and was a commando.  Because of his time spent in England, he could infiltrate the Allied positions easily.   He came to a heavily fortified American fort.   It was well defended, but he penetrated its defenses easily.   After all, when he was not dreaming of being a German soldier, he actually was American.   So he blended right in with the Americans.

He developed a fool proof plan to destroy the fort.   It may or may not have been successful.  But we will never know, because he woke up.   Wakefulness puts the end to more interesting stories than we can ever imagine.

I'm sure one day Dexter will realize that his reoccurring dream has some interpretative significance to his waking life.   But until then....Actung Panzer!

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